Hi Lillie, Some roads still bare their old names, ie, Point Mason, Natchez Trace, etc.....but most never had names per se. Early on roads were catagorized as to their 'class', ie, 1, 2, 3, Turnpike <yeah Benton Co had a Turnpike thru it>. State set the rules for the classification as to width and such. I've read the statutes but don't remember where and am to lazy this morning to look them up. Also, Tennessee is a 'meets & bounds' state, which means that surveys and road lay-outs are specified by physical items on the land, eg, 120 yards to the White Oak tree with the ugly branch, then west 60 yards to the eastern border of Ulma Thurmonds Super-Duper Beauty Palor for the Celebrity Wannabees. This makes it really tuff sometimes to figure out from an old surveyors description just where a piece of property laid, plus alot of the old landmarks are gone, like the old trees. The roads additionally were in a state of flux, and you have to follow the Court Minutes carefully, eg, The roads around Big Sandy were constantly being rerouted as oldtimers died and their land divided and traffic to the old homestead decreased. The old route would be declassified and new routes 'cut' and 'classed'. Additionally, as river and creek beds demanded, new routes would be forged to overcome weather related problems such as lowland flooding in an attempt to make the roads more weather proof. 'Highway' classified roads appear to be named after the towns that they connected. ei. Pt. Mason Road went from Big Sandy to Pt. Mason, Faxon Road went to Faxon, Lick Creek went to Lick Creek. I don't know where New Hope Road was supposed to go. I can only imagine. Lower class roads really didn't have names......you said you were going to Wyatt's Mill or Widow McKenzies and everyone knew the roadway you were going to take to get there. But all is not lost just because you don't have a modern road name. Careful study of the road records from the present back to the beggining can be fairly accurate, and once you begin to include surveyors records you can fairly well pinpoint an old homestead. You gotta remember, these folks wouldn't go out and make or particularly change a road for fun. They had to be prodded by the authorities to stop farming or 'resting' to go out and clear land for a new road. So once a road was laid-off, I don't believe it was changed very often. I suspect current roads are fairly close to the original roads with only minor changes. Roads that were 'declassified' because of lack of use, were just left to be reclaimed by nature, but you may still find evidence of their original route. Wonder how they marked the 'Mile Trees'. Hope this helps, Dave - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- At 08:22 AM 7/18/99 -0500, Lillie Cotham wrote: >Dave, >You have renewed my hope of finding where my Matheny relatives lived. >After visiting the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, I had given up hope of >finding the location. I was planning on looking at deeds. Now I will >look at the Court Minutes. I see you have done much research, a lot >ahead of my 2+ years, in this area. Would you happen to know if the >roads are still named the same now as then. For those of you who haven't >been there, this is strictly country, even to an old life-time country >girl. >Lillie > > >==== DanvilleCrossing Mailing List ==== >GENEALOGY is like Hide & Seek: >They Hide & I Seek !! >