Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1917 — GOOD ROADS ADVOCATE HERE [ARTICLE]

GOOD ROADS ADVOCATE HERE

Col. Thatcher and His Mules Made > Us Another Visit. Colonel Thatcher, who claims to be engineer for a from West to East automobile route, was in Rensselaer again Saturday with his unique traveling outfit, consisting of a decrepid old spring wagon loaded down yvitli curios he has picked 1 up in his travels over the country, including a buffalo head, elk and deer antlers, old automobile license plates from many different states that he hgs passed through, and scores of other articles of miscellaneous junk, drawn by a span of small mules with a buri'o trotting along at their side, which outfit has attracted the attention of perhaps millions-of people in the dozens of states through which the colonel has in. his various good roads campaigns.

The colonel stated that he was “just arrived from Alabama,” and that he had blocked out a route on his trip through here a year ago last February from Seattle, Washington, to Chicago and thence south to Jacksonville, Florida, that is from 200 to 250 miles shorter than either the Dixie or Jackson highway, and the colonel claims to be the father of the Jackson highway, too. /His route is from Chl-j cago via Mt. Ayr to Rensselaer, thence by Jackson highway to Lafayette, thence to Bloomington, Louisville, Cumberland Gap, Ashville, etc.

He stated that he was now on his way to New York and Boston to locate a route through to New York and Washington, D. C., which will be recommended to the war department for transporting army supplies and food in case of congestion on the railroads. The plan is, he says, to interest automobile owners in the United States to organize an auto relief corps in case of such emergencies. The colonel has passed the military age and is giving his time to this project. He hah tPffvelod GvO7 50,000 miles via horse and mule' power in his good roads campaigns, l but says that since he was here, last he has made a trip by automobile to the Pacific coast. Some I time, he says, he expects to drive from coast to coast in one of the finest cars built, but that he can' now accomplish more for the cause j he is interested in with his 'unique outfit and simple mode of travel. | Whether Colonel Thatcher is I really what he claims to be or there is a< “vacant room” in his upper story, we are unable to say. I He is a native of Virginia, he states, but much of his life has been spent in the West, although' he has made many trips East and 1 says that he represented the Nev/’ York Herald and New York Times in the Spanish-American war. That he is a man of great intelligence’ and gentlemanly bearing is appar-l ent in conversing with him. May his good roads projects all become' a reality in the not distant future is the wish of The Democrat, no’ matter whether the colonel is “bughouse’’ or not.