By Mike Barnhardt
Enterprise Record

Joseph Hampton Rich believed that improved roads were needed for the automobile industry that was just catching hold in this country as the 20th Century took hold.
So the Davie native did something about it; and today, monuments to his dedication still stand across the country. And a book, “Rich Man: Daniel Boone,” describes his efforts to improve roads in this country.
The book’s author, Everette G. Marshall, spoke at a ceremony Sunday at a Daniel Boone Trail marker at the Davie County Courthouse in Downtown Mocksville, sponsored by the Davie Historical & Genealogical Society. It is the 100th anniversary of the marker’s placement.
Marshall’s interest started years ago in his hometown of Hillsville, Va., when he noticed one of the markers Mr. Rich had placed along highways across the country.
Marshall gave a history of how the markers came about.
Growing up in Davie County, Mr. Rich knew about Daniel Boone and his exploits. The Boy Scouting effort in 1914 was somewhat based on Boone. Marshall called Boone the country’s “first Eagle Scout.”
When Cuba was struggling with Spanish control in 1895, US President William McKinley ordered the USS Maine to Havana Harbor, where it sunk in 1898. Rich later got some 400 pounds of salvaged scrap metal from The Maine to make the markers. He was already convinced that automobiles were the transportation for the future after mass assemblies of the Model T Ford began in 1913.
“Vehicles became available for middle class Americans to own and operate,” Marshall said. But the roads were dirt and mud, full of ruts and went over private property. Rich started the Good Roads Movement to make improvements, first hiring teen boys to keep wooden planks on the dirt; later lobbying for governments to take over roads. “He was a community man and he had a focus on improving his community.”
Some of his main early arguments were to speed US Post Office deliveries, as well as for school buses.
He took his plea to Washington, D.C. in 1913 and asked the senators from North Carolina to join his efforts. They refused.
Undeterred, Rich went above their heads. “Mr. Rich wasn’t going to be outdone, so he took his idea to President Woodrow Wilson, who liked the idea.”
Roads started to improve, and Rich formed the Daniel Boone Trail Highway Association.
According to Marshall, Rich’s fault was using the term “trail,” which made people think that Boone has visited each site where he was to place a marker. He hadn’t; Rich just used Boone’s name because he was a trailblazer during his time, making way for people to move west, just as the highway system was doing.
Because of that, many of the markers were later removed by communities where Boone hadn’t visited. Marshall has documented 60 of the original 358 metal tablets, and his work continues.
“It was meant to be a memorial highway with Mr. Boone’s name on it,” Marshall said. “Daniel Boone is known as a trailblazer. He opened roads … and he was from Davie County, too. Mr. Rich claimed to have been raised on the property where Daniel Boone lived with his wife.”
The monuments face west.
Rich took support for road improvements seriously, and sought donations wherever he went. “Mr. Rich took it another step. He called it Americanism … and promoted Daniel Boone to thousands of students.
“History is roots. Daniel Boone and Joseph Hampton Rich made significant contributions to American history. When I come to a monument like this, I call the monument a pulpit, the words a sermon and the community the congregation.”