Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge

After the war ended, Jonathan still acted as commander of the Cornish militia, conducting monthly musters to make sure the town would be adequately and competently defended in case of attack. For the most part, the Indians had been driven out along with the British, and people breathed easier and got down to the business of raising their families and making a living. For no one was that more true than Jonathan and Mary Chase, who added three children to their already considerable brood. Lebbeus was born in 1779, Pamelia in 1780 and Gratia in '82, for a total of 9 children. By the time Gratia was born, her sister Prudence was married and had a one year old of her own. Jonathan and Sarah had a grandchild who was a year older than their youngest daughter.

In 1784, Jonathan established a ferry at the present site of the Cornish Covered Bridge. The farmers in Vermont needed a way to get both produce and livestock across the river and to the markets in Boston. New England livestock was sold on the hoof in Boston markets, and it was also slaughtered, salted and packed into barrels as salt beef and pork to be shipped to the Caribbean as part of the Triangular Trade.

He had operated the ferry successfully and profitably for10 years, when he applied to the state of New Hampshire in 1795 for a permit to build a bridge. The original act granted him the privilege of being exclusive proprietor of a toll bridge built near the location of the ferry in Cornish, for thirty years. The act set the amounts of tolls, and stated that these amounts could be adjusted, but never for more than 12% of the annual cost of building, repairing and maintaining the bridge. I find it interesting that the state established a limit on the profit of a private enterprise in 1795, a concept that today is considered controversial. A paper written by Lola Bennett, Dorattya Mackay and Justin Spivey for the National Park Service, Department of the Interior and National Highway Council says that over the first five years, tolls brought in $7,171, with a net profit of $5879. It is unclear if that takes the cost of building the bridge into account, or if the $2000 give or take, was upkeep.

Although Jonathan was the force behind the building of the bridge, a proprietorship actually owned, managed and funded the construction of the bridge, which cost $20,000, which would be $285,000 in today's economy. The bridge was built and designed by Moody Spofford, who also built and designed churches and bridges throughout New England. Spofford worked with Timothy Palmer, another bridge builder of the period, and Palmer contributed to the design of the Cornish bridge. Miller and Knapp, in their book “American Covered Bridges” names Moody Spofford, his brother Jacob and Timothy Palmer as members of the “Covered Bridge Hall of Fame”. Although these famous builders went on to design and build covered bridges, the first Cornish bridge was not covered. Some sources state that the first bridge was built by Spofford and Boynton, bridge builders. I can't find any information on a bridge builder named Boynton, but there are several Boyntons buried near the Chases in the Cornish Cemetary, and a Boynton married a Chase daughter, so maybe one of them was the Boynton who worked on the bridge with Spofford.

The toll was paid on the Vermont side of the river, at a toll house. Although the original bridge does not still exist, the toll house does. This house sits on the bank of the Connecticut River right next to the bridge on the lefthand side of Bridge Street. Jonathan Chase owned property on both sides of the river, in order to operate his ferry. He owned the toll house and there are suggestions that he lived in the toll house while he ran the ferry and later collected tolls for the bridge. He may have used that house in the operation of both the ferry and the bridge, but it is pretty clear that for the most part he lived in Cornish, and that he died there in 1800. The toll house on the left side of Bridge Street was the toll house when Jonathan was alive, but after he died the house at 42 Bridge Street became the location of the toll house. It seems that these two buildings were both used as toll houses. It almost seems as if both buildings were owned by the proprietors of the bridge, and the toll collector lived for free in one of the houses as part of his pay. He may have gotten to choose which house he lived in.

When Jonathan died, his heirs sold the house at 45 Bridge Street. It was owned by a couple of people, including the toll collector. He in turn sold it to the proprietors. The house was owned by the proprietors until 1919, but it doesn't appear that it was used as a toll house after the proprietors bought it. I can see why they would want to own a couple of pieces of property on the banks of the river next to the bridge, just to make sure they had a couple of options for toll collection.

The early toll sign for the Cornish Windsor Bridge can still be seen in the New Hampshire Historical Society in Manchester. A curricle (5^th item down) was a light two wheeled vehicle drawn by two horses. The term “do” means “ditto” which means “same as above”. A “jack” was a jackass, a donkey. Neat cattle are either cows or oxen.

