August 5th 2007 , I called E. J. to see if we could stop @ her house. She and M. were talking the week before about our plans to retrace Old Military Road and E.J. mentioned that we were welcome to come to her house…there was a portion of the original road and bridge still in existance in her pasture. The gravel road past her house is called Military Road… is that what you mean I asked her?….No, E.J. said, the Original road is in my pasture….several thousand feet East of the gravel road, and there is even the remains of the bridge over Kitty Creek still standing (see photo above).
We walked East through the cow pasture, and as we approached the area, you can still see the contour of the pasture shaped as a road bed and ditch. It goes right up to Kitty Creek, there are still stone embankments on both sides of the creek. The stone has been reinforced with a concrete wall on both sides, and the creek is starting to undermine the stonework.
EJ proceeded to tell us, a story about this portion of the road. She didn’t have any names or specfic dates, but she’d been told several years ago a mother and child perished on this portion of the road in the Winter. We’d heard a similiar account from J.A. A mother, father and small child had headed to Monticello one clear winter day to get something? (sewing supplies?) they’d left the rest of the family home thinking it would be a quick trip, taking just the baby. On their way home it started snowing, quickly lost visibility, dad decided to turn the wagon over to shelter the wife, and set out on foot to get help. When the parents didn’t get home, the children got nervous and got a hold of some neighbors, they found both of the parents had died along with the small child. (I got all of this from JA, a local historian)
I waded across Kitty Creek to get a close up view of the bridge. It is very close to the South bound lane of Hwy 151 close to the rock cut by Langworthy. In the past I’ve seen the cement retaining walls from a distance and just figgured they were all that remained of a railroad bridge that is also in this area. Another fruitful day trip!
[...] Below is an excerpt from the Jones County Historical Review Volume 7 #1 1981. On a previous post I mentioned hearing about a mother, father and baby who had died on the portion of Old Military [...]