Pettis County, Missouri - Chapter 38, 1919

Roads And Highways

SEDALIA SPECIAL DISTRICT - ORGANIZATION OF SAME - SURFACED ROADS - AVER¬ AGE COST PER MILE - OFFICERS 12-MILE DISTRICT - TOTAL MILEAGE - BOND ELECTION IN 1912 - REVENUE FOR BUILDING - MAINTENANCE - REPAIRS - SMITHTON SPECIAL DISTRICT AND OFFICERS - LAMONTE SPECIAL DISTRICT AND OFFICERS - GREEN RIDGE SPECIAL DISTRICT AND OFFICERS - HOUSTONIA AND LONGWOOD DISTRICT AND OFFICERS.

Pettis County thrift is responsible for the excellent system of roads we have at the present time. It is one of the four counties having a twelve-mile road district. Many others have rock roads but few of them have a district as large as that of Pettis County and few have as many miles of rock roads.

The first special road district was the Sedalia Special Road District in 1896. When first organized it was a six-mile district, but it was enlarged to a twelve-mile district in 1911. At the present time there are 125 miles of hard surfaced roads and 200 miles of dirt roads in this special district. The average cost of these roads per mile was $4,500. There are thirty miles of gravel road outside this district and the average cost per mile was $2,000.

The officers of the Sedalia twelve-mile special district are: C. C. Gentry, president ; W. H. Powell, secretary and treasurer ; H. W. Meuschke ; C. A. Thomas, superintendent ; T. O. Stanley, highway engineer and county surveyor.

The total mileage of roads in the county, both hard-surfaced and dirt, is 1,625 miles. The rock roads are kept in reasonably good condi¬ tion as they need repair and are a credit to any county in the State. The dirt roads are well worked, being graded, drained and most of them dragged after each rain in the summer time and as often as the weather will permit in the winter. Over the large streams the county maintains splendid steel bridges. The old wooden bridge is fast passing away and at the present time is being supplanted by concrete culverts, or bridges, well built and of a permanent nature. The concrete is much stronger and more durable than the wooden bridge, and after all is money saved, to say nothing of the safety in washing out or breaking through under heavy strain placed on them by loaded wagons, steam threshing engines, etc., passing over them from time to time.

Pettis County, like all counties that have rock roads, did not get them without an effort. There was much opposition to their building at the beginning. The issuing of bonds was opposed because of the expense in the first place; because, in the second place, they would never be kept up and finally if once they were built they wouldn't stop building them until the county was bankrupt. Argument, reason, and much other talk was indulged in and finally a successful election in 1912. In this year the county voted $200,000 in bonds and the roads became, in a short time, a reality. The present Chamber of Commerce was then called the "Booster Club," and it took a prominent part in carrying the bond issue in the election.

This opposition has all died out now since the roads are here, and some of the improvements' strongest opponents are now the foremost agitators favoring hard-surfaced roads. These roads were built by issuing of bonds and other revenue. For instance, there is the twenty-five cent road tax made possible by state law, road and bridge tax and in addi¬ tion the county gets one-half of the revenue from the saloon license for road purposes. Repairs are kept up out of the above-named reve¬ nues. No one now, in Pettis County, would be without the rock roads. The writer thought on beginning of this work that he would devote some space to the "Old Trails" of the county; but after thinking and writing about the present rock roads, the "trails" become uninteresting. With all roads leading to Sedalia and most of the citizens running auto¬ mobiles a discussion of the old ox-cart and the old trails would be a waste of space and printer's ink.

Since the citizens of the county have seen the advantages of the hard-surfaced roads, other districts, under the same law as the Sedalia district, have been formed and their roads are kept in an excellent con¬ dition. The Smithton special distinct is well organized, is three by six

LaMonte has an eight-mile special district, with W. E. Files, Henry Woodward and Frank Schenk as commissioners. Green Ridge has a special district three miles square, with J. E. Bagby, Fred Ream and A. J. Farley as commissioners. Houstonia has a special district em¬ bracing the township and L. L. Crews, H. M. Schonlelmaier and G. H. Tevebaugh as commissioners. There is one other special district in the county, that of Longwood township. This district differs from the others named in that it is a special assessment district. Clem Jones, Ollie D. Jenkins and James Adams are the commissioners.