The Roads That Became Highways
How Pioneer Paths Became Paved Roads — and How One Neighbor-Built Trail Became a Major Florida Thoroughfare
Roads are records of decisions.
Two pioneers. A stretch of uncleared ground. An axe. In October 1880, according to a family-history account by Nancy McMullen Meador as summarized by historian Donald J. Ivey, settler James P. McMullen began cutting a right of way with his friend “Uncle Dick” Booth. The road ran from the head of Old Tampa Bay to Bay View, the settlement McMullen founded, and was first known as Haines Road. The Pinellas County Commission later renamed it McMullen-Booth Road, today a major arterial road.
How Pioneer Roads Were Built
Pioneer road building was practical and local. Trees in the corridor were felled, stumps were grubbed out or left and driven around, and brush had to be cut back again and again in Florida’s warm, wet climate. On sandy ground the packed sand itself was the surface. Where shell was available it could harden a road. Florida Memory notes that shell mounds on Fort George Island were dug up for road beds in the early 1900s, and a Smithsonian Magazine article reports that many Native shell middens became road fill, which destroyed irreplaceable evidence of Indigenous history.
A Public Obligation
Road maintenance was enforced by law. The best-documented Florida example found is a 1913 statute quoted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Butler v. Perry (1916), which arose in Columbia County. It required able-bodied men aged 21 to 45 to work six days a year on county roads when summoned. A man could send a substitute or pay $3 instead, and failure to do any of these was a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $50 or thirty days in jail.
Into the Automobile Age
The automobile changed Florida’s roads in the early twentieth century, as brick, concrete and asphalt replaced shell and sand in many places. The Federal-Aid Road Act, signed July 11, 1916, began the federal-aid highway program, and the numbered U.S. highway system followed in 1926. The Dixie Highway, an automobile route promoted in the 1910s to link the Midwest with Florida, ran in several divisions. A surviving stretch, the Old Brick Road in St. Johns and Flagler counties, was contracted in 1914 and accepted in April 1916, according to the Flagler County Historical Society.
What Survives
Parts of the Bellamy Road, completed in 1826 by contractor John Bellamy with enslaved laborers he owned, remain in use, according to the Florida Heritage marker. Its route is separate from US 90. Tracing a modern highway back through county records, plats and older roads shows how the state’s travel routes were assembled over time, by governments and by neighbors.
Quick Facts
McMullen-Booth Road
Right of way cut October 1880, per Ivey citing Meador; first called Haines Road
Surveyor’s specifications claim
Reported by Meador; not independently confirmed
Pioneer road surface
Packed sand; shell where available
Statute labor
1913 law: six days a year, or $3, or a substitute (Butler v. Perry, 1916)
Federal-Aid Road Act
Signed July 11, 1916
Numbered U.S. highways
System dates to 1926
Old Brick Road
Contracted February 1914; accepted April 1916 (Flagler County Historical Society)
Bellamy Road
Completed 1826; parts remain in use (Florida Heritage marker)
Did You Know?
* A 1913 Florida law required men aged 21 to 45 to work six days a year on county roads.
* McMullen-Booth Road was first known as Haines Road.
* Native shell mounds were sometimes dug up to surface roads, destroying evidence of Indigenous history.
Vocabulary
Right of way: the strip of land set aside for a road.
Arterial road: a major road that carries heavy traffic between areas.
Grubbing: digging out stumps and roots.
Discussion Questions
1. Why might a county require residents to work on roads instead of paying taxes alone?
2. Why is it a loss when a shell mound is used for road fill?
Related Articles
* FLH-0109 — Military Roads
* FLH-0110 — Wagon Travel
* FLH-0117 — Settlement Patterns
* FLH-0118 — Florida Trails Before Highways
Sources
Ivey, Donald J. “The Accidental Pioneer: Capt. Jim McMullen and the Taming of the Pinellas Peninsula.” Sunland Tribune 22, no. 1 (full text read; the road account rests on Ivey’s citation of Nancy McMullen Meador, Clearwater Sun, December 4, 1949, which was not examined)
Butler v. Perry, 240 U.S. 328 (1916), quoting Chapter 6537, Laws of Florida (1913). law.cornell.edu
Florida Heritage marker, Bellamy Road. markers.flheritage.com (marker text cited via secondary web description; not independently examined)
Federal Highway Administration. History of the federal-aid highway program (1916 Federal-Aid Road Act). highways.dot.gov
Florida Memory, State Archives of Florida. “Map of the Dixie Highway System, 1919” and Fort George Island shell mounds, item 116774. floridamemory.com
Flagler County Historical Society. “Old Brick Road.” (cited via secondary description; not independently examined)
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