Established in 1850, it formed a "farmer's railroad" between the two cities in Eastern North Carolina as part of the Plank Road Boom.
It allowed for fairly easy transportation for farm products and manufactured goods inland to the steamboat landing in Greenville.
Objections to the purchase of the stagecoaches included spending the money on the repair of the plank road, or dividing the $4,000.00 profits accumulated until then among the stockholders.
Competition from the railroads, expenses in laying and maintaining the plank road, and the outbreak of the American Civil War all contributed to the demise of this enterprise.
James Leonidas Fleming, who established East Carolina University in Greenville, was killed in an automobile accident along the plank road in 1909.
The text says, "The western terminus of the Greenville and Raleigh Plank Road, chartered in 1850 and completed to Wilson by 1853, was nearby."
"This stone marker just east of Farmville along US 264A marks the location of a former toll booth for the Greenville & Raleigh Plank Road Company.