some used as gate-posts etc. We next made our way to the State House where we went through all the departments, then up the elevator and stairway into the dome where one obtains another grand view. We next saw the monument Boston has erected to hersoldiers who fell in the Civil War. We visited jordan, Marsh, and Co. then to South Boston where we arrived at dark, just in time to see the burning of the old Bay State rolling mills stored with oils and other stufi This was next door to Waite and Watson ’5 mill which had a narrow call The scene was a wild one, but the engines soon arrived and it was soon under control Next day we took a trip to Cambridge.
In Boston we went into the Art Museum where one sees everything in painting and relics down to the Egyptian mummies. Next day- the 4th of july- we spent in Lynn, where a great celebration was held in commemoration of the Glorious Fourth. We took a night train for St. john arriving at noon the next day to find the same old fog. Next morning we drove to the St. john Cemetery some two miles out the Marsh Road and saw the last resting place of friends and relations. At noon we took a CPR train, and once more started for that sweet and lovely place called home, where we arrived on Saturday evening after an absence of just one month.
John B. Wood
Road Building
Roads became a necessity as the country was cleared of trees and opened for cultivation. Animal trails were utilized, where available; paths were slashed through the forest and gradually widened as the need for transportation by cart or wagon increased. Labour saving equipment was scarce in pioneer days. Manual labor was the means by which most jobs were accomplished, with road building no exception!
Men shovelled fill into horse drawn dump carts to be hauled to the road building site where the fill was dumped and spread by men with shovels. The difficulties multiplied when the road crossed swampy or low ground. A method of construction known as a corduroy road was often used when the road crossed swampy ground. This kind of roadway was made by placing logs across the road and then laying another tier across the first at right angles. This layering was continued until the road bed was built up sufficiently. The rough surface was then covered with day with the idea of hopefully making a smooth road. A piece of corduroy road extended one time along the Tryon-Bedeque Road, northwest of Muirhead’s Comer on both sides of where Clayton Thomas’ driveway is now situated.
The large Road Machine was a great labor saving invention. This machine, pulled by six to ten teams of horses and used for ditching and grading the road, had a blade which could be set at various angles to suit soil conditions. There was a continuous flow of earth along the blade when the road machine was in motion. The depth of the cut was
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