With impetus from the pork producers, some businessmen created the Frederick Ferry Dyke and Plank Road Company and received a state charter in 1851. They sold $50 shares totaling $20,000, with option to increase capital to $75,000. They also issued and sold $7,000 worth of bonds for the project. In 1853 Leonidas Horney resurveyed the nine miles of existing gravel road to establish mile posts and toll gate locations for a new plank road. Most of the white oak used in the construction came from the nearby land of Henry W. Taylor.

The road was only twelve feet wide. Therefore, a rule was established that when two wagons met, the one with the lighter load had to yield by going off onto the shoulder. At certain intervals, there was planking on the shoulder to help the wagons re-enter the roadway.

There was a tollbooth at every mile and a charge for every vehicle that used the road, except for funeral processions, families going to the grain mill (built in 1858 near Pleasantview), or to church services. The west toll house was a mile east of the Rushville square; others were at Crane Creek Hill tollgate and another at Pleasantview. Three local teamsters hauled goods through these toll houses from warehouses to businesses and took commodities to warehouses, where they were picked up by packet boats.