The story begins way back in 1715, John Lewis Beard is born in Germany. Thirty four years later, the single John Beard joined waves of Germans immigrating to America, arriving in Philadelphia and continuing on to the western piedmont of North Carolina and settling in Rowan County, among the earliest settlers in Salisbury. John became a wealthy land owner and one of Salisbury's most prominent citizens, donating land to the Lutheran Church for what is now the Old Lutheran Church Cemetery as well as land where the Rowan County Courthouse now stands. John Lewis Beard died in 1789 and is buried in the Old Lutheran Church Cemetery in Salisbury
Lewis Beard, the son of John Lewis Beard, continued in his father's footsteps, buying up land, subsequently acquiring thirteen lots in Salisbury and almost fifteen thousand acres in Rowan, Montgomery, and Burke counties. He also owned two large plantations and thirty slaves. The Yadkin River ran right through one his plantations and for many years it was known as The Bridge Place.
Beard's Bridge
The Very First Bridge to Cross the Yadkin River
1800 There were no bridges on the Yadkin River, not even a railroad bridge. The only way to cross the river, besides swimming, was by ferry, basically a log raft pulled across the river with ropes and a toll was charged for the service. Running a ferry was a profitable business at the time but you had to own the land on both sides of the river.
Lewis Beard and Johnathan Merrell were running a free public ferry from the Beard Plantation. Alexander Long, of Long Ferry Road, operated a ferry on his plantation a mile upriver bordering Beard's plantation. Long was bitterly opposed to a free public ferry right next to his operation. A bitter feud developed between Beard and Long. Signs to "Merrell's Free Ferry" were vandalized and stolen. Ten days later, the replacement signs were stolen too. Lewis knew that Long had something to do with it stating that Long's signs, right next to his, were never touched.
1815 Lewis Beard appealed his case to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, drawing up a petition to establish a public ferry on the Yadkin River. The court felt that the new ferry would only be a mile from the ferry upriver and the same downriver so another ferry wasn't needed and the petition was dismissed.
Lewis was extremely upset that the Supreme Court of N.C. had dismissed his petition. He couldn't lose to Alexander Long, so Lewis Beard decided to build a bridge. He knew a bridge, a quicker and more desirable way to cross the river, would ruin Alexander Long's ferry business. So, sparing no expense, Lewis hired Ithiel Town, a noted English builder and architect, to design and build, a wooden one-lane covered bridge, six hundred feet long spanning the Yadkin River, supported on piers made from local stone.
1818 Lewis Beard opened the very first bridge to cross the Yadkin River. Known by the locals as Beard's Bridge, it costed a whopping $30,000, an absolute fortune at the time. Lewis named his bridge The Yadkin Toll Bridge, and founded a company to run it called The Yadkin Toll Bridge Company. The same toll rates were charged as the local ferry operators, and it quickly became the preferred way to cross the river drawing most of the business away from the local ferry operators, including Alexander Long.
1820 Alexander Long files suit against Lewis Beard on May 30, 1820.
Someone tries to destroy The Yadkin Toll Bridge by setting it on fire on August 29, 1820, just two years after its opening. The fire was discovered early and extinguished before too much damage and the bridge was repaired but Lewis was enraged, so he offered a $500 reward for capture of the arsonist.
Lewis Beard dies on December 11, 1820, just three months after someone set fire to his bridge. He was only 65 years old. The circumstances of his death is unknown but there is no doubt that the popularity of The Yadkin Toll Bridge would have upset a lot of people and families who operated ferrys in the area.
His estate was left to his daughter Mary Beard, who had married Moses Alexander Locke. Now his Yadkin plantation became known as The Locke Plantation and his bridge became known asThe Locke Bridge. The bridge's popularity continued to grow and for 37 years it was the only bridge crossing the Yadkin River.
1822 Two years after Lewis Beard's death much his estate was sold, including 2500 acres the Crane Creek area of Rowan County and the Swearing Creek area and Flat Swamp area of Davidson County. The Locke Plantation and The Locke Bridge were not part of the sale and remained with Mary Beard Locke.
1850 Record flooding on the Yadkin River stops crossings on The Locke Bridge.
1854 Fooding on the Yadkin River stops crossings on The Locke Bridge. Travel and mail detained for many days.
1855 Mary Beard Locke dies on January 19, 1855.
The Railroad Company had just completed the first railroad bridge ever to cross the Yadkin River. The Yadkin River Railroad Bridge was constructed of wooden timbers and was located a couple hundred yards downstream from The Locke Bridge which had been damaged in a recent flood becoming impassable. Exactly ten years later, at this very spot on the Yadkin River, the last battle of the American Civil War would be fought.
1856 As part of deceased Mary Beard Locke's estate sale, The Locke Plantation and The Locke Bridge were sold. Only about two thirds of the wooden bridge structure remained at that time and was never repaired. The remaining portion of the bridge was eventually lost to river flooding. The ferrys were back in business as the old stone piers remained unused for the next 45 years.
The American Civil War, The Last Battle and The Reconstruction Period
1861 The American Civil War begins.
1865 The last battle of the war was fought at the Yadkin River Railroad Bridge during Stoneman's Raid on Salisbury. On April 12, 1865, Union General Stoneman and his 4,000 troups marched into Salisbury. All government buildings, other than the courthouse, were set on fire and destroyed, as was the Salisbury Cotton Mill, the railroad property and the passenger train station. All goods and possessions were hauled out of downtown stores and piled in the street from the square to the courthouse. Soldiers took what they wanted then they set the whole pile on fire, the smoke and flames could be seen 15 miles away. While he was burning Salisbury, Stoneman sent 1,200 troups to destroy the Yadkin River Railroad Bridge. A heated battle ensused, Stoneman's men were repelled and the bridge was saved. The irony of Stoneman's Raid on Salisbury was that the war had just ended three days before when General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General Ulysses Grant in Appomattox County, Virginia. President Lincoln was assassinated two days later on April 14, 1865.
