Medford mail tribune., July 19, 1959, Image 12

12
MAIL TRIBUNE, Madforf, Of.
Unity. July 19, 1919
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ANTELOPE BRIDGE-In 1922, the Hartman' "still used. Lyal Is shown above, astride the
brothers and a small crew erected the cov- top beam, as he is tightening a nut with the
ered bridge over Antelope creek, which, big rachet wrench,
alone with its "twin" in the same area, are
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HORSE POWER-In the early days of bridge above. The men are Bill Owings and Bill
construction in Jackson county, pilings were Moore, who, with , their horses, were hired
driven into the ground by means of a horse- by the day by the county to operate the pile
operated "hammer," like the one pictured driver. The picture was take in 1922. -
WHEEL WRENCH-Lyal (left) and Wesley to get enough pressure, four or five men
Hartman, above, look over the old wheel 'were required to turn the wheel. Sockets of
wrench that was used by their father in the various sizes were used in the wrench-, two
1890's to tighten the nuts on the large steel of which are shown In the foreground above,
rods used in bridge construction. In order
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BORING MACHINE-Lyal Hartman, above, old wooden carpenter's plane, both of which
demonstrates the method of drilling holes in were used by the brothers in bridge con
bridge timbers with an early day boring struction in the 1920rs. Sign on the door of
machine. Both hands were used to work the the old county shop in Jacksonville reads
'cranks that turned the auger. Wesley Hart- "No admittance-by order of co. court.",
min is holding a big ratchet wrench and an , .
Men Recall More
Than 500 Bridges
They Constructed
By BOB VROMAN
Mail Tribune Staff Writer
Spanning rivers and creeks,
gullies and ditches on the net
work of roads throughout
Jackson county, some 200
bridges of all sizes and kinds
carry the area's workaday
traffic. Few motorists pay any
attention to them as they pass.
To Wesley and Lyal Hart
man, who have been em
ployed by the Jackson county
bridge department - for ' 40
years, the structures are some
thing more than. a mere ad
junct to the county road sys
tem. They are timbers, steel,
concrete and pilings - a means
of getting from one side of a
creek to the other.
The Hartman brothers, both
of whom came to work for the
county in February, 1919, and
have had their jobs longer
than any other present county
employee, are almost legend
ary in the annals of early-day
bridge building in this area,
Bridge Foreman
Wesley is, and has been for
many years, superintendent of
the county bridge department
and Lyal is bridge foreman.
Their father, Jason Hart
man. came nere as a Driage
builder in the 1890's and
taught his three boys, Wesley,
Lyal and Homer, the trade,
from "the ground up. Homer,
who now lives elsewhere, is
the only one that didn't stay
with it.
In the old days, Wesley re
lates, there was no heavy
machinery and timbers and
rocks for bridge piers had to
be moved by hand. He re
members how pleased his
father was when he acquired
his first tackle block and cable
that replaced the rope they
had. been using to lift the
timbers into place on the
bridge.
Muscle-Power
The larger bridges, up until
the mid-1920's were all the
wooden covered type, often
made of timbers cut from
large trees and hand-hewn on
the spot. Horses were used
to drag timbers from the
woods and to operate pile
drivers. They also pulled
wagon loads of supplies from
town to the bridge site. But
mostly, bridge building in the
era before machinery took
sheer muscle -'power on the
part of the men. ,
The boys helped their father
on a number of bridges in the
county when they were in
their teens, but the first job
where they did a "man's"
work was on the McKee
bridge over, the Applegate,
which Jason had contracted
to build in "1917. The bridge
still stands today but is out of
use, being replaced by a new
concrete bridge a few hundred
yards upstream.
The. brothers, like their
father, are powerfully - built,
tall and muscular. They live
in Jacksonville in the large
two - story brick house pur
chased by their father and
mother in 1910, located on the
left as one drives into town
from Medford. The house, now
painted yellow, is one of the
historic landmarks in Jack
sonville and will be 100 years
old next year.
JacksonTille Schools
The two men, who have
never married, "batch" in the
big high-ceilinged house, sur
rounded by such lavish ap
pointments as an imported
marble fireplace and beautiful
stained glass window , panels.
All three of the boys attended
Jacksonville schools.
One of their favorite recrea
tions as young men was hunt
ing, and an album cf -pictures
taken with a box camera
through the early '20's shows
them with many trophies,- in
cluding deer, bear, coyotes
and hawks. -
When on a bridge job in a
more remote section of the
county they would haul in
supplies and equipment and
FRAMEWORK-The men above are working on the roof
of the Antelope creek bridge, which was built by the
county in 1922. Covers over the bridges added little to
their strength, but protected timbers from exposure to
weather and made them last years longer. . -
was finished, which took from
two to three months on the
large covered bridges. Guns
came in handy then to provide
fresh meat for camp.
Deer Incident
In 1903, according to Wes,
when they were helping then-
father on the Laurelhurst, or
Peyton covered bridge as it
was known then, on the upper
Rogue river, they sighted a
deer swimming downstream
with the current. Jason picked
up a gun and waited while the
deer came ashore and walked
right into camp, where it was
felled with one shot. It was
the easiest meat they ever got,
he said.
Only eight of the old cov
ered bridges still stand in
Jackson county. One is the
Laurelhurst, another is the
one over Lost creek, which
flows into the South Fork of
the Little Butte above Lake-
creek. Two others are in the
Wellen district on Antelope
creek, and another pair is lo
cated on Evans creek. McKee
bridge and Hawk bridge on
the Big Butte below Butte
Falls completes the inventory.
