From History of Madison County, Ohio, Chester E. Bryan, Supervising Editor, B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis (1915)
Deer Creek township was for many years without pikes or any good gravel roads and consequently had more than its share of bad mud roads, due to its very rich, deep soil. But in_1836-37, the government extended one of its greater enterprises through this township. The government of the United States commenced to build a turnpike from Cumberland, Maryland, extending westward through all the middle Western states. There were then no railroads and no great thoroughfare from East to West. The great flow of emigrants to the West, and the increasing trafiic and demand for better communication between the East and the West, caused the government to enter into this project. It was a monumental undertaking and would not in that day have been attempted by any power less than the federal government. This great national highway passed from east to west through the center of Deer Creek townshi p, and was the first and only pike built for many years through this township or county. It was completed about 1837. The amount of travel over this road for many years was truly wonderful and hotels—taverns, as they were known then—sprang up all along its length, no less than six or seven being within the borders of Deer Creek township. There were two or three in the eastern part of the township and four at Lafayette, while all seem to have done a good business. It was not an uncommon sight to see from eight to ten four-horse coaches in Lafayette loaded down with passengers and baggage. But after the railroads passed through the country, this road lost its great prestige; stages and passengers disappeared; hotels closed, and the bustle and rattle of stage coaches and the shrill whistle of their buglehorns were heard no more. Yet the road remains and is one of the best in the country, standing as a monument to the enterprise of the government that constructed it.
Another early pike is the Urbana, Mechanicsburg and Jefferson, which passes through the northwest corner of the township in a southeast course until it arrives at the Dun School house, where it strikes the boundary line between Deer Creek and Monroe townships and continues on that line to the eastern terminus of the township and on through, striking the national road to the west of West Jefferson. This pike was first built by a stock company and was completed about 1859. It remained a toll road until about 1876, when that portion within Madison county was purchased and turned over to the county and made a free pike. The London and Jefferson pike was built a few years later. The London and Plain City pike was built to Lafayette in 1868, being completed through to Plain City in 1873.