We might have covered the subject of Mt. Pleasant's city streets by simply documenting their evolution over the years. However, we felt it might be interesting for younger readers to see how the streets they travel daily evolved from dirt roads into the quality street system we have today. In addition to describing the streets and equipment used to build and maintain them, we present a glimpse of what daily life was like in Mt. Pleasant during various times, and how the street system evolved and improved just like the vehicles that used them.
The amount of subject matter made for a VERY long story. Therefore, we split it into a number of web pages so you can quit at the end of a page and pick up later on the next, as opposed to having to read material you have already covered a second time to locate the place you left off.
Everyone sometimes complains about pot holes in city streets today, and there's no doubt that when one appears it's annoying. However, we should be thankful that our city's streets are in good condition overall and, barring extraordinary circumstances, are almost always passable in any kind of weather.
As was the case with early county roads and state highways, early 1900s city streets left much to be desired. The City of Mount Pleasant was incorporated in 1900, covering an area of just 1-1/2 mile by 1-1/2 mile (3/4 mile in each direction from the Court House). People traveled by walking or riding horses, and families and freight were transported in horse, mule, or ox-drawn wagons.
City streets, even around the court house square, were nothing more than unpaved dirt roads, and many remained that way into the 1930s and 1940s. In dry times the streets were dusty. Wagons and then motorized vehicle wheels rolling in the same tracks pressed dirt toward the center of the lane, causing a center hump. Our sandy soil sometimes created soft spots that could cause a vehicle to veer unexpectedly when it struck deep sand. In 1926 our first motorized fire truck was damaged almost beyond repair when it struck a sand bed in the road and veered off and struck a tree.
The dirt became mud in wet weather and streets became rutted and were completely impassible at times. In high traffic areas like around the square, they became bogs after horse after horse and wagon after wagon tracked the same mud. They remained that way until they were graded smooth again and pot holes filled with fresh dirt after the mud dried. Freight was often moved in oxen-drawn wagons because oxen could walk through mud where a horse or mule would bog down.
Before hard-topped asphalt paving began to be used, repairing the streets after rains was a constant battle. The City would get the streets in pretty good condition, then it would rain, and they were back where they started.
Road graders, backhoes, or other motorized dirt-working equipment had not been invented to build and maintain roads. All road work had to be done strictly by manual labor, aided by work teams pulling crude wooden and metal equipment. Horse or mule teams were hitched to wooden drag boxes fitted with metal blades. The blades were arranged so they dragged against the ground much in the same way that a maintainer's blade does today. The team pulled the box along the street and the blades scraped down high spots as it crossed uneven dirt. Due to the difference between true "horse power" and the power of today's modern diesel engines, comparatively small amounts of dirt could be moved in a pass as compared with the amount moved by a modern grader.
Road maintenance required lots of able-bodied men. Cutting trees to clear right of way, digging ditches and culverts, and other things done by machinery today had to be done with axes and shovels. The Texas road tax assessed a county road tax of fifteen-cents for every dollar in property valuation. All able-bodied men aged 18 to 45 were required to work on roads several days a year, but landowners could hire substitutes to work in their place. All road work, including building highways, was done on a county level because there was no state highway department. This conscripted manual labor "road tax" system was used until the 1930's.
The first task the new city fathers faced was to create and maintain passable streets and roads in the city. They gave attended to maintaining passable roads and streets well before attention was given to running water, sewage, jails, or a fire department. In its first called meeting on November 9, 1900, the City Council passed ordinances to address street conditions in the town site. The very first ordinance passed in the first Council meeting reads "Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, that the City Marshall of said City and he is hereby authorized and required to take charge of the public roads, streets and alleys of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and to have the same worked and repaired, and to summons all persons liable under the laws of the State of Texas to work on the public roads to work on and repair said streets, roads, and alleys under the same rules, regulations, and penalties as is now provided by the laws of the State of Texas for working the public roads of the state of Texas."
From Mt. Pleasant's 1900 incorporation into the 1940s, some people let their animals run loose in town. Then as today, irresponsible owners let dogs and cats run loose. However, back then the townsfolk kept livestock that sometimes roamed free, too, and caused problems with neighbors and people traveling city streets. Shortly after enacting the first ordinance dealing with road maintenance, the Council created two additional ordinances on January 15, 1901 to address animals in the city. The first made it "illegal for any person to ride or drive any horse mule ass jennett ox cart carriage or vehicle of any kind whatsoever on or across any sidewalk or foot bridge of any street of said City" and the second reads "Be it ordained by the City Council of Mt. Pleasant Texas that it shall be unlawful for any horses, mules, jacks, jennies, cattle, hogs, sheep or goats to run at large upon any of the public business streets or alleys or upon the public square of the City of Mt. Pleasant Texas, and it shall be the duty of the Marshall to take keep all such animals found running at large upon such business streets or alleys or upon the public square of said City and impound such animals."
