right, along the south side of St. Peters Bay, passing over three separate rivers on wooden bridges, of which one is 145 long. At the head of the bay it crosses the stream upon another bridge of the same materials, and then separates; the one branch to the right crosses over the Island by Five Houses, to the Bay of Fortune; the other on the left to the northern shore, along which it winds its way to East Point. ( 7)
By 1774 Patterson had introduced Statue Labor, wherein all males between the ages of 16 and 60 were obliged to perform work on the Islands Roads.* The amount of work done by these individuals varied, but according to John Stewart, these men were “obliged to perform from four to six days labor on the high roads annually." (8) After ‘making land,‘ these early settlers opened up their communities and established links with each other with the roads they built.
By 1806, roads were still busy being constructed, and the first records appear concerning the money allotted for this development. Enclosures in a letter dated the 25th December 1806 from a Mr. DesBarres to a Mr. Windham read as: (9)
Estimate of money supposed to be requisite for putting the different
roads in King’s County in good condition id. Est. ten feet wide?
No. 3: From St. Peters Mill to the ferry at JA Andersons - Distance 2 miles. Estimate per mile. 2£. Total 45:.
No. 4: From Morell to the Head of St. Peters Bay — Distance 6 miles. Estimate per mile, 1051. Total 60£.
No. 9: From the Head of St. Peters Bay to O’Hanley’s on the North Shore — Distance 4 miles. Estimate per mile, 8£. Total 32£.
No. 10: From O’Hanley's to the Greenwich Ferry - Distance 8 miles.
Estimate per mile, 6£. Total 48£.
William Creed, William Douglas, and Angus McEachem, Commissioners
A “Report of Survey of the Fortune Road,” was written in 1825. This detailed report outlines how each mile of the fourteen miles listed
W€re to be constructed and laid out. In the first mile of the road it was instructed that:
\aE—W
This form of labor existed until the—mid 19008. In 1934 for example, Mr john}. l)\van of the Fortune Road tPCI'lormed labor on the highways at l’ortune Road, School District No. 24, in Kings County, to the value of .5350 in lieu of Road Tax for the year 1934.” information courtesy of Earl and Aileen Dwan.
, :l'llk‘l‘c are 12 items listed in this letter, only the four selections pertaining to the St. Peters area are listed here. lllifi‘ 15 the first appearance ofa “Greenwich Ferry.” It appears that [llCJA Anderson l’erry was located on the Mull] side of the Bay, but the location is unsure. This information suggests that perhaps early in the 1800s “WC Was some sort of ferry or boat service operating between Greenwich and the South Side of St. Peters Bay.
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