controlled by two large hand wheels between which the operator stood. The road machine was owned by the provincial government.

Each district had a Road Master who was appointed by the provincial government. Will Pooley, and later Fred A. Leard were Road Masters in this district. The Road Master collected the road tax and scheduled the work to be done in the district. Horse power to operate the road machine was hired in the community. Men and their teams usually worked on the road machine to help pay their road tax bill. Ariel Ail Howatt, who lived in the house later owned by Walter Bell, was the first known road machine operator in this district in the mid 18905. Ail moved to Cape Traverse when he started working with the railroad. Neil Shaw, whose home was in De Sable, was another early operator.3

William Thomas, who lived on the Crossroad at the southern end of the community, probably operated the machine for a longer period of time than any other person. In later years known operators were Hubert Thomson, Amos MacWilliams, Gus Waddell and Alfred Foy. The op4erators were usually supporters of the political party that was in power.

It was a definite advantage to be the first man to arrive at the road machine with your team of horses. This gave you the opportunity of putting your team on the pole and assuring yourself a seat on the machine. Those coming along later had to walk beside their horses.J

A smaller road machine of similar design to the larger one was used to scrape the road. This machine, operated for some time by Max Lefurgey, and pulled by a team owned by Russell Mabey, was neither large enough nor heavy enough to be used in road building, but it served a very useful purpose in keeping the road smooth. Split-log drags, and later steel drags, were often used for the same [gurpose The road was scraped in the spring and always after a rainfall.

The Road Act passed in the 1913 legislature read as follows:

The Road Master shall have power and is required to divide his district into several precincts and in or before December each year to allot each precinct to as many of the male inhabitants of his road district between I 8 and 65 whose duty it will be during the winter to keep highways and roads passable by breaking with horses or teams, levelling pitches, removing snow, opening water courses or otherwise necessary. No person to be obliged to go further than 3 miles from home. No public school teacher, clergyman, physician, mail driver or railway section man shall be liable for breaking of winter roads.

Winter travelling prior to World War II was always an adventure on Prince Edward Island. Roads were not plowed, so a winter journey was often through fields skirting snow drifts to arrive at a destination.

An evening of anticipated pleasure nearly ended in disaster in 1897 whenJim andJean Chisholm were invited to Dan and Sara MacKenzie’s house in Lower Tryon to hear their new gramophone. It was the winter, andJean had baby Heath bundled to keep warm for the two mile drive by horse and sleigh in zero weather. Another couple accompanied the

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