Roads and Railways

The Better Hastings Plank Road

 

The plank road was a vast improvement over the rivers of mud that sometimes passed for trails in Upper Canada. One of the best descriptions of a plank road in the 1850s was provided by author Susanna Moodie:

The people of this county have not been behind their neighbours in these improvements. The first plank-road which they constructed was from Belleville to Canniff's Mills, a distance of three miles over a road which at the time was often knee-deep in mud, with a solid foundation of flat limestone rock, which prevented the escape of the water. So infamous was this road, that, on some parts of it, it was a matter of serious doubt whether a boat or waggon would be the better mode of conveyance. Notwithstanding the badness of this road, it was the greatest thoroughfare in the county, as it was the only approach to a number of mills situated on the river, and to Belleville, from the back country. It was, however, with the utmost difficulty that the warden could induce the other members of the county-council to sanction the construction of a plank-road at the expense of the county; so little was then known in Canada of the effects of such works.

More than 30 miles of plank-road is already constructed in the county. In a few years plank or gravel roads will be extended through every part of the country, and they will be most available as feeders to the great line of railway which will very soon be constructed through the entire length of the province, and which has been already commenced at Toronto and Hamilton.

The great advantage of a plank-road is the large load it enables the horses to draw. Whilst on a common road a farmer can only carry 25 bushels of wheat in his waggon, a plank-road will enable him to carry 40 or 50 bushels of the same grain with a pair of horses. The principal disadvantage of the plank-roads is, that they are found by experience to be injurious to horses, particularly when they are driven quickly on them. They are best adapted for a large load drawn at a slow pace.

The mode of making these roads is exceedingly simple. The space required for the road is first levelled, ditched, and drained, and then pieces of scantling (a timber-beam of small cross-section), five or six inches square, are laid longitudinally on each side, at the proper distance for a road-way twelve feet wide, and with the ends of each piece sawn off diagonally, so as to rest on the end of the next piece, which is similarly prepared, to prevent the road from settling down unequally. The pieces of scantling thus connected are simply bedded firmly in the ground, which is levelled up to their upper edges.

Pine planks, three inches thick, are then laid across with their ends resting on the scantling. The planks are closely wedged together like the flooring of a house, and secured here and there by strong wooden pins, driven into auger-holes bored through the planks into the scantling. The common way is to lay the plank-flooring at right angles with the scantling, but a much better way has been adopted in the county of Hastings. The planks are here laid diagonally, which of course requires that they should be cut several feet longer. This ensures greater durability, as the shoes of the horses cut up the planks much more when the grain of the wood corresponds in direction with their sharp edges. When a double track is required, three longitudinal courses of scantling are used, and the ends of the planks meet on the centre one. Very few, if any, iron nails are generally used.

From Roughing It In The Bush by Susanna Moodie.

Asa Danforth was commissioned to build the first road from York to Kingston, at $90 per mile, in 1798. This road snaked down through Prince Edward County rather than going through Thurlow. By 1804 a rough road had been cut along the Front from Thurlow to Sidney.

1803 - First ferry licence for Thurlow to Prince Edward County granted to Walter Gerow. Gerow family operated ferry until Bay Bridge built in 1895.

Before 1804 - Moira River crossed by ferry.

1804 - John Meyers built a floating bridge across the mouth of the Moira.

1806 - Second floating bridge built to replace first one, which had washed away.

1808 - Permanent fixed bridge built by Meyers.

1816 - Mail road built through Thurlow from York to Kingston.

1859 - Hastings County Council bought all toll roads and made them free.

The Rocky Hastings Road

One of a series of colonization roads built in the 1850s, the Hastings Road served as the only land transportation corridor between "The Front" on Lake Ontario and north Hastings for decades. Supplanted by Highway 62 to the east in the 1930s, the road remains a rugged rural byway passable in parts only with a sturdy vehicle.

The Hastings Road ran north 109 kilometres (68 miles) from Madoc to intersect with the Opeongo Road, running northwest into what is today's Algonquin Park. It was the product of a delusion on the part of the government of Canada West: if only they could build roads into the hinterland, immigrants and young Canadians could thrive on newly available agricultural lands.

The policy had been tried successfully in the productive farming areas north and west of Toronto. By 1850, most of the farmland of what is now southern and western Ontario was occupied. Despite a number of reports warning of the unsuitable nature of the Canadian Shield for farming, the government opted to build a network of colonization roads to draw immigrants into the rocky Shield country. The Victoria, Bobcaygeon, Burleigh Falls, Hastings, Addington and Frontenac roads all ran north-south to intersect with the east-west Monck, Peterson, Mississippi, L'Avant and Ottawa & Opeongo roads.

More than 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) of road were constructed over 20 years, through some of the roughest, rockiest terrain of Ontario. The Monck Road ran through York (Bancroft); the Peterson Road ran parallel through Maynooth.

Settlers could apply for 100-acre farm lots along the Hastings Colonization Road in 1863 if they could meet the following conditions:

1. The settler must be 18 years of age.

2. The settler must cultivate at least 12 acres of land within four years, build a home of at least 18 feet by 20 feet, and reside on the lot until all conditions of settlement are met.

3. The settler must keep the road in good repair.

How to Drive from Belleville to Bridgewater (Actinolite) in 1919

Crank your motor and step into your McLaughlin or Gray-Dort for a trip in the country. Following these directions from The Official Automobile Guide of Canada, 1919, you will have a delightful historical outing, although you may have trouble locating the watering trough as a reference point. This will take some time as the roads are gravel and the maximum legal speed in the country is 25 miles per hour.

