Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 1961
THE BOSTON ROAD
by Elmo Ingenthron
(First of a series by Mr. Ingenthron on 'Old Trails.')
In 1870, William S. Boston purchased a river bottom farm on the south side of White River a short distance above the Hensley Ferry, near the mouth of Bull Creek. In the same year, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company completed its line into Springfield.
Within a short period of time, numerous freight wagons from the Harrison, Arkansas, region were passing Mr. Boston's house and crossing the river on Hensley's Ferry en route to the rail road town of Springfield. Judge J. W. A. Keithley, a good authority on the subject, estimated fifty to one hundred freight wagons passed daily over the Harrison-Springfield road. This, along with the usual run of local travel, made business along the road prosper. The Hensley Ferry, operated by William P. Hensley, was the only one available to serve the north-south travel on the route. It did a thriving business and was often referred to as a "money mint."
In order to obtain a portion of the business from the freight wagons and local travel, Mr. Boston placed into operation another ferry, at his farm a short distance upstream from the Hensley Ferry. He likewise conceived the idea of opening an alternate route along the main divide west of the Bull Creek watershed. This alternate route, later referred to as the Boston Ridge road, is thought to have been opened for travel sometime between 1875 and 1879. According to Judge Keithley, Mr. Boston employed upward of fifty men in opening up the ridge road through the virgin forest, financing the project himself.
[8]
From the ferry, the Boston Road ascended the south slopes of the main divide west of Bull Creek and followed it to a point about two miles northeast of Reeds Spring, where it joined the old Wilderness Road from the Berryville-Huntsville region of Arkansas.
The Boston Ridge Road offered in many ways a better route for the Arkansas freighters than the old route up Bull Creek and Bear Creek. Travelers on the old creek route often experienced sudden rises and high water, necessitating delays and inconveniences.
In 1884, Mr. Boston sold his farm and ferry interest to a Mr. Thickel and left the White River region. In later years, the virgin lands along the Boston Ridge Road were settled. The inhabitants of the area after a time organized a school district, built a school house beside the road, and named it Boston Center.
Few people today know about the Boston Ferry which was the incentive for building the Boston Ridge Road. However many of us have driven the T-Model Ford along "Old Number Three," and later along a portion of U. S. Highway 65 which follows closely the route laid out by William S. Boston more than eighty years ago.
[9]
This volume: Next Article | Table of Contents | Other Issues
Other Volumes | Keyword Search | White River Valley Quarterly Home | Local History Home
Copyright © White River Valley Historical Quarterly
