Northwestern Turnpike

"Perhaps its first suggestion was recorded by George Washington, who in 1758 had been the champion of the Braddock Road (not then supposed to lie in Pennsylvania) and who in 1784 sought a route located wholly in Virginia.

"The act in incorporation of 1827, authorizing subscriptions at Winchester, Romney, Moorefield, Beverly, Kingwood, Pruntytown, Clarksburg, and Parkersburg made the mistake of arbitrarily locating the route through important towns without proper consideration of the physical features of the country.

"The enterprise was saved by the remarkable act of 1831 which organized a road company, with the Governor as President and one of the Board of Directors, with power to borrow money ($125,000) on the credit of the State to construct a turnpike road of a minimum width of twelve feet, 'from Winchester to some point on the Ohio River to be situated by the principal engineer', and with the right to erect bridges or to regulate ferries already in existence and to establish toll-gates on each twenty-mile (32 km) section completed."

In Hampshire County it was established via Capon Bridge, Hanging Rock, Pleasant Dale, and Augusta to Romney, west of which it crossed the South Branch Potomac River.

"No longer dependent on the larger towns for its success, the road was completed through the wilds of Preston, considerably south of Kingwood, in 1832, and was opened westward to Clarksburg and Parkersburg by 1838.

In 1840, facilities for travel and news were increased on the western end of the road by the establishment of a daily line of stages, and a regular mail service, which made connection with the Ohio steamers at Parkersburg.

"The road, establishing commercial and other relations, soon became a busy thoroughfare of travel and traffic which stimulated the creation of many inns and towns along the route - such as Aurora, Fellowsville, Evansville (1833), and West Union (1846).

"Supported by a sentiment that long scorned the possibility of competition and that later opposed any improved system of transportation which, by absorbing the slower traffic, might close the taverns and ruin the local market for grain and provisions, it was finally paralleled by a railroad which diverted its travel and traffic, created rival towns, and brought pioneer prospectors and promoters who prepared the way for the later era of larger industrial development."