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Spencerville Covered Bridge

Location: CR 68 & CR 57 at St. Joseph River, Spencerville (DeKalb County) Indiana, 46788.

Installed 2023 Indiana Historical Bureau, The Spencerville Covered Bridge Association, and the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners, Council, and Highway Department

ID#: 17.2023.1

This marker replaces marker #17.1996.1 Spencerville Covered Bridge.

Text

Side One

In the 1830s, state and county officials increasingly funded roads and bridges to improve transportation. Over the following decades, hundreds of covered bridges across the state, including the Spencerville Covered Bridge here, made roads more passable, which bolstered local commerce. The covered design protected support timbers, making these bridges more durable.

Side Two

In 1873, DeKalb County Commissioners employed Auburn engineer John A. McKay and the Smith Bridge Company for construction of the bridge. Spanning the St. Joseph River, it improved access to local businesses, including grist and sawmills. Through ongoing maintenance, repair, and restoration, the Spencerville Covered Bridge remains in use over 150 years later.

Annotated Text

Side One

In the 1830s, state and county officials increasingly funded roads and bridges to improve transportation.[1] Over the following decades, hundreds of covered bridges across the state, including the Spencerville Covered Bridge here, made roads more passable, which bolstered local commerce.[2] The covered design protected support timbers, making these bridges more durable.[3]

Side Two

In 1873, DeKalb County Commissioners employed Auburn engineer John A. McKay to design the bridge and the Smith Bridge Company for construction.[4] Spanning the St. Joseph River, it improved access to local businesses, including several grist and sawmills.[5] Through maintenance, repair, and restoration, the Spencerville Covered Bridge remains in use over 150 years later.[6]


[1] Laws of Indiana, 1837-38, 500, and Laws of Indiana, 1842-43, 333-34 in Indiana, 1816-1850: The Pioneer Era by Donald F. Carmony(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau & Indianapolis Historical Society, 1998), 180, 351; Margaret Duden, “Internal Improvements In Indiana, 1818–1846,” Indiana Magazine of History, December 1, 1909, https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/5704; Justin Clark, “The Indiana General Assembly (1850-1865): A New Constitution and the Civil War,” Indiana History Blog, September 13, 2017, Indiana Historical Bureau, https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/internal-improvements-act/.

[2] Indiana Historical Bureau, “Historical Notes and Places,” Indiana History Bulletin 3, No. 4 (January 1926) 64-65, GoogleBooks; U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Draft Environmental Impact Statement: Big Walnut Lake Project (June 1975), 56, GoogleBooks; Indiana Historical Bureau, “Covered Bridges in Indiana,” Focus on Local History, No. 16, reprinted from the Indiana History Bulletin 69, No. 1 (March 1998), https://www.in.gov/history/files/coveredbridges.pdf; Indiana Bridges Historic Context Study, Prepared for the Indiana Department of Transportation by M & H Architecture, Inc. (February 2007), https://www.in.gov/indot/files/INBridgesHistoricContextStudy1830s-1965.pdf; Covered Bridges: Spanning the American Landscape, Smithsonian Institute, Archived Exhibition (2006-2009), https://www.sites.si.edu/s/archived-exhibit?topicId=0TO36000000Tz6sGAC.

[3] George M. Cheney, “Our Public Highways” in Proceedings of the Indiana Society of Civil Engineers and Surveyors of the State of Indiana at Its Eighth Annual Meeting (Indianapolis: Wm. B. Burford, Printer, 1888), 42, GoogleBooks; Indiana Bridges Historic Context Study, 61-62; Sheila Rimal Duwadi and James P. Wacker, “Covered bridges in the United States and the Preservation Program,” (2008), Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/34809.

[4] J. A. McKay, Truss Bridge, Patented June 1, 1869, No. 90.767, United States Patent Office, accessed GoogleBooks; “Indiana Patents,” New Albany Daily Ledger, June 7, 1869, 2, NewspaperArchive.com; Ninth Census of the United States, Union Township, DeKalb County, Indiana, August 18, 1870, page 44, line 34, AncestryLibrary.com; “John A. McKay, Truss Bridge, February 7, 1871, No. 111, 662, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1871 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1872), accessed GoogleBooks; “Indiana Patents,” Indianapolis News, February 10, 1871, 4, Newspapers.com; “List of U.S. Patents,” Richmond Indiana Radical, February 16, 1871, 3, NewspaperArchive.com; “Notice to Bridge Builders,” Waterloo Press, July 17, 1873, 2, Newspapers.com; Minutes of the Meeting of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners, September 1, 1873, Auburn, Indiana, Commissioners Record F, p. 449, in Covered Bridge Centennial: Spencerville Indiana (Auburn, Indiana: Vanguard Publishing Company, 1973), 6-7, copy in IHB marker file; “Brevities,” Waterloo Press, September 4, 1873, 3, Newspapers.com.

Secondary sources and the original 1996 historical marker state that the original bridge design was “a Smith Truss, Variant 4,” created by the Smith Bridge Company of Ohio. However, primary sources raise some questions about the design. In 1869, John A. McKay patented his own “Truss Bridge” design. He made improvements to that design in 1871. In July 1873, the DeKalb County Commissioners announced that the “covered bridge across the St. Joseph River at Spencerville” would be “of the McKay Patent.” In September 1873 the county commissioners announced they decided to “let the construction of said bridge to John A. McKay in accordance with the plans and specifications now on in the Auditor’s Office.” Thus, McKay may have used his own truss design as opposed to a Smith Truss. However, the commissioners and McKay did contract the Smith Bridge Company for the construction materials for the bridge, and McKay had held a license for using the Smith Patent, so what kind of truss was designed remains unclear.

[5] Atlas of DeKalb Co Indiana to Which Are Added Various General Maps, History, Statistics, Illustrations, &c. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co. Publishers, 1880), 38, Library of Congress, accessed AncestryLibrary.com; History of DeKalb County, Indiana (Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co., 1885), 428, 510, 514, 538, GoogleBooks; Fire Insurance Map of Spencerville, DeKalb County, Indiana, 1892, Sheet 1, Sanborn-Perris Map Company, Library of Congress, accessed Historical Information Gatherers, Indiana State Library.

[6] “Would Repair of Rebuild Many DeKalb Bridges,” Garret Clipper, August 21, 1924, 4, Newspapers.com; “Bids To Be Received for More DeKalb Co. Bridges,” Garrett Clipper, September 8, 1924, 8, Newspapers.com; “Vandals Blamed for Fire in Old Bridge,” Garrett Clipper, May 9, 1957, 1, Newspapers.com; “Eastside Students Paint Covered Bridge,” Waterloo Press, December 9, 1965, 2, Newspapers.com; “Buggy and Bridge,” Kokomo Tribune, November 2, 1991, 19, Newspapers.com; “Truck Damages Bridge,” Jasper Herald, September 27, 2012, Newspapers.com; “Semi-Truck Damages 140-Year-Old Bridge,” South Bend Tribune,” September 29, 2012, A3, Newspapers.com; “Covered Bridge Cost Not As Bad As Feared,” Indianapolis Star, October 3, 2012, B2, Newspapers.com.

Keywords

Transportation