Upper Road

United States   Migration    Trails and Roads    Upper Road

The Upper Road or "Piedmont Road" splits off from the King's Highway at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was roughly parallel to, but farther inland than the coastal King's Highway and more inland Fall Line Road until it rejoined that later road at Macon, Georgia. The Upper Road was especially popular among the Scots-Irish (or Ulster Irish) colonists who settled the backcountry mountains. In Virginia there is no modern equivalent road because reservoirs now cover the old trail. Interstate 85 is roughly the same as the Upper Road in the Carolinas. The length of the Upper Road from Fredericksburg, Virginia to Macon, Georgia was approximately 585 miles (940 km).

As roads developed in America settlers were attracted to nearby communities because the roads provided access to markets. They could sell their products at distant markets, and buy products made far away. If an ancestor settled near a road, you may be able to trace back to a place of origin on a connecting highway.

Historical Background
By the 1740s another road beside the Fall Line Road into the interior of Virginia and the Carolinas was needed. By 1748 the original trails were improved enough to be considered wagon roads. This set of trails came to be called the Upper Road or Piedmont Road and provided major access to interior farm lands. During the Revolutionary War these roads were important to both sides moving troops in the campaigns of the southern states.

Both the Upper Road, and the Fall Line Road ended at Macon, Georgia. In 1806 the federal government signed a treaty with the Creek Indians authorizing a "horse path" (mail route) through Indian land from Macon to New Orleans, Louisiana. The Creek Indians were postmasters along this extension to the west.

Route
Important Towns on the Upper Road (northeast to southwest)


 * Fredericksburg, VA
 * Amelia Court House, VA
 * Hillsboro, NC
 * Salisbury, NC
 * Charlotte, NC
 * Spartanburg, SC
 * Greenville, SC
 * Tugaloo, GA
 * Athens, GA
 * Macon, GA

Upper Road Counties

Overlapping routes. From about the Virginia-North Carolina border to Charlotte, the Upper Road and the Occaneechi Path followed the same route. From Salisbury to Charlotte, North Carolina the southern fork of the Great Valley Road was also the same as the Upper Road. And from Charlotte, North Carolina to Tugaloo, Georgia, the Upper Road followed the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path. For a map showing these overlapping trails see South Carolina Emigration and Immigration.
 * Virginia:  Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Louisa, Goochland, Powhatan, Amelia, Nottoway, Lunenburg, and Mecklenburg.
 * North Carolina:  Granville, Orange, Alamance, Randolph, Davidson, Rowan, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Gaston.
 * South Carolina:  York, Cherokee, Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens, Oconee.
 * Georgia:  Stephens, Franklin, Madison, Clarke, Oconee, Morgan, Putnam, Jones, Bibb.

Connecting routes.

At the north end of the Upper Road three main roads converge at Fredericksburg, Virginia:


 * King's Highway which connects Boston, Massachusetts to Savannah, Georgia
 * Fall Line Road connecting Fredericksburg, Virginia to Montgomery, Alabama
 * Upper_Road connecting Fredericksburg, Virginia to Macon, Georgia

Trails that meet the Upper Road near Tugaloo, Georgia area include:


 * Savannah River
 * Lower Cherokee Traders' Path a pre-historic trail connecting the Lower Cherokee Villages to the Catawba Indians (Charlotte, North Carolina)
 * Old Cherokee Path a pre-historic trail from the Lower Cherokee Villages to Washington County, Virginia on the Great Valley Road (also known as the Great Indian Warpath)
 * Coosa-Tugaloo Indian Warpath was a pre-historic path that went toward Birmingham, Alabama
 * Tugaloo-Apalachee Bay Trail was a pre-historic trail headed for the Florida panhandle and probably Mission San Luis de Apalachee
 * Augusta and Cherokee Trail was a pre-historic trail from Tugaloo originally to Savannah Town, South Carolina and later Augusta, Georgia
 * Old South Carolina State Road 1747 a fork of this road apparently connected Tugaloo, Georgia to Fort Prince George, to Columbia and to Charleston, South Carolina.
 * Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path after 1765 followed the northeast side of the Savannah River from the Old Cherokee Path in Oconee County down to old Fort Charlotte in northwest McCormick County, South Carolina
 * Upper_Road about 1783 (overlapping the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path) connecting Fredericksburg, Virginia to Macon, Georgia
 * Unicoi Turnpike opened to a few European traders 1690, but the wagon road was not opened to settlers until 1813 from near Tugaloo headed northwest to the Overhill Cherokee villages and Knoxville in Tennessee

At the south end of the Upper Road it connects with:


 * Fall Line Road connecting Fredericksburg, Virginia to Montgomery, Alabama
 * Federal Horse Path which extends from Macon, Georgia toward New Orleans, Louisiana.

Settlers and Records
No lists of settlers who used the Upper Road are known to exist. However, local and county histories along the road may reveal that many of the first pioneer settlers arrived from places to the northeast along the route.

Most settlers would have moved from the northeast to the southwest along the Upper Road. People from Pennsylvania (especially around the major port city of Philadelphia), southern New Jersey, eastern Maryland, and northern Virginia would be the most likely starting places for early Upper Road travelers. They would have settled in places like Amelia Court House in southern Virginia. Eventually travelers also reached Hillsborough, Salisbury, and Charlotte, in North Carolina, or Greenville in South Carolina. The Georgia portion of the Upper Road from the important Indian settlement of Tugaloo to Athens, and Macon was opened to most white settlers after a series of treaties and Georgia land lotteries from 1790 to 1826.

Websites

 * The Upper Road (RootsWeb). Map, description, fact sheet.
 * The Old Upper Road, The Historical Marker Database.