The late Richard Sanders Allen was one of America\u2019s prominent covered bridge historians and an early editor of Covered Bridge Topics<\/em>.\u00a0 He wrote an article in 1945 on \u201ccovered bridge collecting.\u201d \u00a0In it, Allen recognized the important link between photography and \u201ccovered bridgers,\u201d pointing out that many enthusiasts started from behind the viewfinder of a camera.\u00a0 But he went beyond that narrow focus to emphasize that the hobby had links with many \u201ckindred\u201d disciplines: geography, history, engineering, biography, carpentry, masonry and wood studies, as well as with those interested in the life and mannerisms of an earlier day.<\/p>\n So how did Ohio\u2019s covered bridge collectors get started?\u00a0 The first \u201cofficial\u201d body was the informal group of interested individuals organized in 1941\u2014with John Diehl as chair\u2014at the Ohio State Museum. \u00a0Intended to be statewide in scope, it may have been limited by its very name, the Ohio Covered Bridge Committee<\/u>.\u00a0 It remained an informal body whose numbers never seemed to grow very large.\u00a0 Still, as the state\u2019s initial organization, the committee served the essential function of locating and publicizing covered bridges by producing a series of statewide covered bridge maps based on the model of an Ohio highway map and created under John\u2019s careful and precise guidance in 1953, 1956, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1970, and 1972.<\/p>\n Ohio\u2019s first covered bridge \u201cclub\u201d was conceived as a chapter of the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges (NSPCB).\u00a0 That group had been organized in Boston in early 1954.\u00a0 Among its charter members was the Reading, Massachusetts, resident Charles Wilson, a sales engineer with the Quaker Chemical Products, who later became a NSPCB officer and director.\u00a0 Late in 1957, Wilson moved to Euclid, an eastern suburb of Cleveland.\u00a0 But if it were not for a manufacturer\u2019s rep living in Cleveland Heights named Alfred Dreyfoos, that first Ohio group might never have been organized.\u00a0 An avid photographer, Dreyfoos picked up a copy of the 1956 Ohio Covered Bridge Map.\u00a0 While using it, he met others with similar interests and joined the NSPCB.\u00a0 After inquiring about fellow Ohio members, he was referred to Wilson. \u00a0Dreyfoos contacted him and suggested organizing a club but initially found Wilson hesitant, thinking Dreyfoos expected him \u201cto shoulder all the work,\u201d an experience he had had in the past.\u00a0 Dreyfoos expressed a willingness to help and suggested that Wilson get a list of national members from Boston and contact them.\u00a0 Wilson agreed and sent them a questionnaire.\u00a0 He also convinced the editor of the Cleveland Press<\/em> to write an article discussing the intention to organize a local covered bridge group.<\/p>\n The first meeting was held on October 14, 1958, and Wilson was named president and Dreyfoos the treasurer.\u00a0 Monthly meetings were held in a bank\u2019s community room in South Euclid and attendance grew rapidly, nearly overflowing the room.\u00a0 In this early stage, President Wilson identified county engineers as the group\u2019s \u201cimplacable enemy,\u201d and hoped to arouse interest in preservation that might help \u201cconvert\u201d these public officials.\u00a0 He pointed to examples in New England where wooden bridges had been underpinned with new steel beams as well as cases where bridges had been marked and disassembled for relocation to public parks.\u00a0 In the spring of 1960, the group began producing a newsletter called Buckeye Bridge Briefs<\/em>.\u00a0 Interestingly, meetings were often held in conjunction with local historical societies around northeastern Ohio.\u00a0 Clearly, the group saw their purview as the entire state.\u00a0 Articles in the newsletter covered all of Ohio, and both the newsletter masthead and the group\u2019s first stationery featured images of bridges from Fairfield County.<\/p>\n Helping to provide a statewide perspective for the northern Ohio chapter was longtime covered bridge researcher Tom J. Malone, who lived on a farm in western Columbiana County (35-15-96 at Beaver Creek State Park was, following his death, named for him in 1971).\u00a0 He organized a two-day tour through his home county in June 1961. \u00a0As reported in Buckeye Bridge Briefs<\/em>, a total of 85 people, ranging in age from 93 to 21 months\u2014said to just be learning how to even say \u201ccovered bridge\u201d\u2014and hailing from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida participated over the two days.\u00a0 Most of those attending on Saturday were members but Sunday included many who had read about the tour in local newspapers.\u00a0 As Rick Allen had suggested in his \u201ccollecting\u201d article, the tour hosted camera bugs, botanists, bird-watchers, rock hounds, and at least one steam engine enthusiast.\u00a0 When the latter insisted that the caravan stop long enough to photograph a nearby farmer\u2019s traction engine, the owner graciously agreed to fire up the boiler to provide some smoke.