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An ACT to authorise the Levy Court of Washington County to
straighten, open and amend, the Road therein mentioned.
WHEREAS it is represented to this general assembly, by the petition of sundry inhabitants of
Washington county, that the road from Elizabeth-town to Hancock-town, which is the road
to the western country, is in its present course circuitous, and in some places almost impassable,
that the Conococheague creek, over which it must pass, is a very deep and rapid stream, often un-
passable, over which it is difficult to erect a bridge that will be permanent, except in particular well
selected points; that they believe the said road may be shortened, made to go over much better
ground, and be brought to cross the Conococheague creek at a place where it may be secured from
the waters of the same; therefore,
II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the levy court of Washington
county are hereby authorised and empowered to appoint three commissioners to straighten, open
and amend, the road from Hagar's-town towards Hancock-town, if in their opinion the same be ne-
cessary and conducive to the public convenience of the inhabitants thereof, which commissioners,,
when so appointed, shall be empowered to straighten, open and amend, the aforesaid road from Eli-
zabeth-town aforesaid, in the most suitable direction towards Hancock-town, until the same shall
intersect Conococheague creek, at some point thereon where in their opinion a bridge may be
erected secure from freshes and high waters, and from this point on the Conococheague, still in the
most suitable direction to Hancock-town, to some point on Licking creek, where in their opinion a
bridge may be erected secure from freshes and high waters, and from this place last mentioned to
Hancock-town, having due regard, as far as is practicable, in the whole course of the said road, to
shorten the distance, and to the practicability of making the said road at some future period into a,
turnpike road.
III. AND BE IT ENACTED, That if any of the commissioners appointed as aforesaid shall die or
refuse to act, that the levy court of Washington county shall and may appoint another person or
persons in his or their stead.
IV. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the commissioners appointed as aforesaid, or any of them, shall
proceed forthwith to lay out, survey, mark and bound, the aforesaid road, not exceeding sixty feet,
in width, in the manner herein before directed, and shall execute, sign and seal, a plain plot of the
same, with explicit explanations thereof, and such plots and explanations shall return to the justices
of the levy court, who shall cause the same to. be recorded among the land records of the said coun-
ty in testimony of the same being established by law.
V. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall have full power
to bargain and contract with any person or persons over whose lands the said road may pass, or
adjudge the damages any person may sustain by said road, and make return of all contracts by them
made for land or damages adjudged by them by reason of opening, straightening and amending, said,
road, to the levy court of said county.
VI. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the justices of the levy court for Washington county, at their
next sitting after the first day of March next, and thereafter in the last court in the year annually,
shall levy a sum of money, not exceeding the sum of twenty-five cents current money on every hun-
dred pounds worth of assessable property in the said county, to be collected in the same manner, at
the same times, and by the same persons, as other county taxes are collected, and shall be paid
quarterly into the hands of a supervisor, or supervisors to be appointed as in manner shall be here-
after directed.
VII. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the justices of the levy court for the county of Washington
shall and they are hereby required to appoint, at the time and in the manner that they appoint other
supervisors for the public roads in their said county, a supervisor or supervisors for the road by this
act established, within such divisions and districts as they shall think proper, and such supervisors,
so appointed, shall give bond in like manner as is required by law of other supervisors of public
roads, and in all respects to be governed by, and subject to, the same rules, regulations, penalties,
fines, forfeitures and privileges, as are by law provided in the case of other supervisors for public
roads in the county of Washington aforesaid.
VIII. AND BE IT ENACTED, That it shall be lawful for any supervisor appointed in virtue of
this act, and any person to be employed by him, to take and carry away any stones, gravel, or earth
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Passed Decem-
ber 25, 1810.
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