Bridges are so integral a part of roads today that we barely notice
the streams far below us as we cross them. But in the old days the
rivers and streams commanded attention, for they had to be forded and bridges
were a luxury slow in coming.
A look at the history of bridges over the Eno River will show how
long the population of the Eno Valley lived with fords, and how only within
our century were bridges built that could withstand the power of the water.
The first bridge to be built across the Eno River was, as we might
expect, at the town of Hillsborough. As the vast Orange County, the
town attracted all kinds of traffic to its crowded streets; and the inconvenience
for so many reasons and for so many people of an often impassable ford early
forced the county to supply a bridge. The Court Minutes of 1787 and 1788
contain various notations about such a bridge, and the 2 June 1787 minute "Let
the bridge be built" put the court's final sanction on the undertaking. And
the bridge was built.
We do not know how long that earliest structure withstood the daily
wear and tear and the seasonal freshets that could sweep away everything
near the river. It was probably repaired and rebuilt many times before
1853 when the bridge then standing was entirely removed.
In that year the Hillsborough Recorder (13 April) advertised for
sealed bids "... for the repair and reconstruction of the covered bridge
across the Enoe adjoining the town of Hillsborough." A further notice
on the llth of August described the old bridge as unsafe and noted that it
had been "taken down and a new one is in the process of construction."
While the bridge was down, in July the newspaper reported a "narrow
escape" [27 July issue):
The stage coming in from Raleigh last night a little before
nine o'clock, in crossing the river at this place, was upset in the middle
of the stream, which was considerably swollen by the rain. There were
nine passengers in the stage and four on the top. Four of the inside passengers,
we understand, were young ladies on their way to school in Greensborough
...The water was so deep as nearly to cover the stage when upset, and the
passengers were saved with difficulty. Three trunks belonging to the
passengers, we learn, were lost, and some other baggage. All the mails,
we believe, were saved, though they were in a sad condition, being saturated
with water. Considering the confusion of the moment and the extreme
darkness of the night, it may be regarded a providential interference
that none of the passengers were lost.
The second bridge to be built across the Eno was at the present-day
Red Mill Rd. crossing. In 1806 Richard Bennehan had bought the old
Hicks' Mill built in 1791, and sometime between the time of his purchase
and 1824 had built a bridge at that place. We learn this in a letter
from his son, Thomas D. Bennehan, to Willie P. Mangum, then representing
Orange County in Congress, in which Bennehan proposes a new mail route from
.Raleigh to Person Court House, the mail to leave Raleigh and go by Brassfields, "then
to the Fish Dam from there crossing Enoe at my mills on the Bridges (we all
object-to its going up to Sime's mill [the mill at present day Roxboro Rd.]
as the mail would be frequently lost by not being able to cross Eno and Little
Rivers) ...."
(The papers of Willie P. Mangum ed. H.T. Shanks, V.I, p.102.)
Almost thirty years later the situation was unchanged. In
all the distance from Hillsborough to the Wake County line only two bridges
spanned the Eno River. The farmers were finding it ever more irksome
to contend with often impassable fords in carrying their produce to
and from the mills and to the large distribution centers of the county. The
whole situation is set forth in detail in a petition dated February, 1852,
signed by citizens of Orange "residing on both sides of Eno,"requesting
a bridge at the Guess Mill crossing, now Guess Rd.
They described it this way:
...There is no public bridge across Eno from Hillsborough to
Mr. Cameron's Lower Mills [Cameron had inherited Bennehan's property] a distance
of 18 miles. . . that in times of High Water let the necessity be ever so
great no communication by passing over can be had with the north and south
sides of said River unless it is crossed at one of the bridges above mentioned
- There are 4 public roads crossing the River and Leading into the great
Southeastern Thoroughfare by Wm N. Pratt's store into the Southeastern and
Eastern Markets; These roads cross at Dicksons Mills about six
miles from Hillsborough (present day Gates's Ford) J.C. McCowns 8 miles
[Cole Mill Rd.]W. W. Guesses about 10 miles [Guess Rd.] and Mrs. Sims
about 12 miles from Hillsborough [Roxboro Rd.], that
the greatest part of the waggoners to be accommodated by such bridge
are those from Person County and the north part of this county living
above Redmountain [Rougemont] and from the Flour mills of J.F. Lyon and
Alex Dickson...."
