Return to PART TWO of the Turkey Foot Road tour
The red line on the inset map is the route shown on early surveys. The modern route is black. The roads marked on early surveys were only intended to locate the properties. They weren't intended to show every little twist and turn of the road. In other words, the roads on early surveys are schematic, straight line representations. Although not all of the route is shown on the old surveys, between 39.889126, -79.374783 and 39.909868, -79.407034, Jersey Hollow Road, Maple Summit Road, and Schroyer Road are the present alignment of the route shown on 1794 surveys.
A summary of the Fayette County route is published online by the Bullskin Township Historical Society.
In the 1860s, Route T858 was known as the old Turkey Foot Road. In the 1700s, the Turkey Foot Road was located farther west, taking a direct route toward the Indian Creek Baptist Church. That church is south of the village of Mill Run, on Route 381. The road passed through the village, and crossed Indian Creek at Mill Run Reservoir. After that, it passed through Normalville on the way to Woodruff's.
The yellow dashed lines are the roads shown on the surveys. The orange dots in the upper left hand corner highlight a trail that is visible on the image. This trail appears to be the old Turkey Foot Road.
At 39.909868, -79.407034 the 1794 route departs the modern road at the site of the old Maple Summit stagecoach site, at a place now known as Nicolay, and heads generally northwest in the general direction of the Indian Creek Baptist Church, passing through several now abandoned farmsteads along the way. As noted above, the 1867 route is located farther to the east, and is still known as the Turkeyfoot Road today.
This image also identifies the location of the Charles Minor place. An 1867 newspaper indicates that he bought a farm on the old Turkey Foot Road. This proves that by 1867, Schroyer Road was the existing version of the Turkey Foot Road.
In the next several captioned images, we are going to head down the 1867 route.
This stone foundation is shown at the lower left of the above photo collage. The building was dismantled, and rebuilt at Fallingwater.
The postcard was mailed from Nicolay in the early 1900s.
Not long ago, five bear were taken in one season on this farm. After that, crop damage hasn't been so bad.
The upper picture is the northern end of the present day Turkey Foot Road [39.941603, -79.441928]. In 1858, the route was on the far side of the house,
The church is named for the Indian Creek settlement. A Fayette County history book mistakenly states that the church was organized in 1843. The congregation was represented at a meeting in Bridgeport, West Virginia in September, 1800. This proves that the 1843 date in the history book is wrong.
He was buried on the home place, along Route 381 at 39.99007, -79.446723, on property he had surveyed in 1788 along the Turkey Foot Road. His tombstone is cemented into the wall that surrounds the little cemetery.
Thick red lines are the route shown on early surveys. Green dots show sections identified with aerial photographs. Woodruff's place is at the intersection of Gas Well Road and Cavanaugh Road. After that, the route followed Hawk Road. After Hawk Road, the route veered north, serving as the antecedent to part of Quail Hill Road. The road turned north on the Smith survey, and headed toward Cathcart's mill at Wooddale.
Cathcart's mill was located at the intersection of Keefer Road and Route 982. From there, the Turkey Foot Road followed an unknown route to Jacobs Creek. The fording site was west of Route 119, near Scottdale.
A 1969 newspaper says the Turkey Foot Road crossed the Catawba Path on Walnut Hill. That's where Valley View Drive terminates on Kingview Road. I don't know for sure if this is a reference to the same Turkey Foot Road.
I had a really tough time finding this property. I ended up triangulating from three distinctive locations on Indian Creek.
Beyond the fork, Cavanaugh road is displaced to the left from the old 1788 road to Jones Mill. The old sunken roadbed went through Ernie's yard. Ernie found a coin from the early 1800s in the old roadbed.
When I was trying to find this intersection for the first time, my GPS unit quit, and I got lost. I spotted someone chopping firewood in a field, and asked for directions. I told the guy I wanted to take some pictures at the intersection. He asked "Why?" It turns out I was talking to Ernie Schultz, who lives right at the intersection.
