Barre Turnpike

Each rate payer owed the town a certain amount of time, generally two days each year, during which they could be called upon for road maintenance.

This required ”that each town…shall vote and raise such sum of money, to be expended in labour and materials on the highways and townways…”[5] Following as it did a war based partly on issues of unfair taxation, this system also proved unpopular.

"[3] The “privileges” referred to were laid out in an “Act Defining the Powers and Duties of Turnpike Corporations”[6] The letter was signed by Seth Lee of Barre and “62 others”.

The formal request for incorporation was presented to the Senate Committee on Turnpikes on January 27, 1821, and read by the House of Representatives two days later.

A committee composed of Thomas Blood, Stephen Gardener and Salem Town was authorized to view the proposed route.

[8] The committee went on to point out that an earlier effort to build such a road was attempted but was rejected by the county, “not because it was not of publick utility; but that it would impose too great a burden on the town of Hubbardston”.

Notices of a meeting in November at the house of Archibald Black of Barre were published in the Massachusetts Spy and the National Aegis and sent to the boards of selectmen of the three towns.

It began at the former meeting house on the town common in Barre and was concurrent with the present day Massachusetts Route 62 running through the south part of Hubbardston, where a portion is still named Old Boston Turnpike.

[11] Since the turnpike corporations were in part taking over the road building function of local governments, they were granted certain governmental powers.

The Layout Committee drew up a list of 44 individuals in the three towns who were to receive compensation ranging from zero dollars to $203 (a relative value of approx.

The highest payment of $203 was awarded in March 1823 to David Rice of Princeton whose property bordered Gates and Old Colony Roads.

Rice did not receive payment from the Corporation, so he requested a jury trial which found in his favor a year later, however, in March 1825 the verdict was thrown out by the court.

The 1805 act defining the rights of turnpikes allowed for one toll gate approximately every ten miles (16 km).

[16] They stated the Corporation received permission to build the road with the understanding that no expense would be incurred by the inhabitants of Hubbardston when traveling to Barre.

In spite of Hubbardston's remonstrances, construction the half gate was approved on February 15, 1826, somewhere between the westerly side of the Burnshirt River bridge and the present day Everett Road in Barre.

The erection of a second, half gate was just one of several indications that the Barre Turnpike Corporation, barely three years after its incorporation, was having financial difficulties.

[17] A notice appeared in the September 19, 1827, edition of the Massachusetts Spy announcing a sale of delinquent shares at the Davis Inn in Princeton.