Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/149

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THE CATSKILL TURNPIKE
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with its terminus at Wattles's Ferry. This terminus appears to have been chosen because the river here was deep enough to permit the use of 'battoes' during the low water that prevailed in summer. By the summer of 1788 the road was in passable condition. Alexander Harper and Edward Paine in February, 1789, declared that they had been to 'a very great expense in opening the roads from Catskill and the Hudson to the Susquehanna River.' In the same year a petition was filed for a road 'from the Ouleout to Kyuga Lake.' The road to Cayuga Lake (Ithaca) made slow progress, and in 1791 General Jacob Morris addressed to Governor Clinton a letter which shows that it was then still to be undertaken. Early in 1790 the State had taken the road to Catskill in charge. In August, G. Gelston made up from surveys a map from Catskill 'running westerly to the junction of the Ouleout Creek with the Susquehanna River.' The country had been previously explored for the purpose by James Barker and David Laurence.[1]

  1. State Land Papers.—Halsey.