Historic leaves, volume 1, April, 1902 - January, 1903

Two of the original logs used in the construction of the corduroy road over Charlestown Neck may now be seen at the Historical Society's headquarters. Then the Winter Hill road, through to the ‘Ford of the Mistick,’ was built, a country road, steep over the hill, and trying to both team and driver; gradually it had been pushed further back into the wilderness, accommodating at this time a community of farmers, whose crops and wood and supplies were slowly and tediously hauled over the route to and from the growing metropolis of New England, as had been the method for a hundred and fifty years or so.

The sturdy farmer drove his own ox-wagon in those early times; two or three miles an hour was ‘good doing.’ A trip to Boston occupied several days, albeit the distance might be less than twenty-five miles. It was the era of horseback-riding, of the saddle-bag and pillion. At every store stood many saddle-horses. Nearly all vehicles were of the heavy styles known as freighters or farm wagons. But little traveling was indulged in; the well-to-do farmer might have a spring wagon,—possibly a ‘shay,’—to take his wife about in. Such things were considered luxuries, however, which only the few could afford.

The only public conveyance was the stage-coach, usually a four-horse vehicle with an egg-shaped body suspended on thorough-braces, which gave the stage a comparatively easy rocking motion. These carried the mails, and their arrival and departure were marked incidents in the daily life of every village, while the country tavern flourished in those days. As a poet of the time puts it:—

Long ago at the end of the route,
The stage pulled up and the folks stepped out.
They have all passed in by the tavern door,
The youth and his bride and the gray three-score.