For 60 years, Mennonite ingenuity solved river crossing

Three weeks ago, Flash From the Past showed a photograph of buggies crossing a stream. I’d had the photo for many years and knew nothing about it, so was hoping for information. Judging by readers’ response, I was one of the few who did not know the site. Their collective knowledge led me to a famous photographer, to the people in the buggy, and to realize that decades ago I had hiked close to this very site.

The small stream is actually the Conestogo River slightly west of St. Jacobs. The water has just plunged over the St. Jacobs dam (out of the frame, off to the left). Before the massive 1958 Conestogo Dam was erected (upstream, north of Dorking) the river’s flow fluctuated from flood to trickle — much more fickle than today’s mainly seasonal variations. That road crossing the stream is now known as Three Bridges Road and wiggles north from Lobsinger Line to Listowel Road.

My road to answers came through numerous readers’ responses and their words fill in the story.

John Metzger One of the people in the front buggy happens to be my late father-in-law, Ira, plus his sister and brother, Elmeda and Ivan.

(In a chat with Flash From the Past, Elmeda noted that Ira was 14, she was 12 and Ivan 9. With her remarkable memory, Elmeda remembered that day in 1954: they were on the way to visit a newly married older sister. Out of respect, I am omitting their very common family surname.)

Ernie Fretz I lived in St. Jacobs before the bridge was built and fished the nearby dam many times. The Mennonites erected the bridge so they could more easily get to their church farther west.

Jamie Groh My 97-year-old mother Isabel was intrigued by the photo. I found out the Mennonite Bridge, or Buggy Bridge, was built in 1962 in three days by area Mennonites. The current one is seven concrete slabs; it has no railings.

Cheryl Kittredge As a child, our family had a cottage about a mile upstream on the Wideman farm property. At this bridge site, Three Bridges Picnic Park is across the river on the left. The Nelson Brubacher family farm’s barn is just visible at right.

Amsey Brubacher In the upper right is part of the farmhouse I grew up in. Some years ago, the bridge was doubled in length to lessen the spring flood damage.

Dave Frey On the right side of the picture, you can see the barn where my mother worked as a teenager. Joyce Jamieson A Mennonite friend told me the bridge was built in 1962 and several times damaged by floods, only to be repaired by the Mennonites.

The Township of Woolwich now does not allow these repairs and has erected barriers so vehicles cannot use it. My friend recalled buggy trips across that flooded bridge. His father warned everyone to lift their feet and blankets high but they still got wet!

Maurice Martin Prior to the bridge, many people “forded” the river in their buggies if the water was low, cutting many miles off their trip to church.

Mary Ann MacQueen I often hiked the Mill Race Trail from St. Jacobs and it used to go as far as the bridge site and the dam, although is now blocked off partway. We usually saw horses and buggies crossing the bridge on Sundays.

Donna Thompson I often go there, as it is so beautiful in the summer: people are fishing, families are having picnics, the water is rushing over the dam. When my sister comes from Ottawa we always go to “my little bridge.”

Lance Russwurm The photo was taken by David Hunsberger and appears in the1977 Sand Hills book, “A People Apart” and — Whoa! Stop there, Lance. Your identification of the photographer is leading Flash From the Past to a full column on Hunsberger, which will appear May 27.

Thanks to the readers listed above and the many others who also identified the location.

HUNSBERGER FAMILY COLLECTION The original 1954 photograph looking west along Three Bridges Road across the Conestogo River was taken by David L. Hunsberger. In the photo with the April 22 column, the telephone poles were removed.

RYCH MILLS COLLECTION The earliest wooden dam here on the Conestogo River was erected in 1844 to help power a nearby sawmill. Later, a mill race was built from here to the still-unnamed St. Jacobs to run a grist mill. The current concrete dam dates to 1905. Looking over the top of the dam in this circa 1955 postcard, one can just make out the site where the Buggy Bridge was built in 1962.

JOHN GLASS Almost 70 years after the 1954 Hunsberger photo, a week of rain in April 2023 had swollen the river to the bottom of the bridge’s concrete deck. The Township of Woolwich placed barriers and gates to prevent traffic from using the Buggy Bridge. Its future is uncertain.

HUNSBERGER FAMILY COLLECTION Three young people on the way to visit a recently married sister. Ira, Ivan and Elmeda were young enough that David Hunsberger was not violating an unwritten rule to avoid photographing adult Old Order Mennonites.