Another problem the Council faced while changing a haphazardly-constructed town into an organized city were residents who intentionally or unintentionally blocked city streets by various means. City Council minutes contain numerous references as early as 1901 to problems of streets being restricted in various manners ranging from people piling wood being used for construction in the street to permanent right of way encroachment by fences and buildings. People tied their horses where they weren't supposed to, and the city even had a problem with horseback riders "speeding" through town!
To address the problems, the Council adopted the following three ordinances on June 18, 1901: "Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Tex. That: hereafter it shall be unlawful for any person to hitch any stallion on the public square or an alley of the public streets or alleys of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and any person violating this ordinance shall be fined in any sum not less than five dollars, and it is herby made the duty of the City Marshal to impound any stallion found hitched in violation of this ordinance for which he shall be entitled to a fee of one dollar to be charged as part of the cost upon conviction of he person hitching on said square or streets or alleys."
Alderman Pounders introduced the following ordinance: "Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant that hereafter it shall be unlawful for any person to hitch any horse or mule on any sidewalk or to any shade tree on the public square, streets, or alleys of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and any person violating this ordinance shall be fined in any sum not less than one dollar and not more than five dollars." The above ordinance was adopted as read.
Finally, Alderman Willson introduced the following ordinance: "Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant Texas that it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to ride or drive any horse or horses, mule or mules, rapidly along or upon any street or alley in said City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and any person or persons violating this ordinance shall be fined not less than two dollars nor more than ten dollars."
A committee was appointed to investigate right of way encroachments and other items pertaining to City streets and report back to the Council, making recommendations for the best ways to remedy the situation. On December 20, 1901 their report was as follows:
The council was called to order by the Mayor and a quorum being present, the following proceedings were had: The committee appointed at previous meeting to look over and make recommendations as to opening up certain streets and alleys made the following written report:
Mt. Pleasant, Texas 12-20-1901
To the Honorable City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant -
We, your Committee appointed at the last session of your honorable Council to inspect certain streets of said city alleged to have been encroached upon and obstructed by private citizens and to report and recommend to the Council as to the advisability of opening said streets or parts thereof and the probable cost to the City. Beg leave to report to your Honorable Body that we have attended to that duty. That we find the street running north and south just west of the county jail, said street being 60 feet wide, has been encroached upon by the fence around the jail lot and the fence enclosing the property known as the Col. Wood place and also by the fence of Mrs. Sallie Stephens and said street is now open about 30 feet wide to Mrs. Stephens fence and that the front yard and part of the house of W.H. Saunders is in said street and we recommend that said street be opened 30 feet wide though to where it intersects the street or road just South of the said Saunders place.
We also recommend that the street running east and west immediately north of Mrs. Stephens place be opened through to J. Johnson's to where it intersects the street running immediately west of W.J. Johnson's property. That same is now fenced by W.J. Johnson from where the same crosses the said street running N & S immediately west of the jail and we recommend that said Johnson be notified to remove said fence and that the gulley now inside of said Johnson's fence be bridged and made passable.
We find the bridge across the water alley near the residence of W.M. Edwards is in very bad and dangerous condition and we recommend that the same be repaired at once. We also find that the water alley on west side of the city is fenced from where same intersects the property of Mrs. B. F. Clelan to the north end of same and we found the water alley on north side of city from where it the said N.B. water alley to where it intersects Pittsburg street closed by S.H. Roper and the school property and recommend that the said N.B. water alley be opened to its northern extremity.
We also find that T.B. Caldwell has a large amount of lumber in north part of Houston Street in front of the said Caldwell's residence and we recommend that the street commissioner have said lumber removed. In the opinion of your committee, the cost of the improvements we recommend will not be more than $125, all of which we respectfully submit and ask to be discharged.
(Signed) S.P. Pounders, W.J. McGee, R. G. Batte
Alderman Willson made a motion that the report be received and that the committee be discharged - carried.
By a unanimous vote of the members of the Council, the Mayor was instructed to contract building the bridges and for other work recommended in above report."
