Writings of a long-time resident Part I

The Newton Record

NEWTON May 15, 2008 08:04 pm

— One of our long time residents, M. W. Carr wrote letters to The Newton Record occasionally after his retirement. In these letters he told about various happenings and progress of the county and town of Newton.
For people who like to read about things in the past history of Newton County and Newton may find this letter interesting. The letter is being republished as published July 2, 1947. It will be published in two parts because of its length.
Dear Editor:
Having been a resident of Newton County practically all of my life and observing so much improvement in the economic conditions, agricultural and otherwise, I would like to contrast the present with that of my boyhood days, but feeling unequal to the task, I shall be content to refer the reader to three things of record which contributed more than anything else to the wealth, pleasure, and convenience of the farm people, and, of course, any progress or gain shown on the farm is reflected in other professions.
The writer first saw the light of day in the midst of that awful reconstructive period following the Civil War. The state government was in the hands of the enemy with high taxes and lack of equipment, very little im-provements beyond clearing the land, building homes and arranging the beat possible to give children some school advantages. Otherwise, very little progress was made until after the turn of the century. Then a few far-sighted citizens concluded it was no longer feasible or profitable to pasture livestock on the outside or open range and to effective a change. A petition for a notice or stock law was presented to the Board of Supervisors at the January meeting. An order for adoption of the petition was granted, embracing considerable land. A part of the county had stock law for about two years before this, but because of defective order or petition could not be enforced. Of course, considerable opposition was offered. From time to time annexation petitions were offered and adopted, covering the entire county in about eight years. Beyond a doubt, this has proved to be one of the most worthwhile basic accomplishments of our time, without which tick eradication would never have been possible.
Second. About three years later in the fall of 1907 one other very important question was pressing for consideration. The antiquated overseer system of public road maintenance had about served its purpose. The people whose duty it was to perform the service having lost all interest and most of the roads were in poor condition and getting worse all he time. The automobile and truck bidding for a place in our midst it was very obvious that a change in system was necessary.
After much deliberation the board abolished the old system and substituted therefor a system of maintenance by taxation with full knowledge of the sufficient funds (3 miles on the property and $3 commutation tax on those subject to road duty) allowed by the law. This amounted to approximately $25,000 to maintain 900 miles of roads, scarcely enough to build and pave one mile of first class roads. There was no opposition that we remember, but we wouldn’t deny there was complaint a-plenty because of the people’s failure to appreciate our handicap. Newton County was one of the first in this part of the state to begin improvement of its roads.