Everyone is aware that our road system today is divided among three jurisdictions – local municipalities, the counties, and the provincial government.
The latter are the newest. The provincial highway system evolved in the early years of the 20th century as motor car registrations increased, and motorists demanded good roads on heavily travelled routes.
The county’s involvement in roads came about slowly. In the 1850s, county council provided grants to the townships for roads and bridges on routes that served as links between communities.
The building of major routes, in the mid 19th century, was initially undertaken by private companies, which charged tolls to the users of those routes. In Wellington there were three important toll roads: From Guelph to Dundas, and two routes north and west of Guelph which split north of Marden, one going to Arthur and Mount Forest, and the other to Minto, and ultimately, through Bruce County to Southampton.
Those toll roads helped farmers move crops and livestock to markets, and speeded travel through the county, but as business enterprises they were colossal failures. Tolls failed to meet ordinary operating expenses and maintenance, let alone the cost of servicing the debenture issues that paid for them.
By the end of 1864, all the toll routes were under county ownership. Tax revenues from the county treasury met the shortfall between costs and toll revenues. But some areas of the county were bitter. Their tax money was paying for roads that passed nowhere near their municipalities, and provided them with little or no benefit.
Feelings were particularly sensitive in the eastern part of Wellington. Most residents there had no plans to travel the Guelph and Arthur and the Elora and Saugeen Roads, which, together, made major claims on the county treasury. Residents of Erin and Eramosa wanted a county-financed gravel road to connect them with Guelph.
In January of 1864, J.E. Worsfold, of Eramosa Township sent a petition to county council, signed by many of his neighbours, asking that the road from Guelph to Erin be assumed by the county. That body, anxious to avoid the charge that it was favouring the townships in the north, struck a committee of six members to consider the matter.
The road in question already existed. It had been approved by township councils in 1844, and chopped out that same year. But as a highway it was a nightmare, being impassible in certain places in the spring and fall due to poor drainage.
In 1864, council planned major expenditure on the county roads to the north, and was in the process of purchasing the last portion still in private hands, the stretch from Marden to Elora, for $10,000.
The councils of Erin and Eramosa strongly supported a county road through their jurisdictions. On June 4, 1864, a week before the spring county council meeting, the reeve of Erin Township, George Martin, called a public meeting at the Sportsman’s Hotel. More than 200 people packed the place. Martin spoke at length about the grievances of the township. The next week he set out to Guelph armed with another petition and buoyed by the strong support of his ratepayers.
The special committee on the proposed road reported to county council at that June 1864 meeting. By then, the table was loaded with a number of petitions and letters on the matter, including one from the merchants of Guelph, who were anxious for the additional trade a better road would bring to them.
Council looked at the report, and then sent it back to the committee, asking for a more detailed version. The committee members sharpened their pencils and worked all night.
After considering the revised report the next morning, county council approved a preliminary survey by a vote of 14 to 13, and called for cost estimates for gravelling the route as far as Erin.
Later at that session, councillors were more specific. They agreed to take over the road from the Eramosa Road bridge in Guelph as far as the Four Corners Inn, a short distance north of Everton
The improved road was to be 14 feet wide, with grades no greater than one in 17. They allocated $400 for survey and engineering work, and authorized the special committee, struck at the beginning of the year, to proceed with design work.
The committee called for tenders for surveying, and let the job to T.W. Cooper for $153. For an even $200, Cooper offered to place elevation stakes along the route showing the exact location and levels for the road surface from Guelph to Four Corners. The committee also let contracts for the gravelling of some portions, and the replacement of two culverts, which were built to Cooper’s specifications.
All that work was completed in the late fall of 1864. County councillors were determined to lose no momentum. At the January 1865 meeting, they voted to assume the eastern portion of the route, from Four Corners to Erin village, and to gravel the western portion from Guelph.
Eight contractors submitted bids for the gravelling and rebuilding of the western portion of the road. Prices ranged from $11,975 down to $8,600. Council accepted the latter bid, from J. & G. Carter, a firm that had completed several other road projects in the area. The contractors had arranged for wayside gravel pits at four locations, for $100 or so per site, which ranged between a half acre and a little more than an acre. Ultimately three additional pits would also supply gravel.
To pay for the work, Wellington County issued debentures of $10,000, repayable over 10 years.
The Carter firm made rapid progress with the work. The major problem area was at Parkinson’s Hill, near the Guelph-Eramosa boundary. To maintain the grade specified by Cooper, major excavation was had to be done, and that required the purchase of additional land either side of the right-of-way.
Other than that troublesome hill and a few other tasks, the Carter firm finished the work in August of 1865, well ahead of its promised date.
The road, like the others in the county system, would be a toll route.
Council’s policy was to let the tollhouses on a contract to the highest bidder. The top bid for the first portion of the road was $1,061 per year. Those using the road had to pay beginning in the first week of October.
At its December 1865 meeting county council reviewed the expenditures on the first portion of the road. The Carter contract, with additional items, came to $8,750. The toll house at Four Corners cost $328. Payments to four of the gravel pit owners came to $233, but three others had not agreed to a price. That required arbitration.
There were also four claims for damages to wagons incurred during the construction phase.
Another legal matter was the status of the road within Guelph. That town refused to have a toll house within its boundaries, and it seemed to be on solid legal footing. In the end, the toll house went up outside city limits.
In 1866, the county let further contracts to complete the road as far as Erin Village. The route immediately became an important one, funnelling farm trade to Guelph that had previously gone to Acton and even Georgetown.
Tolls on the Guelph and Erin Road did not last long. County council never had much enthusiasm for tolls, but for years preferred that method of raising money to pay off the debentures issued to pay for their construction. With most of the debentures retired, council voted to abolish tolls in Wellington at the beginning of 1872.
When the provincial government set up its highway system, the road from Guelph to Erin was designated as part of Highway 24. Though an important route, it was one of the last provincial highways in this part of Ontario to be paved.
With the downloading of highways a decade ago, county council got the road returned to it and renumbered the route County Road 124.