On July 12, 1904, the Council met in the Mayor's office and instructed the City Secretary to write to the Austin-Western Co. to request that their representative bring a street grader to Mt. Pleasant (as he had offered to do) so Council members could see it operate and buy one if it proved satisfactory. He brought the grader and apparently it was satisfactory, because in August, 1904, the Council met in a called session to buy the grader for $300.00. The Mayor was authorized to issue three City notes for $100.00 each, the first payable in one year, and two more payments in successive years carrying 6 per cent interest. The first payment of $110.90 including interest was made May 15, 1906, followed by $113.85 on December 6, 1906, and the balance of $103.20 was paid June 7, 1909. All equipment requires maintenance, and it appears that the grader's blade was replaced September 3, 1912 at a cost of $8.00.
Street maintenance became a considerable task, and the City needed someone to oversee street work on a full-time basis. On December 6, 1904, the City Council created the office of Street Commissioner when Alderman Willson introduced the following ordinance, which passed unanimously.
"An ordinance taking charge of the public roads, streets and alleys in the city of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, appointing an overseer of the same and making provisions for the repairing, working and cleaning out thereof:
Be it ordained by the City Council of the city of Mt. Pleasant, Texas that:
Sec. I - The street commissioner of said city be and he is hereby appointed ex-officio overseer of all the public roads, streets and alleys in said city of Mt. Pleasant, and he is hereby authorized and required to have the same worked repaired and cleaned out, and to summons and require all persons residing in said City of Mt Pleasant who are liable under the general laws of the State of Texas, to work on the public roads of this state, to work on, repair and clean out the public roads, streets and alleys of said City, under the same rules, regulations, provisions and penalties, both civil and criminal, as are now provided by the general laws of the State of Texas, for working the public roads in this state.
Sec. II Any person residing in said City of Mt. Pleasant, liable to work on the public roads streets and alleys thereof, who shall pay to the street commissioner of said City of Mt. Pleasant the sum of $3.50 on or before the day on which he is summoned to work on said roads, streets and alleys, shall be exempt from further work on said roads streets and alleys for the period of one year beginning on the first day of February next preceding the date of such payment.
Because many people walked for pleasure and to run errands, maintaining good sidewalks both in the downtown commercial district and residential areas was important to the young city. The City took sidewalk maintenance seriously. On June 6, 1905 the City addressed the problem by adopting the following ordinance:
"Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas that it shall hereafter be the duty of all persons owning real estate situated within the incorporated limits of the City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, to keep the sidewalks along and by the side of all real estate owned by them in said city, along by which a public street is open and being traveled by the public, in good repair; that is, they shall build a good sidewalk and keep it in reasonable good condition, clear of all holes and obstructions and would interfere with free and safe passage by all persons walking or who may walk along said sidewalk.
The question as to the satisfactory condition of the sidewalks, to be repaired as aforesaid, is to be determined by the Street Commissioner of said city; and it shall be his duty to inspect all sidewalks in said city and determine said question; and when in his opinion, there is a sidewalk that needs repair, it shall be his duty to notify the owner of said property of such necessity, and request said owner to repair same. On failure of said property owner to repair said property, after having been requested to do so, it shall be the duty of the Street Commissioner of said city to give said property owner five days written notice to repair the sidewalk as aforesaid; and on failure to repair such sidewalk within the five days given by the notice, it shall be the duty of the Street Commissioner of said city to repair and fix such sidewalk as, in his opinion, it needs to be fixed, and charge the expense of fixing and repairing same up to the owner of said property; and on failure of said property owner to pay the account as presented by the Street Commissioner within five days after it is presented to him, it shall be the duty of the Street Commission to advertise and sell such of said property as is necessary to pay the account for such repairs, and the cost of advertising and selling same; same to be advertised and sold as the law of the State of Texas provides for the sale of real estate, and the same fees shall be collected for the sale of such property as is allowed under said law for the sale of real estate, all of which cost and fees to be paid out of the purchase money at such sale; the balance, if any, to be paid over to the property owner, whether the property is sold in whole or in part."
A second and similar ordinance requiring property owners to maintain their sidewalks was also adopted in July, 1907. Although historical records don't specifically indicate it, sidewalks in the business district have undergone several changes. The first sidewalks were made of boards. Later, as the town developed, concrete sidewalks replaced the board sidewalks. However, the early concrete sidewalks downtown aren't the same ones you see today. The original concrete sidewalks were built very high above street level for some reason, and they were later replaced by the lower sidewalks that you see today.
Also, while we're on the subject of sidewalks, perhaps you've heard that it is illegal to spit on the sidewalk and take that to be a joke. Well, Mt. Pleasant actually adopted an ordinance to that effect on July 3, 1907. It reads:
"An Ordinance
Be it ordained by the city council of the city of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, that, it shall hereafter be unlawful for any person to spit or blow his nose on any of the public sidewalks in the city limits of the city of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and any person thus offending shall be punished by fine of not less that one dollar and not more than ten dollars."