The description provides generous clues to rural life at the time, with a number of references to cheese factories, blacksmith shops, churches and general stores.

Belleville to Tweed and Bridgewater

Good gravel road to Bridgewater

 

Mile 0. Belleville (Quinte Hotel, Greenleaf's Limited garage, Phone 83) - Leave the Post Office, corner of Pinnacle and East Bridge Streets, go north on Pinnacle Street, pass Court House on right, passing Greenleaf's Garage on left at the Montreal Bank corner, cross railroad, and again cross railroad and go to end of street, passing watering trough, turn right on Mill Street, along river on left to forks. Take left fork on the Cannifton Road, cross railroad, following the river on left, curve left, still along river, going under power wires and passing road on right and Moira mill on left, curve right and continue on, passing a church on right, through

Mile 3.0 Cannifton

- Curve right, passing the Methodist church on left, follow road along river to forks. Take left fork, pass a school on right to forks, curve left, continue on, picking up railroad, cross bridge and keep left at shop on right, pass cross-roads, go to end of road, pass school on left, curve left, going down grade, curving left, cross bridge over river, up grade and curve right at top, cross small bridge over creek to end of road, turn right, crossing bridge with church on left, through

Mile 10.0 Plainfield

- At store, curve left with river on right, at forks, take left fork.

Mile 10.9 Lattas Mills on right and dam before turn, school on left, passing creamery, and continue on, passing cheese factory and church through cross-roads to

Mile 14.3 Roslin

- Pass Post Office and cemetery, through cross-roads and passing another church and cemetery on left, go down grade at forks. Take right fork at power poles, which go left, you curve right and left up grade, at top curve right, brickyard on the right, through cross-roads, follow winding road and cross railway.

Mile 23.6 Lake Stoco on right, curve left, cross railroad depot over to right to town of

Mile 24.4 Tweed (Queen's Hotel, Tweed Garage)

- Leave Post Office centre of Tweed, go north, turn right passing blacksmith shop and cross railway, cross bridge over river and immediately turn left, follow poles along river (25.5) turn right to end of road, turn left, through cross-roads, pass road on left, still along the river, cross small bridge, turn right, avoiding road on left, up grade to

Mile 29.4 Bridgewater (now Actinolite).

- The Official Automobile Guide of Canada, 1919 provided courtesy Sandra Valks

Mile 4.0 Corbyville

- Passing Post Office and store (do not cross railway), cross railway switch, between bonded liquor warehouses, at Warehouse No. 2, turn right, passing church and crossing railway, go through five corners, blacksmith

 

Mile 17.5 Thomasburg - Passing Post Office and store, follow telephone poles, curve, curve right, down grade, cross small bridge, through cross-roads, passing a cheese factory and a town hall and continue on till you come to a cemetery and church on the left to

 

Mile 21.1 Chapman's Corners

- At general store, turn left with electric power poles, cross small bridge, and passing cross-roads, leaving

Historic Railways

In the golden age of railways, a dozen different companies laid tracks in Hastings County. A few entrepreneurs dreamed of other railway ventures which never materialized. As motor cars, buses and transport trucks supplanted trains, rail lines were merged and gradually abandoned until today only two rail lines serve the Hastings County area.

Bay of Quinte

Built by lumberman Edward Rathbun, the Bay of Quinte Railway ran in a crescent-shaped arc eastward from Napanee to Yarker, then north and west through Tweed, Actinolite and Queensborough. Its western terminus was at Bannockburn, where it intersected with the Central Ontario Railway. The remains of a turntable, an engine house and a station platform can still be found among the trees just west of Highway 62.

Belleville & North Hastings

Two well-known and well-connected entrepreneurs of the 1870s, Billa Flint and Mackenzie Bowell, founded this short line. Despite its name, the B&NH reached neither Belleville nor North Hastings. It ran from Madoc Junction on the Grand Junction Railway (20 kilometres out of Belleville, just east of Stirling) to Madoc and Eldorado. Completed in 1879, it was at first a narrow-gauge railway intended to reach the "gold fields" of Eldorado. The Madoc-Eldorado section operated only a few years and was closed in 1893.

Belleville & Marmora

This project was abandoned in 1865.

Belleville & Point Anne

This was a short, light-rail line running from the Grand Trunk railway yards to Point Anne, just east of Belleville on the Bay of Quinte. It used light rails acquired from the defunct Belleville Street Railway Company.

Belleville Street Railway Company

In the late 1800s a street railway operated on Front Street, using horse-drawn cars. Later it was electrified and known as the Belleville Traction Company. When the service was abandoned, the rails were taken up and used by the Belleville & Point Anne Railway.

Rail fans can find remnants of our railway history at the following locations:

1. Grand Trunk Station, Belleville. Oldest continuously operating station in Canada, since 1856. Still operating as a VIA Rail station.

2. Bay of Quinte Railway engine house and turntable, Bannockburn

3. Canadian Northern/Canadian Pacific bridge, Moira River

4. Grand Junction Railway bridge, Foxboro

5. Central Ontario Railway station, Bancroft

6. Central Ontario Railway station, Maynooth Station

7. Central Ontario Railway station, Coe Hill

8. Hastings Heritage Trail, follows COR line, parallel to Highway 62

9. Grand Junction Railway station, Stirling

10. Central Ontario Railway station, Marmora