(C.R.
073.925.2, N.C. State Department of Archives and History.)
In the following year, February, 1853, a similar petition requested
a bridge at Dickson's Mills. Despite the apparent favor with which
the Court looked on the second proposal, (for the newspaper advertised for
bids for the building of a bridge across Eno at Dickson's Mills,) the plan
fell through and the bridge was never built.
Two years after that, however, bids were again let, this time
for a bridge at Sim's Mill (28 March 1855), and presumably this bridge was
built in place of those requested at the other two crossings.
The river was hard on man-made structures near it. After
heavy rains it was quick to flood and become a raging torrent. Time
and time again the mill dams were damaged and repaired and rebuilt. And
the early bridges suffered the same fate. Even as late as 1875 the
damage still continued. The Recorder of 10 March reported on
the destruction caused by a spring freshet:
...There are but few bridges left in the county, the one
across Eno just below the railroad being the only one to our knowledge. The
fine bridge at McCown's Mill 1 , the
finest in the county, and finished during the last year, supposed to
be above the reach of any water, was swept away. We sub- join a
list, a very imperfect one, of the bridges carried away and of the dams
broken.... The Town bridge at Hillsboro, rebuilt after the flood of 1861. This
bridge had recently been put in thor- ough repair. The bridge across
the Eno at McCown’s Mill completed
last year at a cost to the county of $1200.... We hear of the loss of
the bridge at Cameron's mill near the mouth of Eno2 ,
but are not certain of the fact. All the bridges across Flat and
Little Rivers....
Within thirty years, the same story was told again with even
more detail of devastation:
A telephone message yesterday from Hillsborough said that
the Eno River had climbed over the highest water mark known in fifty-eight
years, more than four feet. The bridge between Orange and Durham, an
unusually high one, is completely submerged and such is the fall of rain
that the waters steadily rise rather than fall. The memory of the most
antique inhabitant is taxed for anything comparable to it, and Eno river
with all of its fellow creeks has become a perfect torrent whose damage
has just begun. It
still rains and the streams grow hourly, until there seems little doubt
that the waters are higher than ever since the Noachian debacle that
drowned the world.
Hillsborough has been as hard-struck as any place. Situated
on Eno river at a very high elevation, the stream appears determined to overflow
the town and in the low places residents have been compelled to seek shelter
elsewhere. A newcomer on the afternoon train yesterday said the
river has almost reached the bridge. The engine ploughed its way through
the watery waste while the water and mud splashed on it by reason of
the river's rise makes it look like the Maud of funny paper fame....
At midnight Mr. M.E. McCown telephoned the Herald that
the worst freshet he has ever observed has struck the community in which
he lives and that the stream is still rising ....
The bridge at Christian's Mill, he is certain, is gone. It
was an iron structure with wooden abutments and was a splendid piece of work. The
fury of the stream has struck it with full force and the timbers have
cracked until the last sound has been heard....
The pump station reports distress. The filter house
has gone, and the water works will probably be slightly disabled for
some time.
Next day presented nightmare-like scenes:
In addition to the Cole Mill dam , persons who were out there
declare that nearly all the mill worth anything went down the stream. Constable
James Cagle vows that he saw Mt. Airy and all of its pink granite quarries
float down stream with sixteen men riding the rocks. There was observed
evidences of mill foundations and every thing else floating down the
river and the destruction there was complete....
Below this place ... went two bridges and another dam. The
bridge at Geer's Mill, a wooden structure, was not nearly equal to the pressure
and gave way early. Similarly the new steel bridge over the stream
at Christian's Mill went and a loss of more than $2,000 will result. The
ruins of the place attract more than one Durham traveller and the town
had scores out yesterday.
Only in comparatively recent years when funds and know-how
could finally match the challenge of the river, bridges were built at all
the public road crossings; and only Gates's Ford remains today to give
us some idea of what life was like for the large population of then Orange
County for over two hundred years, when bridges were a rarity and the river
was often "past fording."
Jean Anderson
1. Roxboro Rd. By 1875 the older McCown Mill had been
sold to John A. Cole and John McCown was then manager and owner of the former
Sims' Mill.
2. Red Mill Rd |
