Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/104

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100
PIONEER ROADS

known, began at old Fort Schuyler, as a western extremity of the Mohawk Valley road and later turnpike, and was built to the Genesee River by a law passed March 22, 1794. In 1798 a law was passed extending it to the western boundary of the state. It was legally known as the Great Genesee Road and the Main Genesee Road until 1800. In that year the road passed into the hands of a turnpike company the legal name of which was "The President and Directors of the Seneca Road Company." The old name clung to the road however, and on the map here reproduced we find it called the "Ontario and Genesee Turnpike Road." It forms the main street of both the large cities through which it passes, Syracuse and Utica, and in both it is called "Genesee Street."

The first act of legislation which created a Genesee Road from an Indian trail read as follows:

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly That Israel Chapin, Michael Myer, and Othniel Taylor shall be and hereby are appointed commissioners for the purpose