TRAGEDY STRIKES THE TOWN
roads or trails ran over steep hills and ledges, and many such roads have since been abandoned. In the layout of the roads more attention seems to have been paid to the preservation of rectangular fields than to the convenience of travel. It is believed that in those earlier years men were more occupied with their daily pursuits than in travelling about, and when they did have occasion to go, they often went on foot, or ''across lots." The result of this scheme of transportation was to run the roads over steep hills, when the same distance would have taken the road around the hill, nearly on the level. Even the Turnpikes, the building of which was commenced after the close of the Revolutionary War and carried on well into the nineteenth century, seem to have been constructed on much the same plan as the common roads. The difficulties of obtaining rights of way for a new road were undoubtedly very real in the olden days, just as much as they are at the present time. The farmers protested stoutly against having their fields and forests ''cut into." These early roads were not paved or improved in any way, and the difficulty of travel in the early Spring was very acute.
The vehicles used for travel during the early days were, of course, rather crude and often uncomfortable, although carriage-building made great progress in New Haven during the years preceding the Civil War. It is said that Levi Beecher, who was more prosperous than his neighbors, owned the first carriage in Orange. His death occurred in 1850, and amongst the buildings inventoried in his estate was a carriage house.
The other Orange people rode in such go-carts as they could afford. This was especially true of those vehicles which moved on runners. Pungs and contraptions of almost any construction were thought good enough to travel through the snow. It may be doubted whether the stage-coach, with all the classical distinction that has been accorded to it, was an altogether comfortable conveyance when hurried over the rough roads of those early days at the speed it was supposed to travel.
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