\u00a0 It resulted in a 40-minute stop until those less enthralled with the delay laid on their car horns to recall the sidetracked men and resume the tour. \u00a0One car ran out of gas but its occupant was rescued by a fellow driver who finished the tour and then returned to the abandoned car with a tank of gasoline.\u00a0 Later that same year, the officers decided to change the name to the Northern Ohio Covered Bridge Society.\u00a0 It remained active until officially dissolved in 2009.<\/p>\n The Southern Ohio Covered Bridge Association (SOCBA) had a similar background to the northern group.\u00a0 The founding members initially discovered a common bond in covered bridge photography, and, when they assembled at Anita Knight\u2019s home in Zanesville on March 31, 1960, decided to solicit the NSPCB to identify other Buckeye Topics<\/em> subscribers that would likely support preserving Ohio covered bridges.\u00a0 After mailing 110 letters throughout southern Ohio and receiving 25 responses, the group decided to organize.\u00a0 It was, however, distinct from the northern Ohio group in one important way: they were motivated to preserve an actual covered bridge.\u00a0 The farmer who had acquired the 1876 Salt Creek Cover Bridge from Muskingum County officials offered to sell it and 2\/3 acre of land for $300.\u00a0 Fund raising for the purchase began immediately, and by the summer, all but $85.80 had been collected.\u00a0 In light of the group\u2019s involvement with a real bridge, much of their early activities centered around making money and completing work on the bridge itself.\u00a0 Sixty individuals assembled for the first summer picnic at Salt Creek on July 17, 1960, and it has been an annual event ever since.\u00a0 A deputy sheriff led the group\u2019s first tour of Greene County a month later.<\/p>\n Hoping to increase both the exposure of the group and its credibility, SOCBA established \u201chonorary\u201d memberships.\u00a0 The first such individual was famed covered bridge historian Richard S. Allen, who was soon followed by Cincinnati\u2019s John Diehl, Preble County\u2019s Seth Schlotterbeck, the former Union County engineer N. W. Llewellyn, and Smith Bridge Company researcher and collector Eldon Neff from Springfield.<\/p>\n The early minutes for the SOCBA indicate that the two groups, northern and southern, frequently worked together.\u00a0 Numerous individuals had memberships in both and individuals from each spoke at the other group\u2019s meetings.\u00a0 Hallie Jones from Columbiana County was named as a \u201cgo-between,\u201d and joint tours were held in Columbiana and Ashtabula counties in the 1960s.\u00a0 A joint committee was formed between the two organizations in 1969 to develop guidelines for preserving a covered bridge whenever a public entity abandoned it.<\/p>\n Seen from today, a controversy in 1966 has a contemporary feel.\u00a0 A proposal had been made to build a concrete span with a covering at Mohican State Park.\u00a0 The SOCBA immediately expressed their opposition to it since \u201cit would not be an authentic covered bridge.\u201d\u00a0 The heated discussion at the meeting focused on sending \u201ca vote of censor\u201d to the state engineers.\u00a0 Interestingly, this \u201cmodern-bridge-with-a-roof\u201d remained a viable concept for another decade.\u00a0 I was similarly incensed when state funds were later directed towards a \u201cfake\u201d covered bridge at Mohican instead of preserving genuine historic bridges. \u00a0Then working in the state historic preservation office, I tried to redirect my anger to something productive, and began a series of articles on various historic iron, stone, concrete, steel, and covered bridges throughout the state that ran in the quarterly Ohio County Engineer\u2019s Magazine<\/em> for many years.<\/p>\n In 1996, during a major structural restoration of the Salt Creek Covered Bridge through a federal-grant-in-aid, the name of the SOCBA was changed to the Ohio Historic Bridge Association and papers filed to officially define it as a nonprofit.<\/p>\n David A. Simmons<\/p>\n These 22 individuals attended the first meeting of the Northern Ohio Chapter of the NSPCB at the First Unitarian Church in Shaker Heights on October 14, 1958.\u00a0 Charles Wilson is at the left rear.<\/p>\n The officers of the Southern Ohio Covered Bridge Association gathered at the summer picnic in July 1961.\u00a0 Kneeling (r to l) are: M. L. Young; James A. Moore; Eldon M. Neff.\u00a0 Standing (r to l) are: Floyd T. Patterson; Mrs. Patterson; Mrs. Moore; Anita Knight; Miriam Wood; Bob McManness; and Louis Paxton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ohio\u2019s Pioneer Covered Bridge \u201cCollectors\u201d The late Richard Sanders Allen was one of America\u2019s prominent covered bridge historians and an early editor of Covered Bridge Topics.\u00a0 He wrote an article in 1945 on \u201ccovered bridge collecting.\u201d \u00a0In it, Allen recognized the important link between photography and \u201ccovered bridgers,\u201d pointing out that many enthusiasts started … Continue reading OHBA History<\/span> ![\"NOCBC-10-1958Small\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oldohiobridges.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NOCBC-10-1958Small-1.jpg?resize=300%2C292\")
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