Jonathan Chase died in 1800 at age 67. Sarah died six years later. His daughters Mary and Elisabeth and his son David died before him, when they were in their mid-twenties. His bridge stood until 1824, when it was washed out in a flood in February.

The second bridge lasted for 25 years before it, too was washed away in a flood. These floods seem to occur regularly, and should give some thought to the doomsday prophets who cry “global warming” every time the Connecticut River behaves badly. The third bridge used a new architectural design called Town Lattice Trusses. These trusses were designed by Ithiel Town of Connecticut, and patented. Any builders who wanted to use the Town design of trusses had to pay $1 a foot to Ithiel Town. The National Park Service paper describes the Town lattice design.

“Town's design consisted of two layers of overlapping planks, with each layer arranged at an angle to the chords, forming a lattice fastened together with wooden pins or treenails at each

intersection. The most significant feature of this design was that it could be quickly erected and utilized sawn planks instead of heavy hewn timbers. As Town explained in his 1821 pamphlet, The lattice design actually functioned as a series of overlapping triangles so that the load in any one triangle affected distribution of stress in all other triangles. Because the webs were fastened at every intersection, no triangle could function independently.”

I travel on the Cornish Windsor Bridge quite often as do many of my friends and family. I often hear complaints about people who have stopped their cars on the bridge and are outside of their vehicles taking pictures in the middle of the bridge. I can't imagine doing something so dangerous, which is why I have included pictures off the internet rather than my own, capitalizing on the fact that someone else risked their life to take this picture, not me.  But if you look at pictures of the interior of the bridge, you can easily see why it is called a lattice construction.

The Cornish Windsor Bridge that we travel on today was built in 1866. The new construction project caused considerable tension and controversy in both Cornish and Windsor. Many people on both sides of the river strongly agitated for a free bridge, even going so far as to threaten to burn a new one down if it came with a toll. An editorial in the Vermont Journal is quoted in the National Park Service Paper.

“We hear many expressions of regret on the part of our New Hampshire friends,

whose business connections with Windsor are seriously interrupted in

consequence of the loss of the Cornish Bridge. We hear many sober

complainings from our neighbors in Windsor, on account of the loss of business

from the same cause. We also hear frequent suggestions from citizens from both

sides of the river in relation to the possibility of having a free bridge, all of which

are quite natural, and to be expected. But there is another class of persons, who,

thoughtless of the rights of others, ignorant of the relations which exist between

the public and the bridge proprietors, and utterly regardless of anything and all

things, except what may seem to be their own immediate convenience, are loud

with their clamors; first, because the prprietors do not work miracles in

navigation; and secondly because they do contemplate taking steps toward the

restoration of a toll bridge.”

Common sense should tell you that it is expensive to build and maintain a bridge like this one, and how was it going to be funded without a toll?

The proprietors put out a request for bids, and the bid was won by Bella Fletcher, of Claremont, who bid $23 a foot. Fletcher was associated with other bridges in the Upper Valley, including a Hanover Bridge, a bridge across the Ompompanusic, and an Orford-Fairlee bridge. The bridge was specified to be exactly like the previous one, but higher in elevation. Each of the successive bridges was higher than the one before it. Fletcher was born in Newport, NH in 1811 and lived in Claremont his whole life, dying in 1877 at age 66. Thus he was 55 when he built the Cornish Windsor bridge. Although he lived in Claremont his whole life, he must have spent protracted amounts of time at the locations where he was building these bridges, because the roads and transportation methods of the day did not allow for a commute to work.

James Tasker worked with Bella Fletcher on many of these bridges. He was 26 years younger than Fletcher, having been born in Cornish in 1837, and probably did more heavy labor. Although one could argue that men in those days were tougher and more used to hard work, 55 years old is still 55 years old and someone with as much prestige in the bridge building trade as Bella Fletcher would have had an assistant. James Tasker lived in Cornish his whole life. His first wife, Mary, died in 1864. Subsequently, James married Mary's sister Adeline. He had three children with Mary and two with Adeline.

