Roger Burns, Wanda Francis, Norman and Lorne Moase. Ross Matheson with pony in Freetown village.

Following the buckboards and the surreys came the buggy. Like the surrey, this was a four wheeled wagon both singly and doubly seated. The buggy came with hood and side pieces to protect passengers from the sun and rain. In winter, buckboards, buggies and surreys would be laid up. When the snow came, people used large two seated box sleighs piled high with blankets and buffalo robes for warmth. Some families kept wood sleighs, with sides and ends, so passengers could be hauled when work was done. In addition to these, the jaunting sleigh, light box sleigh, and pung sleigh was used by couples for travelling to rink, church and other distant places. One Island firm manufactured jaunting sleighs. Many of them were sold in the area. The other type of sleighs were built by blacksmiths and wood workers.

All the early wheeled vehicles had iron or steel rims. The next change was to rubber tired wagon wheels. This was a novelty for a few years. In the years prior to the advent of the automobile the bike wheeled wagon was the style. Young men loved to go out in the evening with a highly polished wagon that had bike wheels, a nice spread and a beautiful sleek horse with shining harness. In those days, this was considered to be the

prime requisite for securing a beautiful young lady.

EARLY ROADS

The first evidence of a road within the boundaries of Freetown is on a map dated 1 March, 1798. This may have been the road from Bedeque to Princetown, referred to in later years as the Old Malpeque Road. Fox’s map of July, 1808, shows a road from Bedeque to Princetown which appears to be the Old Malpeque Road. Fox also shows a bridge across the Dunk at what is now the Hatchery or Johnston’s Bridge in Lower Freetown. Further evidence that this road existed before 1834 is found in the Journal of the House of Assembly for 26 March, 1835. This records a re-grant of the 1834 appropriation for money on: “The Old Road from Taylor’s Mills (Johnston’s Bridge) to Barbara Weitf’ The term “Old Road” suggests that the Old Malpeque Road existed a number of years previous.

The first public roads, according to the 1812 House of Assembly Journals, had to have stumps cleared to a width of 10 feet and trees cut down for a width of 20 feet. These roads were often only levelled to a width of 4 feet. Even such primitive paths would have provided passage for people on horseback and were built by the local settlers according to a law which required each man from age 16 to 60 to work on the roads

3 days out of every year. Over the next 75 years, 12 more roads were constructed in the Freetown area.

The second road constructed was probably what still exists as the Freetown Road. The Assembly Journal for 16 May, 1827 mentions “opening a road from Dunk River Bridge on the north side to the nearest point 0f the new line of road, leading to Charlottetown”. Assuming the Dunk River Bridge is the existing one at Ross’ Corner, this appropriation was for opening up the present day Freetown Road toward the Charlottetown

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