We didn't bother to see if the ordinance is still in effect. We're fairly sure it was later either rescinded or is definitely no longer enforced. We simply found it interesting and amusing and though we'd let your see for yourself that there really were once such ordinances.
In October, 1908 those darned speeders on horseback got the Council all riled up again, and this time they were serious about slowing down the traffic. The Council adopted a new ordinance to deal with the situation which read:
"Horse ordinance
City Ordinance
A city ordinance to prevent fast riding or driving in and along the public square and streets in the City of Mt. Pleasant, under circumstances reasonably calculated to endanger life, limb or property of any of the inhabitants of such square or streets.
Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Mt. Pleasant, that it shall hereafter be unlawful for any person to ride or drive any horse or mule or drive any team of horses or mules in and along the public square or public streets of the City of Mt. Pleasant, fast, under circumstances reasonably calculated to endanger either the life, limb or property of any of the inhabitants of the said square, or streets the said City of Mt. Pleasant, and any person offending against this ordinance, upon conviction therefore, shall be punished by fine of not less than five dollars and not more than two hundred dollars, and any ordinance in conflict with this ordinance is hereby repealed.
Notice the fine's two hundred dollar upper limit. Five dollars in 1908 was a fair amount of money, but two hundred dollars was a very considerable sum. Well over a thousand dollars is required today to purchase the same amount of goods that two hundred dollars would buy in 1908.
Times were beginning to change, and while changes in transportation took a while to spread across the country, coming changes in how people traveled greatly increased the importance of quality roads and streets and brought a whole new set of challenges with them.
Brothers Charles and J. Frank Duryea built one of America's first gasoline-powered cars, the Duryea automobile, in 1893. The American automobile industry began modestly when the Duryea Motor Wagon Company sold 13 identical gasoline-powered vehicles in 1896. On June 4, 1896 after more than two years of experimentation, Henry Ford completed his first experimental gasoline-powered motor car in a tiny workshop behind his home. He named his creation the "Quadricycle" because it ran on four bicycle tires. The little vehicle's success fueled Ford's automobile ambitions, leading ultimately to his founding the Ford Motor Company in 1903. For several years, automobiles were mainly confined to metropolitan areas because they were very expensive and only the rich could afford one. Lack of a good road and highway system made automobile travel more of an adventure than a necessity, and automobiles often bogged down in mud on wet roads where horses could still travel.
People in many rural areas had never seen an automobile, much less owned one, but this would soon change. According to R. L. Jurney, Sears-Roebuck & Co. brought the first automobile to Mt. Pleasant in the early 1900s on a railroad flat car, where they unloaded it and drove it around town for advertising. Mr. Jurney continues to say that Dr. W. H. Blythe was the first Mt. Pleasant resident to own an automobile when he bought a Columbus Motor Buggy in 1906. The Columbus Motor Buggy, like many early automobiles, was a high wheeled buggy with solid rubber tires and tiller steering driven by a gasoline engine. John G. Ferguson was the next person to own one of the new-fangled contraptions. He traded a merry-go-round for a Buick with pneumatic tires and a steering wheel like present autos. Vehicle traffic didn't present much of a problem for several years because there weren't many cars, and problems usually related to engine noise frightening horses more than traffic congestion.
The horse and buggy days would soon become a bygone era, though it took a while for cars to become common. Unlike today's automobile market dominated by America's "big three" and several foreign manufacturers, there were many early domestic vehicle manufacturers. The Ford Motor Company was largest, but most auto manufacturers were rather small with limited production and have since become footnotes to history. When was the last time you met someone driving a Bantam, Brush, Essex, Duesenberg, Hudson, Huppmobile, Oakland, Overland, Packard, Stanley, Studebaker, Tucker, or Whippit, just to name a few?
Ford later designed the Model T as an affordable car for the masses, and during its 1908-1927 production life, the Model T endured with few design changes. The first production Model T Ford was assembled in Detroit on October 1, 1908, and development of the sturdy, low-priced Model T made the Ford Motor Company the largest in the industry. More important than the Model T itself, Henry Ford revolutionized both American manufacturing and transportation by perfecting vertically integrated assembly along a moving assembly line. This enabled him to produce massive numbers of inexpensive automobiles, and by 1914 Ford produced far more cars than any other company. When Model T production ended in 1927, Ford had built 15,000,000 automobiles with the Model "T" engine.