The National Park Service paper tells us that Tasker was an “intuitive” architect, in that he could neither read nor write. I would venture a guess that Fletcher did most of the designing of the bridges and Tasker supervised the crew and did more of the hands on construction. The paper tells us that vital statistics say that Fletcher is listed as a bridge builder. This paper was written in 1985 and amended in 2003. In 2014, you can go to Ancestry.com and see for yourself what these people themselves told the census reporters their occupations were. In 1860, Fletcher is listed as a house builder, but in 1870, he is listed as a bridge builder. Keep in mind that this was information the citizens themselves, or their wives, more likely, gave to the census taker. Thus in 1860, he or his wife would identify him as a house builder, but by 1870, he had established himself as a bridge builder. In 1850, he is identified as a mechanic, which could have been anything, a trade that was not farming. Obviously it wasn't what we today think of a mechanic, which would be working on motorized vehicles.

Fletcher's death certificate also lists him as a bridge builder, and it says that he died of consumption. Consumption is Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a wasting disease. People can have it for several years, but they get weaker and weaker as the disease progresses, reinforcing the idea that Tasker did much of the heavy labor on the bridges, probably increasingly as time went on.

James Tasker is listed in the 1880, at age 53, and the 1870 census, at age 43, as a farmer. Keep in mind that Fletcher died of consumption in 1877. In 1860, James was 33 and listed his occupation as a carpenter. In 1850, he was 24 and lived with his parents, his father being a farmer. They list James' occupation as builder. In 1870, the census says that he has $6000 worth of real estate and $2000 worth of personal property, for the largest combined asset total of anyone on the page. In 1860, he has $1000 worth of real estate and $500 worth of personal property. Not the highest on the page, but an impressive amount of property just the same. Nowhere in the censuses does it indicate that James is illiterate, although there is a spot for that. James' father, however, is also named James and the censuses do indicate that he is illiterate.

James Tasker died in 1913, in a hospital in Claremont, of an apoplexy (stroke) brought on by a blow to the head. His occupation is listed as a contractor/builder. After the turn of the century, you have to be careful not to make assumptions about where people's place of death is listed on Ancestry.com, because people started dying in hospitals. Tasker's death in a hospital indicates that he had enough money to pay for a trip to the hospital, and his family was modern enough to bring him there for treatment after his stroke, or after the accident. At the turn of the century, many people would not have considered going to the hospital. At the most, they would have called the doctor to come to the house and treat someone who was sick or injured. On the other hand, it was becoming more common, especially among the better educated or well off, to go to the hospital for a serious illness or injury.

Over the years the bridge was frequently fixed and maintained. The prompt, careful attention it got throughout the decades probably is one of the reasons it is still standing. James Tasker himself made some repairs in 1887. In 1935, the State of New Hampshire bought the bridge from the proprietors for $20,000, the exact cost of the original bridge. It continued to be a toll bridge until 1943, when the New Hampshire legislature decided it should be free. It was the last toll bridge spanning the Connecticut River. The Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge is the longest covered bridge in the United States.

I have a lot of questions about the people associated with the bridge, and the process of funding and building the bridge. Clearly Fletcher and Tasker didn't build the bridge by themselves. How many other laborers worked on the bridge and who were they? Where did the come from? Who were proprietors of the original company, other than Jonathan Chase? Who were the proprietors after Jonathan died? Did they have a chairman or some executive leader? Who were the proprietors that ended up selling the bridge in 1935? What were the considerations that made New Hampshire decide to buy the bridge? I am going to post this without the answers to these questions, but I will do more research and update the post later, which I hate to do because it screws up my hit statistics.

I know that often high school students use my blog to get information for assignments for school. If you are a building trades student or someone with an interest in architecture, there is plenty of information online about the building and the architecture of the bridge. Share your projects with me and I will gladly post them using you as a guest contributor – text, pictures of your project, or both.

There are a plethora of sources online pertaining to the Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge. The sources that I used the most were :

Bennett, Laura, Mackay, Dorottya and Spivey, Justin Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge National Park Service Department of the Interior Historic American Engineering Record 2003 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/nh/nh0100/nh0177/data/nh0177data.pdf

Mackay, Dorottya and Spivey, Justin Addendum to Cornish Windsor Bridge National Park Service Department of the Interior Historic American Engineering Record 2003 http://www.nps.gov/history/hdp/samples/HAER/Cornish-Windsor%20Engr%20Report%20-%20Final%20-%20LL.pdf

Garvin, James Report on the Cornish Bridge Building 45 Bridge Street Windsor Vermont New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources 2003 http://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/publications/documents/cornish_bridge_building.pdf

Ancestry.com -always