A History of the Greenville and Raleigh Plank Road With the increased commerce and agricultural interests in North Carolina in the 1840’s, interstate transportation became an increasing problem. The train was a relatively new and expensive mode of transportation and farmers and businessmen wanted a cheaper way to get their goods to market. The use of plank roads, which northern States had proved successful, began to be introduced in North Carolina as an answer to the poor roads in the State. The Greenville and Raleigh Plank Road was a profitable venture, though short lived. It followed roughly the same route as old Highway 264, coming down slanted Dickinson Avenue to Evans Street (Five Points), going north on Evans Street to First Street and turning east to Reade Street, being its terminus at the river. The stages and wagons using the Plank Road could meet up with the steamboats at the Greenville landing. It all began in the spring of 1850 when the Washington, NC newspaper brought the issue of plank roads to the attention of the citizens of Beaufort and Pitt Counties. On May 4, 1850, a meeting was held in Washington to endorse the idea of a plank road to Raleigh from some point on the Tar River and would support Pitt County if it decided to build one. On May 12, a meeting was held in Greenville also endorsing the idea of a plank road from Greenville to Raleigh. They agreed that the plank road would increase the property value in Pitt County and they would give hearty aid to the project. At the end of the meeting they appointed a committee made up of Marshall Dickinson, R. F. J. H. Williams, Churchill Perkins, Willie Brown, E. C. Yellowley, Henry Stancill and Peter Hines, to obtain information concerning the construction of a plank road. The businessmen in Washington, NC pushed and got the Plank Road incorporated by Act of Assembly on Dec. 23, 1850. On Jan. 1, 1851, they began to open books of subscription to the Greenville and Raleigh Plank Road Company, remaining open for 30 days at Washington, Wilson, Eagle Rock, Raleigh and Greenville. At Greenville the books of subscription were under the direction of Goold Hoyt, Charles Greene, Dr. Edward H. Goelet, William Bernard, Sr. and Henry Bell. Individual shares cost $25 and $2 had to be paid on each share upon subscribing. By Feb. 5, 1851, the conditions of the charter were completed and a date was set for the first stockholder’s meeting. The first meeting was held in Greenville on Feb. 10, 1851, with Benjamin F. Hanks of Washington as chairman and John A. Selby of Greenville as secretary. F. B. Satterthwaite of Pitt County reported that 30 shares had been subscribed in Raleigh, 64 shares in Wilson, 1016 shares in Washington and 1329 shares in Greenville. This was about two-thirds of the whole amount required to build the entire road; Greenville alone taking $33,000 in stock. The first officers of the Company were Alfred Moye, president, Charles Greene, treasurer, and Goold Hoyt, clerk. The directors were Joseph Potts, B. F. Havens, R. L. Myers of Beaufort County; Thomas Hanrahan, William Bernard, Sr., F. B. Satterthwaite of Pitt County; John W. Farmer of Edgecombe County and Thomas D. Hogg of Wake County. At a meeting at Goold Hoyt’s Hotel in Greenville after the stockholders meeting, the directors chose Mason Loomis to be the head engineer and ordered Benjamin F. Hanks to go to Baltimore to purchase the portable sawmills to saw the planks. On April 5, 1851, Mason Loomis, the engineer, arrived in Greenville and began surveying. A few days later grading for the road was started. The Company advertised to the local citizens that they were offering $12.50 per month for use of negro men. By May, the Company had an office in Greenville and the 10 miles of grading from Greenville to Tyer’s Bridge was progressing rapidly; the steam sawmills being due any day. On Aug. 20, 1851, the Company advertised for sealed proposals for grading and constructing the Plank Road from Tyer’s Bridge to Wilson (27 miles); also for bridging the Little Contentnea, White Oak and Toisnot Creeks. By mid-September 1851, two miles of the road were completed and 10 miles from Greenville to Tyer’s Bridge was ready for plank. One steam mill was reported in operation, cutting plank at a rate of 9000 square feet per day and another sawmill was going up. The plank cost the Company $450 per mile, delivered, and it was their intention to keep both mills running night and day. The Company at this point contracted the road out from Tyer’s Bridge to Wilson; the road to be completed by April 1, 1852. The Company would furnish only the plank. At a meeting of the directors of the Plank Road in Oct. 1851, they decided to open new books of subscription to increase the Capital Stock and by December they began to come down hard on delinquent stockholders, advertising that their stock would be sold if not paid by a certain date. The second annual stockholder’s meeting was held in February 1852. The president, Alfred Moye declined re-election and R. L. Myers was appointed for the ensuing year with William D. Moye as treasurer and John A. Selby as secretary. The new directors were Joseph Potts, B. F. Hanks, B. F. Havens ofWashington; William Bernard, Alfred Moye, Stephen F. Johnson, Burton G. Albritton, Dr. S. B. Evans of Pitt County and Dr. Watson of Wilson. They expected the six miles to Greenville to be placed under toll by March 10 and with the three steam sawmills in operation, they expected the road to be finished to the railroad in Wilson by the end of the year. By March 1, 1852, about 12 ½ miles of the Plank Road was completed and the road progressed until its completion to Wilson in March 1853. In February 1853, at the third annual stockholders meeting, Alfred Moye was again elected president with John A. Selby as secretary and treasurer. The new directors were, B. F. Hanks, Joseph Potts, B. F. Havens, William Bernard, E. H. Goelet, James S. Clark, B. T. May, Benjamin Bynum and W. B. Myers. In late March 1853, the Company advertised for sale its three portable circular steam sawmills. The Plank Road appears to have profitable, with toll houses every few miles. According to the Plank Road charter, anyone using the plank road without paying the toll was to be fined $5 if white, or to be given not more than 20 lashes on the bare back if black. Because most people were poor, a county road grew up beside the plank road. The Plank Road seems to disappear from the records until May 1857, when the newspaper reported that the Greenville and Wilson Plank Road was rapidly decaying and doubted it would be kept up. In October 1857, J. J. B. Pender, mail contractor on the route between Greenville and Wilson, complained of high tolls and left the road, purchasing more horses to enable himself to run the stages over the county road beside the Plank Road. On February 18, 1859, at a stockholders meeting in Greenville, the superintendent of the Plank Road reported it was in a “wretched condition, almost impassable and too expensive to maintain.” The Company had $2,000 in a reserve fund and decided to sell the road at public auction sand divide the assets among the stockholders. If they couldn’t sell it legally, they would abandon it. There were two villages that grew up on the Plank Road in Pitt County, Marlboro and Walshville (Ballard’s Crossroads). The road eventually disappeared from memory. In December 1889, the plank road street in Greenville was named Dickinson Avenue in honor of Marshall Dickinson, leading Greenville citizen. In March 1908, when the City was having drain sewers put down on Evans Street preparatory to having the street paved with brick, workmen found a section of the Plank Road two feet down. The section they found was like a solid petrified floor, the timbers being thick and well preserved. It was so hard getting through these timbers that it was decided to put the drain sewer on the side of the street and not the center. In the early 1980’s a section of the Plank Road was uncovered behind Little’s Nursery on old Highway 264 and the last toll house was torn down about 2005 at Lang’s Crossroads on old Highway 264 near Farmville. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009