Frederick Mersinger purchased a log home in 1859, and generations of the Mersinger family grew up in the house south of Troy, enlarging and adapting it as their needs changed. Log homes were common near the National Road and played a vital part in the settlement of Illinois. In Troy, buildings reflect the community's history and heritage, recalling an economy fueled by coal, rail, and the National Road. Before railroads connected the Midwest, stagecoaches carried mail and passengers between Terre Haute, Indiana, and St. Louis, Missouri, and Troy benefited as a stop on that line. Travelers along the National Road in Illinois encountered buildings ranging from one-room cabins to Greek Revival farmhouses, and by the 1850s railroads had replaced the road as the preferred way to move people and freight across the country. Later, U.S. 40 extended the National Road from New Jersey to California and brought new life to communities along its route. Oil and coal supported the economies of many Illinois communities on the National Road. Authorized by federal legislation signed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1806, the National Road was surveyed from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Mississippi River as a highway for pioneers settling the West. Today, the National Road in Illinois follows U.S. 40 for 164 miles from Indiana to East St. Louis, and the ambitions and accomplishments of early Illinois immigrants remain visible in the state's communities, art and architecture, industry and agriculture, and way of life.