Down By The Old Mill Stream
common / backtracks
Down By The Old Mill Stream
(Editor’s note: this story is taken from the Feb. 9, 1976, Vol. 8, No. 16 issue of the Sugarloaf Irregular and is reprinted here in its entirety. ©The Original Irregular)
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Before there were bridges near the Mill Pond, crossing was made by means of boats. Those having teams forded the river at the head of Mill Pond to the island crossing the South Branch to the main road near the Lord Bridge. For many years previous a ferry was in use. Twelve dollars per annum was the wage of the ferryman.
Sometime before 1847 a float bridge was built across the pond. In two sections, in high water it could be separated and allowed to drift to the shores. In 1847 Charles Pike was chosen agent to care for the float bridge. In September of 1847 the town appointed a committee of five (Tisdell Hinds, Solomon Stanley, II, Eben Pillsbury, Samuel Eustis and Charles Pullen) to examine a location for a bridge, the probable expense, cost of land for roads on each side and to employ a suitable engineer to make a draft of said bridge. Eliphalet Bray was chosen as agent to oversee the construction of the bridge. The bridge was built on the plan of the covered X-work bridge at Norridgewock. The town raised $1,000 to pay for building it. It was a two-way bridge, only one side of which was completed, the uncompleted side being used to store sleighs in summer and “shays” in winter.
From time to time in the records of ’49, ’50 and ’51 we note that the bridge was severely racked by the wind and then sometime during the early winter of 1851 the X-work bridge was blown down. A Northwest gale beating against its broad sides was too much for it and one day it was blown into the main stream. On January 1, 1852, a town meeting was held “to see what course the town will take to secure the lumber that composed the bridge across the Mill Pond near Solomon Stanley’s now lying on the ice.” At the meeting C.B. Pullen was chosen agent to ascertain the most feasible plan to build a bridge. The lumber on the ice was sold at auction to the highest bidder.
On January 10, 1852, it was voted to instruct and empower the agent and Selectmen as a committee to ascertain the practicability of a chain bridge and instruct the agent upon what plan he shall build said bridge. On April 5, 1852, the town raised $200 toward building a bridge across the pond and authorized the Selectmen to hire what money was necessary for building it. Sometime between April 5, 1852 and September 12, 1853, the bridge was completed, for on September 12, 1853, the town voted to paint the towers and chains to the bridge. On March 5, 1855, the town chose William K. Dudley as agent to see to and repair the bridge.
The iron chains were forged in England on a direct order from the town of Kingfield. They were brought by boat from Hallowell. The story is that horses and oxen in the neighborhood were required to haul the chains to Kingfield. Daniel Beedy of Farmington designed and superintended the building of the bridge. Tisdell Hinds made the woodwork, towers, etc., and Col. William Dolbier and Jerry Larrabee forged the ironwork.
At one of the town meetings held in regard to building the chain bridge, one person suggested that the town should buy all the farms on the other side of the river as no one really cared to live on that side, thus saving the building of the bridge.
This bridge is estimated to have cost $1,800. The chain bridge was removed in May 1916, and a new concrete bridge, known as the Centennial Bridge, was constructed. In 1961, the Centennial Bridge was widened five feet and repaired for modern day traffic. --Evie Norton
(This information was obtain from: Franklin Journal, July 18, 1916, Kingfield, 150 Years of Onward March, by Kingfield Sesquicentennial Committee, 1974-75 Stanley School Fifth Grade Research Booklet, Kingfield Bridges, by John Slyce.)
