Pencil Drawing of Toll Station


Stories of Guernsey County by Wm. Wolfe page 219
                                        Toll Gates on the National Road

     Rate of Toll Was Determined by Amount of Damage Done.--Just as those who use the roads today pay a gasoline tax for their maintenance, so did those who traveled the National Road in the early days pay a toll in order that there might be funds for keeping it in good condition.  It was rightly reasoned that the rates of toll should be determined by the wear on the road, and consequently, each vehicle or animal was taxed in proportion to the damage it might do to the road-bed.  A greater toll was charged for cattle than for sheep or hogs; for wagons of narrow tires than those of wide tires; and for a carriage drawn by four horses than for one drawn by two.
     Toll rates were changed frequently.  A schedule in effect in Guernsey county as well as in other Ohio counties, in 1832, is here given, in part, as follows: Score of sheep or hogs, .05; score of cattle, .10; horse and rider, .04; every sulky or chaise drawn by one horse, .08, and .04 for every additional horse; every chariot or coach, .12 1/2, and .03 for every horse in addition; every vehicle with wheels under four inches in breadth, .06 1/4, and .02 additional for every horse drawing same; every vehicle with wheels exceeding six inches in width, free.
     Exemptions Were Granted.-- Exemptions from paying toll were granted persons going to or returning from church, a funeral, a place of election, their ordinary places of business if in the county, to mill and to market.  Clergymen went through free, as did children on their way to or from school.  This, of course, included the vehicles in which they traveled and the animals drawing them.  A stage and horses carrying United States
mail were passed through free.  Stage companies took advantage of this privilege by putting a mail sack on each passenger coach.  It is said that bids as low as one cent a year were submitted for carring the mail.  This abuse was later corrected by a law requiring that passengers on stage coaches should pay toll. 
     Toll Gates in Guernsey County.--There were four toll gates in Guernsey county, on the National Road.  They were intended to be located about ten miles apart in Ohio; however, this was the average distance.  Coming into the county from the east, one reached the first gate at Bridgewater; the second, a short distance west of Washington; the third, a short distance east of Cambridge; and the fourth, about two miles west of Cambridge. That two were placed so close to Cambridge was probably for the purpose of getting toll from persons coming into town from either direction.
     Toll-gate keepers were appointed by the governor at first, but later by the commissioners.  In 1832 the salary was $180 per year.  This was afterwards increased to $200, with an additional five per cent of all tolls collected in excess of $1,000.  Extra compensation by the commission plan proved unsatisfactory, and the salary again dropped back to the $200.
     Payment of Toll Was Evaded.--As might be expected many attempts were made to evade the payment of toll.  Travelers, familiar with the county, would sometimes detour when approaching a toll gate.  Church-goers were frequently more numerous than church attendants, and there were more funerals than deaths.  Laws were passed whereby one could be severely punished for such an offense as evading the payment of toll, and every tollgate keeper was authorized to arrest one suspected of attempting it.
     After the care of the National Road was given over to the commissioners of the counties through which it passed, other forms of revenue for it maintenance were found, and the toll gates were gradually removed.