Ernie had an interest in the Turkey Foot Road, but didn't know where it was located. He was surprised to learn that he lived on an important landmark along the road.
Yellow lines represent the roads shown on early surveys. The left-hand set of yellow lines prove that Hawk Road is the Turkey Foot Road. Disregard the slight offset between the yellow line and Hawk road. That's just an artifact of the non-orthorectified nature of the image.
If you look closely, you can see the now-abandoned route in the gap between the yellow lines. The Turkey Foot road followed a west-northwest course between 40.033858, -79.459552 and 40.042318, -79.482286. Part of this section of the old road survives as Hawk Road. From the last set of coordinates, parts of the old route can be traced up to the quarry.
When I first turned onto Hawk Road, I stopped to talk to a man named Jessie Nicholson. I introduced myself, and said that I was researching an old road that ran through the area. Instantly, he said "The Turkey Foot Road". He knew the name from local surveys. In his younger days, he walked the abandoned road. He knew that it ran between Cavanaugh Road and Quail Hill Road. I never walked it, but I figured it out from old surveys.
Jacob Frelick took out a warrant for property just east of here in 1784. It became the subject of a lawsuit against Isaac Meason in 1804. The plaintiff didn't know where the property was, and accidentally sued the wrong guy. Meason won on a technicality because the plaintiff failed to present a survey. If the plaintiff had known where the property was really located, he could have sued William Cale, who warranted the same property in 1794.
The right hand picture was taken looking generally west-northwest. It shows a surviving section of the Turkey Foot Road.
Michael Entlich was keeping a tavern on this section of road in 1796. He already had 70 acres cleared, along with a log house and barn. By 1802, a shoemaker named Welsh was also living on this section of road.
The red and green dots mark the 1794 Turkey Foot Road across the Smith survey. A much more level shortcut route, in the form of a deeply sunken road, follows the ridge, east of the route shown here.
The 1780 deed to Hatfield for the property at the present-day Pleasant Valley Country Club describes that property as being on both sides of the Turkey Foot Road. Since the military road was cut in 1779, the reference to the Turkey Foot Road on the 1780 deed seems to be a concrete reference to the original military route. Where it crossed the Hatfield property remains a mystery.
John Cathcart warranted this property in 1787, and patented it in 1788. Keefer road is on the left. Pleasant Valley Road is at the intersection in the background. Veech's circa-1858 book says the Turkey Foot Road passed Cathcart's mill. The exact route is unknown.
In his Whiskey Rebellion travel journal, Dr. Wellford describes staying overnight with a Mrs. Woodrow on the night of November 23, 1794. From the location where the northern end of Kendi (Fenton) Road terminates on Route 981 [40.145394, -79.574807], Mrs. Woodrow's property extends south one mile on both sides of Kendi (Fenton) Road. The specific route of the Turkey Foot Road across the Woodrow property is unknown.
The most northerly location of the Turkey Foot Road that is known with any precision is at Ruffs Dale. Dr. Wellford describes turning right from the Glade Road onto the Turkey Foot Road, and then traveling four miles to Mrs. Woodrow's. A November 8, 1780 deed (recorded May 22, 1783) describes John Emerson's sale of property located on Lick Run and the Turkey Foot Road. Lick Run is now Buffalo Creek. The Emerson property is located on the Glade Road, just a few yards west of Buffalo Creek, and a bit of it covers the southernmost part of Ruffs Dale. This means that the 1779 military route of the Turkey Foot Road crossed the Glade Road in the general vicinity of 40.172281, -79.609201.
From this last known point, an educated guess would be that the Turkey Foot Road merged with Braddock's road in the general vicinity of Hunker, Pennsylvania. For orientation purposes, Braddock's road was the antecedent to Preacher Street, which runs from 40.196628, -79.610697 to 40.198107, -79.616281.
The knowledge that the Turkey Foot Road passed through Ruffs Dale helps to explain why the Jacobs Creek fording site that Veech describes is so far west. The fording site allowed a shorter, more direct route, avoiding the meandering path of Braddock's road in the Mount Pleasant area.
L. Dietle
