Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 20 February 2005

The History of Warren County Ohio
Part IV Township Histories
Wayne Township by Judge John W. Keys
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)

Page
575

Before 1819, the channel of the river on the road to Corwin was not as now, but where the bridge now is was in the bend of a horseshoe, the channel above and below the bridge having been made since. The crossing of the river was between High and Main streets, in Waynesville. When the water was high, there was a ferry used, and when low, a ford. About 1812, an effort was made to build a bridge at the ford. The abutments were raised and a superstructure was placed on trestles. A freshet in the river swept out the work and no further effort was made to build a bridge at that place. In 1817, a bridge was built on a contract, where the bridge now is, by John Satterthwaite, for $700, including the abutments. It was built of oak timber, principally hewed, never covered or weather-boarded, and only lasted about ten years. At that time, the road crossed the West Branch of the Miami, known as the race at the mouth and followed the north bank of the Miami to the bridge. The race was then a small stream, no bridge over it; the ford was a very bad crossing.

A second bridge was built at that place about 1827, It stood several years before it was weather-boarded and roofed, and, in 1836, it fell down. An open bridge was built there on a contract by Samuel Welch in 1837, for $850; it only-stood a few years, and, about 1842, another was built there. I am unable to give the name of the contractor, but O. J. Wright enlarged the abutments, and, in 1861 and 1862, the present substantial bridge was built by H. E. Hebbe. No other bridges were built across the Miami in the township until the iron bridge, three miles below, was built in 1873, and but one bridge across Caesar’s Greek in the township—that near the railroad, in 1869.