In the mid-19th Cenutry travel was tough. With even major roads being dirt they were hard to maintain. When the storms came, and rain poured down, roads often became muddy and hard to pass. After the rain ruts would be left making riding over them rough. During dry spells rapidly moving horses and stages kicked up dust which covered anything traveling on the road in dirt. Yet, in order for the farmers, merchants, and tradesmen of the day to make a living goods had to be shipped over the roads.
What was needed was a road surface that would not become muddy, fall apart, make dust, and stayed level. Unfortunately, being able to provide such a road surface was either too costly, or too difficult. Using cobblestones was too costly as was using brick. While an early form of rock paving was developed by John Loudon MacAdam in the early 19th Century, it was not widely used in the western United States as it was thought labor intensive. And MacAdam roads were considered by many to be dusty and prone to erosion. Finally, there were those that thought MacAdam Roads were difficult to pull a heavy wagon load over due to the resistance of the rock on the wagon wheels. A smooth surface was preferred for hauling heavy loads over. Plank roads which were developed in the late 1830s were seen as the only economical solution.
A plank road is one made of wooden planks laid on wooden sills. There were two ways of doing this. One way required the planks running lengthwise along sills set crossways. Other plank roads had their planks placed crossways along sills that ran lengthwise. The advantages of a plank road seemed obvious. The planks provided a smooth surface to ride a horse, or drive a wagon upon with no threat of being mired in mud. The first plank road built in the United States was built in Michigan in 1837. An earlier plank road had been built in Ontario, Canada in 1835. From there, more and more plank roads were built in the country, until finally a plank road craze caught on. In New York State, 2,106 miles of plank road were commissioned in the 1840s. It was only a matter of time before plank roads came to Central Missouri.
In 1850, the advantages and disadvantages of “MacAdamized roads ” vs. plank roads were being weighed in the Missouri State General Assembly as they considered what to do about the state road running from Hannibal to Huntsville. Plank roads at the time were thought to cost half as much as Macadam roads to build, and at the time, there were 40 plank road companies in Missouri. The Hannibal Union nonetheless in a bit of foresight advocated in December of 1850 a MacAdam road from Hannibal to Huntsville or Glasgow as it would be less costly in the long run to maintain. Regardless, proponents of a plank road won out, and it appeared a plank road at least from Glasgow to Huntsville would be built.
The first plank road in Central Missouri was the Glasgow to Huntsville Plank Road. The Glasgow and Huntsville Plank Road Company was incorporated on February 2, 1851 and was chartered by the General Assembly on February 15, 1851. The plan was to build a plank road twenty-six miles in length from Glasgow to Huntsville. Its primary purpose was to get goods such as tobacco and hemp from Huntsville to the river port at Glasgow. A hogshead of tobacco could weigh a ton and a half, and was easily mired in a muddy road. It was therefore vital that a reliable road be constructed. The road was to follow what was then known a state stage road from Huntsville to Glasgow (roughly Highway 3 today through Randolph County). Construction began in 1852, and the road was completed by 1855. The road was made of two and a half inch by nine foot oak planks of various widths depending on the size of the tree cut set crossways on a sill. The planks were spiked to the sills on high grades and in fills, but for the most part according to W.T. Dameron in the June 10, 1835 edition of the Moberly Monitor-Index, “The planks were placed flat on the hard ground and shouldered with dirt at each end.” Daily a caretaker had to ride to road to ensure it was in good repair. The lumber for the road was sawn at Bagby’s Mill on Sweet Springs Creek right by the road, and Watt’s Mill on Silver Creek not far away.
The road was a turnpike with toll gates. Initially, there was only a toll gate at Armstrong, a toll gate at Roanoke, and one at Huntsville. However due to folks trying to use the road for free, more gates were put in. Another toll gate was added near Watts Mill on Silver Creek, and another at Roanoke. State law provided for there to be a toll gate every four miles or so. There were three covered bridges. One was at Sweet Springs Creek near Bagby’s Mill. Another covered bridge spanned Silver Creek between Mount Airy and Roanoke. Finally there was a third covered bridge between Armstrong and Glasgow on Doxies Fork of the Chariton River. The toll to use the road was five cents for a person on horseback from one toll gate to the next, and ten cents for wagons and carriages from one toll gate to the next. It was a misdemeanor to use the road without paying the toll
The road was only profitable in its early years. It was expensive to maintain as due to rain as well as moisture in the ground, the sills sank into the ground causing the planks to curl up at the ends and warp which made for a bumpy ride. Dameron in the aforementioned edition of the Moberly Monitor-Index said it was not uncommon for the boards to flip up on the end opposite a wagon, and not go back in place. It would seem the Hannibal Union’s warning that a plank road would be expensive to maintain was true. In its entire time of existence the Glasgow and Huntsville Plank Road Company only paid one dividend. Nevertheless, in 1860 the state legislature amended its charter to allow the road to be extended to Allen on the North Missouri Railroad, and in the late 1850s there was talk of running it north as far as Bloomington in Macon County, perhaps all the way to Des Moines, Iowa.
