History
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The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad
The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad (GR&I) was founded in 1854, though construction only really took off post-Civil War. It would eventually connect Mackinaw City, Michigan to Richmond, Indiana, and from there proceed to Cincinnati, Ohio. The line between Berne and Geneva was constructed between 1866-1871, with the first train arriving on December 25, 1871 - Christmas Day.
The GR&I was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918, which had been the largest company and railroad in the world. After a later merger it would be renamed the "Penn Central" Railroad. Passenger traffic declined with the invention and popularization of the automobile and the airplane in the first half of the 20th Century, and as a cost-saving measure, passenger service was discontinued at the Berne and Geneva stations in 1947. Freight trains still stopped at the Berne & Geneva stations until the closing of those stations in 1968. The whole railroad line was abandoned in 1976, upon the massive bankruptcy of the Penn Central Railroad - the largest bankruptcy in United States History up to that time.
At that point, the tracks were removed, the old railroad right-of-way (80 feet wide) was split up into separate parcels, and those parcels were auctioned off to the highest bidders.
The Bridge Collapse of 1897
On August 9, 1897 the first railroad bridge built over the Wabash River (1871) on the GR&I line collapsed. A south-bound freight train "had passed the first span of the bridge, was going on the second when the latter began to rock, and just reached the trestle, when engine, tender, and six cars went rustling, crackling, crashing, thundering down into the river." The engineer and a young man of 17 both died. Several others were injured and barely escaped with their lives. A second train was diverted due to this bridge collapse, and then itself went off the rails by Coldwater, Ohio. "The loss suffered by the railroad company that day is enormous." (The Berne Witness, August 12, 1897).
The New (Second) Railroad Bridge
Following the 1897 collapse, the wooden trestle that ran from the south shore of the Wabash to Snow Cemetery was removed, the land was built up and stone piers were set, and the bridge replaced with a new one built from Carnegie Steel, shipped from his mills in Pennsylvania. Carnegie's name is stamped on many beams. The bridge survived the Great Flood of 1913 - sand bags were piled on it to keep it from being swept away - and continued to serve until the railroad was abandoned in 1976. One of the spans was removed in 1988. The remaining span from 1897 was paired with a second span which used to lie across the St. Mary's River at Decatur. They were refurbished, repainted, and re-erected over the Wabash River by South Adams Trails, Inc. in 2021.
The Snow Cemetery
The burial place of some of the earliest pioneers of the area, including eight Civil War soldiers and the Snow Family. The Snow Family were heavily involved in local education and politics and, among other things, wrote the literal book on Adams County History. Some burials in the cemetery are unmarked. The first record we have of a burial is from 1853, with the last burial occurring in 1952.
“In full force [the Wabash] crosses the road again, slides below the railroad bridge, rounds the hill, chanting a requiem to the little city of the dead on its banks, flows through the upper corner of the old Limberlost swamp . . . .”
- Gene Stratton-Porter, Music of the Wild (1910), p.300-301.
The Ceylon Covered Bridge
Originally known as the "Baker Bridge" due to its proximity to the Baker Family Farm, it was constructed in 1860 under the auspices of Dr. Barton B. Snow, who later platted the nearby town of Ceylon in 1873. (He is buried in Snow Cemetery.) The bridge was pony-trussed and weather-boarded, but not covered originally. That changed in 1879, when the county commissioned the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo, Ohio to construct a Howe Truss Covered Bridge on the site. After a move to scrap it was defeated in the 1950s, the bridge was renovated in 1963, bypassed in 1974, and refurbished again by South Adams Trails, Inc. in 2012.
At one time, there were 23 covered bridges over the Wabash River. The Ceylon Covered Bridge is the last such bridge over the Wabash. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (2007).
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