Brown Ford Bridge
(constructed 1912, completed 1914.)
Picture Submitted by Mary Zeiler
St. Clair County Democrat
Thursday, June 27, 1940
Page 1
TRAGIC ACCIDENT TAKES TOLL OF FIVE LIVES.
One of the most tragic accidents in the history of the county occurred Friday
evening when the cribbing supporting one of the piers on the west end of the
Brown's Ford bridge collapsed causing the suspension cable to give way, taking
the lives of five people, three men and two boys. Three others were injured.
The dead were E. A. Bledsoe, who had charge of the repairing of the bridge,
Claude Terry, 45, a workman, Robert Shaw, 18, another workman, George T.
Randall, 16, a bystander and Lloyd Allen Snyder, 12, who fell in the river when
the bridge collapsed. The injured were Lowell Smith, in the Appleton City
hospital whose condition is reported as still critical, Edy Snyder in the
Clinton hospital where his condition appears to be somewhat improved and Wayne
Snyder a bystander who suffered a broken arm.
The cause of the collapse of the cribbing probably never will be known. It was
one of those accidents that occur even when the best of care and precaution is
taken. The heavy timber that had been used to build up around the old piers were
strewn about like so many match sticks, and it was these timbers that caught the
workmen with crushing force.
There is a report that someone heard something 'pop' and called Mr. Bledsoe's
attention to it. It is said that he climbed up on the cribbing to investigate.
Just then the whole thing gave away. Mr. Bledsoe was crushed in the falling
debris, and the fact his watch was stopped at 3:31 indicated that was the time
when the accident occurred.
All of the dead and injured were recovered shortly after the accident and
removed from the wreckage with the exception of young Lloyd Allen Snyder. His
body was not recovered until Monday evening when Bert Milam of Warsaw discovered
the body floating down the river along with lumber and wreckage from the bridge.
The distance from the scene of the accident to the point where the body was
found is estimated to be about sixty-five miles. Mr. Milam notified Benton
county authorities and Prosecuting Attorney Frank Brady telephoned Sheriff R.
Homer Gerster, who immediately sent O. S. Hull, Jr., to have the body identified
and return it to Osceola.
The Brown's Ford bridge was built about 25 years ago by Mr. Bledsoe and Ira
Alspach. It is one of the quirks of fate that the bridge should claim the life
of one of its builders while in the process of repairing the structure to
strengthen it.
The old wooden piers that had been erected at the time the structure was built
had become dangerous for traffic and it had been the plan to replace these piers
with steel beams that would support the cables and the heavy weight of traffic
upon the structure. For the past years the bridge had been condemned and not
more than one car was allowed on the structure at a time, for fear that it might
collapse.
The wooden cribbing was used around the old piers to enable the workmen to jack
up the cables and get them slightly to one side, the after the wooden structures
were removed the steel beam was inserted in place and the cable then lowered
into position. It is believed that one of the jacks used in raising the cables
had given away allowing the cable to fall back onto the cribbing before the
workmen were ready to lower it into position. This threw the weight of the
entire bridge structure suddenly upon the heavy timbers, around the piers and
the cribbing crumbled under the impact.
What is to be done about the bridge is not yet known. The county court will hold
its regular meeting next week, at which time, no doubt it will be determined
what is to be done about the old structure and whether a new one will be erected
to replace it or not.
Contributed by: Ginny Sommarstrom