Only close observation when traveling I-96 with its gentle rises and filled-in valleys reveals any indication of the steep hills, many streams and rivers and the ever present swamps through which a team struggled to pull a wagon load of humanity. It is very difficult to imagine the fields of corn and pastures full of cattle as thick woods of massive trees in the early 1800s.
The homesteaders route northwest from Detroit toward the interior of Michigan, to locate and choose a farm, followed a ditch-bordered, rutted road of clay. About ten miles out the road crossed the Rouge River at what is now Redford ( named for the Rouge crossing.) Near this point there were two early taverns: Hannabel Tavern (Botsford Inn) and Ten Eykks Tavern which was well known as a meeting place of early day politicians.
Here the trail divided, and the traveler had to make a choice, one trail continued in a westerly direction and was known as the southern route, while the other went northerly.
The southern route passed through Farmington, Novi, New Hudson, Kensington and Ore Creek (Brighton). Here it turned north for a few miles, then northwesterly. About a mile beyond that turn the trail passed through the center of the land Great Grandfather Pless purchased in 1841. It also passed the edge of the land adjacent, which was located and settled by Great Grandfather Euler in 1835. The trail continued along the south side of Long Lake (renamed Chemung about 1916) then on to Howell, which as called Linvingston Centre before the village was organized.
The road ended at Howell, but the Indian Trail continued through the low, swampy land where Fowlerville and Webberville are no located and through the Red Cedar River swamp at Okemus. The part of the trail from Howell to Ionia was not open to wagon travel until Lansing became the Capital of Michigan about 1847.
After the southern route was completed to Lansing, the northern route fell into disuse, lost its identity as Grand River Road and is remembered only in history and legend. In fact no continuous, modern road follows the original northern route of Redford to Ionia. Most of the early day inns along that route closed and even towns that started along the route withered and all but disappeared. This withering away also occurred along the southern route when the railroad was built between Detroit and Lake Michigan in the 1870s and the stagecoaches stopped running.
The Detroit to Howell plank road on the Grand River Trail was completed in 1850 and by 1852 it was planked from Howell to Lansing. Toll gates were erected and toll was charged. The plant roadbed was eighteen feet wide and the planks were three inches thick. When new, it provided a smooth, firm surface for the wagons, stagecoaches and carts of those early days.
Following an early, centuries old, Indian trail between Detroit and Lansing, (Michigan Village) the Grand River Trail traversed the county through its center, southeast to northwest; the route by which most settlers came to the Brighton area. Surveyed prior to 1832, prospectors, trappers and homesteaders usually followed the trail by foot or on horseback. Wagons pulled by teams of oxen, would bring the family and its possessions once property was recorded by the purchaser. The felling of trees and pulling of stumps, building of bridges and filling of swamps made possible the use of stagecoaches for travel and transport.
The staging business over the Grand River Road (sand, dust, ruts and mud-depending on the weather) between Howell and Detroit about 1838 was begun by Allen Weston and continued by Benjamin J. Spring and others. Stagecoaches made remarkable fast time from Detroit to Lansing, the 90 miles traversed in 12 hours; drawn by four to six horses, which were changed every 12-15 miles. This resulted in inns and horsebarns being located along the route. The fare was about 7 cents per mile per person. The stage drivers also carried mail at 25-50 cents per letter. From these small beginnings grew the heavy traffic which afterwards passed over the Plank Road.
By 1852 the Grand River Trail was planked from Detroit to Lansing. This route, built by the Detroit and Howell Plank Road Company (a company of private investors), became an immediate financial success. Toll was charged for the use of the road. Tollgates were built every 5-6 miles. Old maps indicate tollhouses at Academy Drive, Challis Road and Ore Creek in Green Oak, Brighton & Genoa Townships.
The importance to Livingston County of this road was second only in importance to that which resulted from the opening of the railroad in 1871. Until that time, the Plank Road was one of the principle thoroughfares of the state; the means by which farmers produce was delivered to market and items necessary for surviving the wilderness were transported to the pioneer from the city. This great and continually increasing business over the plank road ceased almost entirely with the opening of the railroad.
Following this diversion of a large part of the travel from the plank roads, it became the policy of the various road companies to remove the planking as it decayed and to fill in with substantial gravel so that by 1880 the entire line was a solidly graded turnpike. While toll was still being extracted, much complaining by the travelers, mostly local at that time, assured the quick demise of the gates.
The Federal government bowed out of road building in Michigan when it became a state in 1837. While the Grand River Road reached as far as Brighton by 1840 with bridges over the Rouge, Huron and various small streams, nothing more than a trail for a horse existed west of Brighton. (Fund for road building came from the sale of land, subscription and taxes.)
When the Government surveys were made in the 1820s, there was no provision for a right-of-way for roads; it was left up to the local land owners to provide the land. Perusal of a township map will show the roads were usually laid out along property lines. A road 3 rods wide took a strip 1½ rods wide off the property on each side of the line. Where swamps or lakes made it necessary to cross a farmers land, he gave all of the land for the road. The new settler, having just claimed the land from the government for a small amount and needing roads, didnt object to this practice.
With the elimination of the toll houses along the Grand River Road, c 1880, (altho-the original contract signed in 1850 called for tolls for 60 years for the investors) it became a free road and subject to the same method of maintenance as other roads in the county. This was accomplished by the division of the townships into road districts with an elected pathmaster. In early spring the pathmaster would call out all of the men in his district to work out their road tax. (Each 60 acres of land owned meant 1½ days per year of roadwork.)
