68                  HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

the Old Hill was the ferry at the Perry Holston place, where, once upon
a time. by a mishap in driving onto the boat with a load of corn. Miles
Jessup lost a yoke of oxen by drowning.
    Prior to the building of the first Kossuth road bridge a ferry was
located at that point and one near the Woodrow, or Eldorado Mill.
operated by Charles Rogerson and others. Between this point and New
Brunswick was the Phipps ferry, so known because operated by William
Phipps, on the road leading westward into Lewis township from the point
now known as the Walnut Grove schoolhouse, in Harrison township. The
ferry at New Brunswick was operated by Samuel Brighton. Sampson
Dalton and others at or near most of these ferries, as well as at other
points, were fords for the crossing of the river at times of low-water
stage. Eel river is now spanned by seven substantial wagon bridges, the
first of which was put up on the site of the present one, at Bowling Green,
in 1852 or 1853. William K. Houston, of Bowling Green, contractor. This
bridge was not substantially built, no stone abutments having been put
under it and in 1857 was pronounced unsafe. At the December term of
commissioners court, of that year, Jacob Gilbrech was given the contract
for repairing it. In January following, the trestle work, put in by Mr.
Gilbrech, was washed out, then again replaced by him in February fol-
lowing. But in the summer of 1858, the bridge was condemned, and its
further use abandoned, when James P. Thomas re—established his ferry a
mile above. In 1869 the present bridge at Bowling Green was built by
Rarick & Black, at a cost of $12,000. In 1872. the Poland bridge was
put up by Muehler & McNamar, contract price $7,200. In 1876. the
Hooker's Point bridge, on the Kossuth road, was constructed by William
Graber and Levi Fair, at a cost of $6,300. This bridge was destroved by
the cyclone of Mar 28, 1883 then was rebuilt the latter part of the same
year, and the first of the year following. Muehler & Notter, contractors
on the stone work, at $600, and the Canton, Ohio, Bridge Company, con-
tractors on the iron work, at $5,120. In 1878 the Feeder Dam and the
Splunge Creek bridges were built by Muehler & Notter, the former at a
cost of $8,700, and the latter, $2,000. In 1881 the first iron bridge on
Eel river was put up at New Brunswick, Muehler & Notter, contractors
on the stone work, at $5,449.75, and the Cleveland Bridge Company on
the iron work at $6,133.60. The present Jordan bridge, at Bowling
Green, was built in 1871, by Muehler & Notter. The Birch Creek iron
bridge, on Bowling Green and Brazil road, in 1878, by Muehler & Notter
and the Cleveland Bridge Company, the Birch Creek reservoir iron bridge,
near Saline City, in 1880, and the aqueduct bridge in 1881 by the same
contractors. The Otter Creek iron bridge, on the old Bowling Green and
Rockville road, was put up in 1880 by Muehler & Notter and the Fort
Wayne Bridge Company.
    The contract for the building of the iron bridge at the Old Hill was
let to George M. Notter on the 18th day of June, 1899, at $6.395; work
was commenced within the same year and completed in 1900. The sev-
enth and last one in point of time, one mile below the Rhodes Bluff, was
contracted by the Vincennes Bridge Company, November 13, 1906, at
$11,795, and built in 1907.
    By night in the month of July, 1893, the Feeder Dam bridge was
burned, thought to have been the work of an incendiary. The contract
for the rebuilding on the same site and substantially the same foundation
was let to the C. F. Hunt Company. September 18, 1894, at $5.000. Pend—