Heath — Public Roads

Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.

      As early as 1754 a road was located up the hill to the old meeting-house from Charlemont. In 1765 it was extended to the centre of the town, and a road built east to Jonathan Taylor's. At the March meeting in 1785, £20 was voted to lie expended in the improvement of the roads, "labor to be paid at the rate of 4s. per day, and that a yoke of oxen shall be half the price of a man."
      "Voted to accept the road from Isaac Gould's to Mr. Whelock's mill. as it was laid out by the selectmen of Charlemont; also the road from Josiah Davidson's to George Kennan's as far as the south line of Heath."
      In 1786 the road from Heath to Rowe was located, and nine years later the road to Hartwell's mill. In 1795 boys, under the age of sixteen were not to be permitted to work on the roads, and, in 1799, $525 were voted to place the highways in repair.
      In 1858 the town subscribed $7200 to the capital stock of the projected road from Troy to Boston on conditions which voided the subscription. Shelburne Falls, distant seven miles, is the principal railway point of the town.
      A yearly appropriation of about $500 places the roads of the town in a passable condition, and in 1878 they were under the direction of fourteen surveyors.



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21 Jun 2005