It did see a lot of use. William Smith of Smithland in Randolph County, who owned and operated a stage line had stages going to and fro daily carrying passengers and the mail. Tobacco growers at the time of harvest sent their wagons down the road to Glasgow where the hogsheads would make their way from Glasgow to New Orleans and then onto markets in Europe. Corn, wheat, and other crops were also shipped via the plank road. This was in addition to those just wishing to travel to Glasgow or Fayette without taking dirt roads for shopping, business, or entertainment.
Doctor Victor Vaughn in his autobiography A Doctor’s Memories speaks of stages on the plank road:
“From afar the approaching stage driver blew a blast; the negro hostlers brought out four fresh horses, all resplendent in their highly polished, brass-mounted harness; the great swaying vehicle came to a stop; mail bags were exchanged; occasionally a passenger alighted, or a departing one mounted; the foam-covered horses were detached; the fresh ones were attached. The reins were handed to the driver; the hostlers left the bits of the excited animals; the whip cracked; the last reverberations of the coach lumbering down the plank road died away. Mount Airy had a few hours of complete isolation from the great world. The celerity with which all this was done and the skill with which the driver handled the reins were at once the wonderment and admiration of the small boy and his companions. There seemed nothing more desirable as a future career than to be a stage driver.”
He goes further to say just a little later in his book:
“The most popular stage driver of the time was Lou Hether, whose cheerful face and jolly laugh were seen and heard daily, as he drove either south or north. Some days he would tarry at the barn long enough to give an exhibition with his whip to the music of which the little negro boys danced a jig. One day in his reckless haste the coach went over the embankment south of the house along the line of the woodland pasture. Passengers were more or less cut with the broken glass but the only one seriously hurt was the Jehu, whose leg was broken. But after a few weeks, with a limp that never left him, he mounted the box again and became a greater hero than ever.”
During the Civil War, the plank road saw more traffic than ever. Unfortunately, a lot of it was non-paying traffic. Union military units did not have to pay to use the road, and Confederate troops and bushwhackers simply refused to. Then there were those who simply took advantage of the chaos to ride the road for free. Many planks were pulled up from the road to use in fortifications in Huntsville. Telegraph lines between Glasgow and Roanoke were tore down by General Sterling Price’s troops. Routine maintenance of the road ceased. Beginning in 1860, the Glasgow and Huntsville Plank Road Company had begun replacing the planks with gravel, but this work mostly ceased. Had the road been totally replaced with gravel, and the war not wreaked havoc with it, it may have been possible the Glasgow and Huntsville Road Company could have survived.
However, the writing was on the wall with the North Missouri Railroad being built through eastern Randolph County. Goods could be taken to the depots at Allen and Renick and shipped by rail to New Orleans to be shipped to Europe. Later with the construction of the West Branch of the North Missouri Railroad goods could be shipped from Huntsville and Clifton Hill, and Moberly also came into the picture as shipping by rail center. The river at Glasgow was no longer needed as there were closer alternatives. In 1864 the plank road company handed the road over to Howard and Randolph Counties, and it ceased being a turnpike. The last of the planks were pulled up in 1877 and the road fully graveled. Even as late as the 1930s though, planks were being graded up in the construction of Highway 20 (now Highway 3).
Nevertheless, the Glasgow to Huntsville Plank Road was the superhighway of its day. While it was only profitable in the early days, it did enable growers to get their goods to Glasgow to be shipped overseas. This created a boom in Randolph County. New tobacco barns were built, more cash crops were grown, and many in the county saw their wallets get fat. If anything else it allowed people to see the benefits of good roads. Roads would soon be graveled or MacAdamnized. Later asphalt paving would be developed.