The Wellsville Hisorical Society held their April meeting on Tuesday, April 19 at the River Museum. Historical Society President Robert “Brass” Beresford presided. Robert Durbin, Chief Deputy Engineer from the CC Engineers Office, pictured here, led off with his presentation on covered bridges.
As far as known the first covered bridge was built in China in 780 B.C., nearly 1500 hundred years ago. The first known American covered bridge was built in 1804 over the Hudson River in Waterford, NY. Today there are only 1,600 covered bridges still in existence. Nearly 880 of them are in the U.S. Ohio is ranked second with 140 covered bridges throughout the state. Many of the remaining covered bridges are now on private property.
The first covered bridges were built entirely of wood. Covers, or roofs, were erected to protect the structural integrity of the bridge from the elements. The most common design early on was called the King Post Truss with a central post to support the rest of the structure. Over the years they have been known to host a number of social activities and uses from weddings, political rallies, boxing matches, public meetings and even to hang laundry out to dry. Some referred to them as the “kissing bridge” when a young man would stop his horse and buggy during the darkness of night to steal a kiss from his date!
Today there are five covered bridges remaining in Columbiana County. There is the Thomas Malone Bridge at Beaver Creek State Park. It was originally located over Middle Run in Elkrun Twp. The second one is the Church Hill Road Bridge located in Elkton by Lock 24. The third is the Jim McClellan Bridge just off Trinity Church Road. It was built in 1870 over the west fork of Little Beaver Creek. The fourth county bridge is the Sell's Covered Bridge located at Scenic Vista Park. Orginally over the west fork of Little Beaver Creek it had a metal roof and was built on cut stone abutments making is strong enough to hold five tons. Once nearly destroyed by fire it was rebuilt in 1994 and relocated to the park outside of Lisbon. The last covered bridge is known as the Centennial, or Teegarden Bridge, which was built in 1876. It was eventually replaced with a modern bridge over the middle fork of Little Beaver Creek in Teegarden. The old covered bridge was restored in 2002 and is now part of the Greenway Bike Trail.
In the meeting Beresford reported that he and Trustee Bob Lloyd were invited to review the historical archives on hand at the Wellsville Public Library. Among the items at the library is a 1917 WHS year book in mint condition. The Society is going to donate duplicate copies of year books they have on hand to the library. Year books make excellent research material. While at the Library it was learned that the artist of the mural above the desk at the old 9th Street entrance was a Wellsville High School student by the name of Lanson Crawford. The mural was painted c1929. That mural is displayed at the River Museum.
The River Museum's collection of historical family bibles were reviewed by members of the CC Archives & Research Center for their genealogical information. In return they have furnished the Museum with lists of all the information from each bible for the files. In addition to family lines they have also furnished a list of all known cemeteries, past and present, in the county. There are three cemeteries that they are trying to find the original location of in the county. One is the Methodist-Episcopal Cemetery, the Blackburn Cemetery and a cemetery dedicated to early Afro-American area residents. The Afro-American Cemetery is different from the Wellsville area Spires Family grave yard in Liverpool Twp. Anybody with information on any of these are requested to contact the Historical Society.
The drive to raise funds for the restoration of the bottle kiln located at 3rd & Lisbon Streets is continuing. Wellsville Terminal owners Chip & Jay Muse recently made a generous donation toward the project. In conferring with a local engineer it was confirmed that any work planned for the kiln has to be approved beforehand by the Ohio Department of Transportation. Although an agreement was made for the Historical Society to maintain the historical landmark it is still ODOT's property.
Word from Virginia Glenn was received about a Memorial Day Ceremony at the Mooretown Civil War Monument. The ceremony will begin at 1 PM with a wreath laying, guest speaker Donna George Dunning and a black powder demonstration by Civil War Re-enactors. The monument is located on Jefferson County Road 53 near the intersectin for Jefferson County Roads 53 & 54. There are some Wellsville area residents with ancestors listed on that memorial. For more information contact Glenn at 740-768-2365. Glenn is a renown historian and resides in Jefferson County. The ceremony is to commemorate the start of the Civil War 150 years ago.
Some of the donations received in the past month was a glass photograph of Warren Harsth and a tin type photograph of Miller Harsth. The were given by Mrs. Mickey Hamilton DeSarro, a great grand daughter. A wedding dress thought to be from the 1950s or 1960s was donated by Tina Geary Volino. The William Bush family donated Boy Scout memorabilia, various school awards and a 1912 certificate of membership for the Wesleyan Bible Club.
Bonny & Brass Beresford were presented with a copy of an “historic” newspaper announcement of their wedding from the East Liverpool Review Society pages. The Beresfords were married on May 6, 1954 at the Wellsville Immaculate Conception Church by Fr. James Hennessy. Happy Anniversary Mrs. & Mr. Beresford! Best wishes for a speedy recovery were sent out to Mrs. Jean Broderick. A special thanks was given to all who helped with the preparations for the new season and especially to members Ruth Weekley, Jayne Reese, Carol Smith and Bonny Beresford. Starting Sunday, June 5 the museum will be open for regular hours each Sunday afternoon.
Pam Smith hosted the luncheon following the meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 17 at 7:30 PM at the River Museum. A program on the Alzheimer disease will be presented. As always guests are welcome.
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