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there were S.G. Bruce, a carpenter and builder who lived at Blue Rock Farm; Robert Russell, a teacher, and J.T. Gore, Bill Sisk, and William G. Wood.
But one thing for sure in the early 1900s, the roads in Rappahannock County, and in Virginia generally, were atrocious. Virginia’s economy had been destroyed after the Civil War; the Commonwealth had an enormous transportation debt to pay off involving bonds for pre-war turnpikes, canals, and railroads; and new road construction as well as maintenance had been ignored for over 30years.
Back then counties built and maintained their own road systems. Virginia had no highway department until 1906. In that year, a State Highway Commission was established, mainly for supervisory and coordinating purposes. Counties were laying out roads that did not link up with roads in neighboring counties. And depending on the weather, roads were seas of mud, or they harbored clouds of dust, or were angled with frozen ruts. Rough rides. Bad rides.
They were so bad that exactly 100 years ago, in 1907, the Automobile Club of America, told its membership to avoid driving through Virginia whenever possible. The club was composed of rich men in New York City. They were among the very few who could afford automobiles in those days, and to them Virginia with its incredi
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