After the war there was a period of reconstruction, the slow process of rebuilding the cities and infrastructure of the south which had been devastated from the Civil War.
1878 While Rowan and Davidson counties were recovering from the aftermath of the Civil War, businessmen in Salisbury began talking about rebuilding The Locke Bridge over the Yadkin. They felt a bridge was necessary for local traffic to cross the river. Sadly, funding such a venture proved impossible.
1883 Business for the Railroad Company was booming, as they were the main mode of transportation delivering building materials and goods to the recovering counties, but river floods which interupted train traffic continued to be a problem. So plans were drawn up to replace the old wooden railroad bridge which survived the Civil War with a new one made of steel, 40 feet above the river, so as not to be effected by the devastating flooding that the Yadkin River was prone to.
1885 The Railroad Company had just finished building the new steel railroad bridge and were in the process of tearing down the old wooden timber bridge, local businessmen hatched a scheme to use the old railroad bridge timbers to rebuild The Locke Bridge at a more affordable cost. The Railroad Company didn't like the idea so the plan never materialized.
The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge
1899 Rowan and Davidson counties adopted a plan to hire the Hewett Bridge Company of Minnesota to build a single-lane, multi-section, steel truss bridge on the same granite rock piers of The Locke Bridge. The new bridge, called The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge, was completed on December 13, 1899, consisting of four 93 foot Pratt Trusses and one 198 foot Bow Truss. The total cost of the new bridge was only $11,000., one third the cost of the original wooden bridge that Lewis Beard built 81 years before.
Check out the toll rates from the Davidson Dispatch newspaper clipping on the opening day.
The local ferrys were finally put out of business as The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge again became the preferred place to cross the Yadkin River. The road that crossed the bridge became known as The National Highway. But, because of constant river flooding and increased traffic as automobiles replaced horse and buggies, the bridge was replaced after only 24 years.
1912 The Yadkin River flooded 18 feet over its banks, closing The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge as well as train traffic on the steel railroad bridge.
That same year a freak railroad accident knocked out 40 feet of The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge on the Rowan County side.
1916 The Yadkin River goes on rampage and The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge was almost swept away. Realizing that it would damage or knock down their steel railroad bridge just a hundred yards down river, the Southern Railroad Company stretched giant cables from the toll bridge to the trees on the river banks in order to keep the bridge on its piers. Hundreds of spectators gathered expecting to see the steel trusses of the toll bridge swept downstream at any moment.
A "Free Bridge Movement" was started because the citizens of Rowan and Davidson counties were tired of having to pay a toll to cross the Yadkin River.
1919 The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge was averaging about 1,200 cars per day as the number of automobile registrations in North Carolina had leaped to 109,000. Having only one lane and having to pay a toll, the bridge was becoming a bottleneck. The newly formed N.C. State Highway Commission was in the process of paving heavily traveled roads, considered "State Roads", which at this time were all dirt or gravel. It had become apparent that The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge needed to be replaced with a more substantial two-lane, toll-free bridge that was high enough over the river to be safe from floods.
1920 The Commissioners of Rowan and Davidson counties, assuring that a free bridge would be built, offered the Piedmont Toll Bridge Company $14,000 to buy The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge".
1922 The N.C. State Highway Commission took bids to build a new concrete two-lane, toll-free bridge across the Yadkin River high enough to withstand the river floods.
The Wil-Cox Bridge
1924 The new concrete two-lane Yadkin River bridge, known as The Wil-Cox Bridge, built beside the steel Southern Railroad Bridge, was completed. It is 1,300 feet long, 20 feet wide and 64 feet above the river. It costed $212,000 to build. NC-10, the new state two-lane paved highway crossing the bridge, was also known as the Central Highway.
As soon as the new bridge was completed, the five steel trusses of The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge were put up for sale by sealed bids.
1925 The five steel trusses of The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge are to be dismantled and moved to Reeves Island where it went back in service and became a toll bridge again.
1927 The five steel trusses were moved and placed in service at Reeves Island, 15 miles down river below Spencer and 3 miles above Stokes Ferry.
1928 The High Rock Lake Hydroelectric Dam is completed creating High Rock Lake, the second largest lake in North Carolina.
Today, September 2, 2022
Go to Google Maps by clicking on the above image of the Yadkin River today.
So now you know the story of those old stone piers in the Yadkin River that came into being, 230 years ago, because of a feud over the ferry business. In the end they put an end to the ferries and only the ferry road names exist today.
During their service they supported two historic bridges, the very first Yadkin River bridge, The Yadkin Toll Bridge, and its replacement, The Piedmont Steel Toll Bridge.
The only way to see the old stone piers is by boat. I've lived on High Rock Lake for over 30 years and have passed those old piers many times during our Yadkin River cruises. I'm glad I got to enjoy seeing them, untouched and unspoiled, just has they have been for over 230 years.
On our last river cruise, I noticed that someone had wired a mailbox to the cedar tree growing out of one of the piers. "DOO-Dah" was painted on the mailbox. I expect that soon they will be defaced with graffiti spray painted all over them.
I guess it just a sign of the times that historical things don't get the respect they used to. Sad.
Dave Pettigrew, Swearing Creek Resident
Another good read is The Implosion of the Yadkin River Duke Power Station
Also here's a handy site to keep track of High Rock Lake Water Level
