We looked at some of the Orange County Tithe Lists which were accidently preserved; however, we are usually happy to have any list of names. Several people sent me another list of names which I will mention briefly.
When Madison County was formed in 1792, one of the things that the Court had to do early on was to assign people to the "care and feeding" of the roads. Each road segment was assigned to a group of people who were to take care of the road. Since many, maybe all, of the roads were dirt, they were subject to weather. After a rain, the road might become very rutted and would require regrading to create a new smooth surface. (It was my personal experience, when growing up, to live on such a dirt road. I remember vividly how impassable the roads became. The mail carrier would sometimes leave the road and travel through fields.)
Normally, the people assigned to work on a road were the tithables, both white and black. The court assigned people to specific roads. It is a bit of a problem to identify the roads because the roads had only general names which sometimes were not too specific. Often the road was identified by the two end points.
For example, one order read, "Ambrose Jones to clear the road from Humeses [Humes'] Ford to Dark Run with his own hands [i.e., tithes] & Mumford Stevens, Benjamin Rowe, Charles Humes, John Ramey, John Sparks, Benjamin Petty, James Wilson, Tapley Wilson, Benjamin Garr, Thomas Brown & Benjamin Thornton."
I believe that when they said "clear" they meant to keep the road open or passable. It did not mean to open up a new road where none had been. If a new road was to be opened, it was often as a result of a petition to the Court who might appoint a committee to see how feasible the road would be. Such an order was the following:
"On the motion of John Boroughs for a road from the top of the German Ridge to the Rappidan River, Ordered that Thomas Graves, Adam Banks, Joshua Bush and John Stoneseiffer or any three of them being first sworn before a Justice of the Peace, do view the ground whereon the said road is proposed to be cleared and make Special report of the Conveniences and Inconveniences that the opening of the said road may be of to the Publick or any person or persons whatsoever, to the next Court."
At first, about 33 road orders were issued. These form an itemization of the male citizens which tells a little something about where people lived assuming one can identify the road. Historical maps such as Eugene Scheel made are a big help.
(04 Sep 03)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.