McKee and one of those on
Evans creek are the only ones
that are not still in use,
At one time, the Hartmans
say, tnere were over vuo
bridges in Jackson county of
various types, the; bulk of
them being those over flood
gullies and smaller streams. A
lot of tnese nave been re
placed by concrete box cul
verts or corregated steel tubes.
Some years ago, the Hartman
brothers figured out how
many bridges they had built
and the figure came to over
500. They said they have now
lost track of the number the
department has constructed
in recent years,
In the old days, the county
shop, or warehouse, which
still stands, was located south
east of the courthouse in
Jacksonville. An addition to
the original shop was built
sometime later, but has been
since torn down and the only
visible Signs of "it are its con
crete foundation blocks,
Small Bridges
Wesley and Lyle supervised
and helped build numerous
small bridges through the
years, but the "glorious" days
of building the old covered
bridges stands out in their
memory. One project, the con
struction of the Hawk bridge
over Butte creek in 1922 is
one they will never forget,
they said.
The bridge got Its name
from a man by the name of
Hawk who talked the county
into putting it in. Male resi
dents of the area, some 16 in
all, promised to help with the
labor, but only three' older
men showed up. The job took
them three months. '
This particular bridge was
difficult one to build be
cause of the. curve in the
wooden approach, and the fact
that the span called ' for an
80-foot supporting beam of
12 by 14 inch material. Most
of the timbers in the bridge
camp there until the bridge were hand-hewn, while the
supporting piling and rafters
was made of poles.
A covered bridge will out
cast an open one by many
years, the Hartmans say, be
cause of the protection against
weathering afforded by the
roof.
The only repair made on
the Lost creek bridge, which
was built before 1890, has
been the installation of. two
new sets of underpinning and
one new roof. It has outlasted
all the early-day open bridges
and is. older than any bridge
of any type in the county.
Tell of Old Horse
The brothers tell of an old
horse named Topsy who had
worked so long around bridge
construction that he was
trained to walk out over the
water on two 2 by 12's in
order to bring a beam into
place. Wesley relates sadly
that they had to shoot him
after his leg was broken in an
accident.
The tools they used In the
old days included a huge
wheel wrench that was used
to tighten the large nuts on
the steel braces and supports
and a giant ratchet wrench,
both i of which accepted
various-sized sockets.
Another tool was a hancf
operated boring machine that
had interchangeable augers.
It was used to make holes in
the timbers for the steel rods
and also to cut series of holes
tor a- mortise joint. The re
maining wood being chiseled
out. A large wooden carpen
ter's plane was also part of
their equipment. The tools are
soon to be given to the Jack
sonville museum. .
In addition, they had sev
eral one-ton pile driving rigs,
operated by houses. The first
motor trucks purchased by the
county were two 1919 Model
T"s, which came without wind
shield, bed or seat. Lyal des
cribed them as having a mo
tor, chassis and steering
wheel, and little else.
The Hartmans are well-
liked by the men they work
with and have always worked
cooperatively with various
county departments, according
to county engineer Paul Ryn-
ning, who has himself been
with the county since 1925
Wesley has made a study of
the principles of bridge build
ing for many years, and al
though he is not an engineer,
his knowledge of bridge con
struction would be hard to
match.
In spite of their swarthy ap
pearance, one couldn't hope
to meet any pleasanter chaps
than the Hartman brothers,
who have made their living
by honest, hard work, with a
cool head for the rough, some
times dangerous job they
chose as a profession.
Although the colorful days
of "hand -made" bridges is
part of another era, one may
inspect their work in many
areas in the county today,
and perhaps get some idea of
the labor and engineering it
took to erect a bridge without
the use of bulldozers, power
cranes and other equipment,
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COVERED BRIDGE - This old covered after a man by the" name of Hawk who
bridge, which still is in use today, was built asked the county to put it in. Timbers in the
by the Hartman brothers in 1922. It spans bridge are 80 feet long, hand hewn from
Big Butte creek about three miles below logs cut on the site.
Butte Falls. It is known as the Hawk bridge, '
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION-This picture of camera with which they took' a great many
the Hawk bridge over Big Butte creek was pictures of bridge construction during the
taken by Wesley Hartman before the - 1920's. AU except two of the pictures here
"cover" was put on. Man in the picture is are from their photo album,
his brother, Lyal. The Hartmans had a box .
FIRST TRUCK -This 1919 Model T truck ing gear and groceries, as they were ready
was one of the first two purchased by the to leave on a bridge job in the Reese creek
county for hauling supplies for construction district. The rear wheels had solid rubber
work. The picture, taken in 1924, shows the tires.
Hartman brothers, loaded down with camp-
RACKET BILL ATTACKED
Memphis, Tenni (DPD Sen.
John McClellan (D - Ark.)
chairman of the Senate Rack
ets Committee, charged Fri
day -the House Labor Com
mittee had taken the ' heart
out of the Senate - approved
labor "bill of rights." He said
elimination of criminal pen
alties for union officials vio
lating the rights of rank-and-
file workers has virtually
emasculated the bill."
r
PAINT WITH
MEDFORD PfllllT
. " and
Wallpaper Store
6rii I Holly Diagonally '
Across from Post Offle
PHONE SP 2-9321
: Wo Giva "
S&H GREEN STAMPS
Choke of Selection
At H Merest Memorial Park we have the Magnolia, Roselawn, Sun
set, Crestview, Hillside, Glen Haven, and Crown Point sections to
provide a memorial within your means. In addition we have the.
Garden of the Angels for infant burials All these sections 'are
perpetually cared for, to insure year around beauty. '
in 1929, shows Lyal and Homer Hartman They had just finished painting the steel
atanding on top of th high beam of the and later did aztansiv repair of woodwork.
Bill Driscoll, manager -r North Phoenix Road
Phone SP 3-6162 or SP 2-7111 '