Bringing their teams, wagons, plows, drags, shovels and picks, etc., the farmers would haul gravel or dirt into low places, smooth ruts by dragging with a harrow, drain holes by digging trenches to run water off into the ditches other farmers had plowed. Since it was a diversion from their usual solitary life in the fields, we can hope the farmers enjoyed this road repair work. Those who didnt or could not work out their $1.00 tax had to pay in cash. As a boy of 10, Bill Pless, as other boys his age, was credited as a man against his father’sroad tax, driving a team hauling gravel from the pit to the hole in the road.
The pathmaster system served well for the time. Farmers were able to transport their produce to market without much difficulty over the roads they had built. He also built the fence along the road and kept the roadside free of obnoxious weeds and brush often planting rows of maples or evergreen trees along the road. These, along with the growth of native trees, all combined to shade the traveler and his horses besides making a pleasant landscape.
In the early days, the farmer had given of his property in order to provide land for roads. He still, legally, owned the land and paid taxes on the original description on the tax rolls. This meant the only right the traveler had was to journey on the roadway. Occasionally travelers in later years were puzzled by the farmers objection to their picking fruit and nuts from the trees (planted by the farmer) growing along the roadsides or digging bushes and trees to take with them.
The new century was also the advent of a new mode of transportation, the automobile. By 1903 an occasional car was seen chugging its way over the farmer- built roads in the area. Still maintained locally, the roads were sufficient for the farmers wagons but autos of that era had little power. It was difficult enough for them to traverse relatively hard, smooth roads. The hills, sand, slippery clay, mud, holes and ruts made a trip between towns a real adventure.
About 1906 some of the business people in Howell and Brighton were among the first to buy cars. Around that time, also, a Glidden Tour fleet of about fifty cars left Detroit and was to take them to Grand Haven, then south along Lake Michigan to return to Detroit via the Detroit to Chicago Road which is now US 12. The tour took several days and only about half made it without breaking down. Many had to little hill climbing ability that the local boys often ran behind and pushed them up the hill west of the Ratz School (corner Kellogg and Grand River.)
By 1909, one farmer after another got the car buying fever. George Ratz was a clerk in his fathers hardware store in Brighton (S.E. Corner Main & Hyne), when he took the agency for the Model T. Ford. Salesmanship was not necessary to sell the vehicles (not too much choice anyway) the telephone was employed to place an order.
After learning to drive the Overland bought by his father early in 1913, Bill Pless and other young men were taken on the train to Detroit and the dealer would have each of them drive a new car back to Brighton. The adventure of the trip was their only recompense and it seemed sufficient.
As vehicle development improved it seemed the roads deteriorated. As more and more farmers bought cars they suddenly were in favor of better roads on which to drive these new vehicles. With no gasoline tax money and license plates costing only three dollars, the cost of the new roads had to come out of the real estate taxes. Farmers voted at the town meetings to issue bonds to build sturdy gravel roads all through the township. (Registration of cars began in 1903. Two dollars bought the registration disk which was placed on the dashboard. In 1909, the Secretary of State directed the County Clerk to give out plates made of leather for the three dollar fee.)
About the time land owners got Grand River Road graveled, the State decided to pave the road with concrete from Detroit to Lake Michigan. In order to widen the right of way to 100 feet the State bought the land and tore out the gravel roads; altho the farmers were still bonded (for several years to come for the gravel roads they had built). The State regraded for concrete; paid for the fence; cut down shade trees; moved telephone poles, many farmers barns, houses and out-buildings back off the right of way. Federal aid and prison labor was used for some of the road construction. A cement plant was built and cement-mixing equipment purchased, also trucks and steam shovels. This experiment by the State in road building resulted in scandals, widespread graft and corruption. Because of the political upheaval, shortly after US 16 was completed, the State got out of the road building business and put road construction up for bids by private contractors.
One must not omit the fact that the need to move equipment and men from the farms to the train or to ships for transport to Europe during WW I, was probably a major impetus to the evolution of better roads and incidentally the development of trucks.
A fleet of privately owned passenger cars operated over this improved road and provided for the time quite fast transportation between Detroit and Lansing. Called jitneys they, of course, charged more than the nickel charged by those cars of the same name that operated in the cities in the 1914-1922 period. These were followed by the buses, first the Blue Goose then the Greyhounds, and now the Trailways and others.
During the mid 1950s US 16 was retired with the building of I-96. The old route had served and still serves Michigan citizens. Well. It now belongs to the counties through which it passes and its maintenance is again their responsibility. Those who live along this old Indian Trail and who receive their mail with that address, still call it Grand River. Its many nicknames include the Plank Road, the Gravel, the Pike, and the Grade. Interstate 96, while providing a fast, safe and direst route for the traveler does not have the historically romantic ring to its name (at least not yet.)
The original Indian Trail has been witness to many forms of transportation. The people came on foot, horseback, ox cart, freight wagon, stagecoach, jitney, auto, truck and bus to establish homes, occupations and recreation. At the present, it seems logical that the coming years will mean more and more development along the old Indian Trail until it perhaps becomes one long city stretching from shore to shore across Michigan. Will this development rule the people or will the people control this growth?
Condensed and edited from A Scrapbook of Michigan Memorabelia by Wm. A Pless and Yesteryears of Green Oak 1830-1930