CHAPTER XLI
TRANSPORTATION BY ROAD
I
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN POSTAL SERVICE OF MONTREAL
ANCIENT ROADS—THE “GRAND VOYER”—GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT—THE EVOLUTION OF ROADS—“POST” MASTERS RECOGNIZED IN 1780—THE EARLY POSTAL SYSTEM OF MONTREAL AND BENJAMIN FRANKLIN—BURLINGTON THE TERMINUS—EARLY LETTER RATES—MAIL ADVERTISEMENTS—THE QUEBEC TO MONTREAL POSTAL SERVICE—EARLY POSTOFFICE IN MONTREAL—OCEAN AND RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE—THE PRESENT POSTOFFICE—ITS HISTORICAL TABLETS BY FLAXMAN—THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POSTAL SYSTEM—THE POSTMASTERS OF MONTREAL.
The question of the transportation of the mails and the origin of the Montreal postal services makes some prefatory remarks on the road system necessary. The early roads were under the Grand Voyer of the province, a sort of surveyor general who had deputies “sous voyers” and surveyors under him. The roads were divided into three classes: (1) Chemins Royaux—post roads or “front” roads, the soil of which belonged to the crown; these generally traversed the “front” of the seignories. (2) Chemins de Ceinture et de Traverse—or back roads, the soil of which belonged to the seigneurs. These ran in the rear and parallel with the royal roads. (3) Chemins de Sortie et de Communications—called also “routes” and by-roads. These were crown roads connecting those in front and rear, also banal roads which were those leading to the seigneury mill.
The office of Grand Voyer was held as early as 1669 by Sieur de Bécanour. It had almost despotic power. This continued until 1832, when his powers were transferred to the road commissioners. In 1841 the roads came under the municipality. The condition of the early roads to Montreal and in Canada were deplorable, and Carleton was compelled to enforce the “individual responsibility” of proprietors and tenants to keep the post roads in repair. These roads were thirty feet wide and the cross roads maintained by joint labor were twenty feet wide. It was not until Sydenham’s time that much improvement was effected, owing to the passive resistance of the French-Canadian to enforced labour. By 1850 good roads ran over the Province in all directions. Not all of them were well made, but most of them were useable for stage traffic which had greatly increased.
The evolution of the Canadian roads (1) the bridle road, (2) the winter road, (3) the corduroy road, (4) the common or graded roads, (5) the turnpike, macadam, gravel and plank is as follows:
The bridle roads were made solely for the use of horsemen, before carriages had been introduced into the more unsettled parts of the country. By their aid the people found their way to religious ceremonies and transported their grain on pack horses to the neighbouring villages. They were made simply by clearing away the branches and trunks of trees so as to allow a horse to pass through the bush.
The winter roads were very important. The Canadian winter with its snow and frost was a blessing to the farmer, giving him a firm, smooth road over which heavy loads could be drawn with ease. Most of the heavy freight was not moved until the winter unless the water routes were accessible. It was in the cold weather that the lumbermen and builders transported their supplies and the farmer carried his crops to market.