roger.pape Site Admin
Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 414 Location: Liverpool, NY
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:43 pm Post subject: The swinging bridge over Boeuf Creek |
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One of the Kappelmann family tales that my mother would recall was told to her by her mother (Marie Kappelman Frerking). When Marie was a child, she attended school at Boeuf Creek Lutheran (Bethlehem Lutheran Church) just east of their home. As the children walked to school, some of them had to cross over Boeuf Creek on a “swinging bridge”.
After we had visited Franklin County in 1990, my mother wrote to Bethlehem Lutheran Church for more information and history about the area. One of the things she mentioned in the letter was the story about the swinging bridge to see if anyone there knew of its whereabouts. The response she received said that no one in the area knew of or had ever heard about a swinging bridge. Mother was very disappointed and began to question whether her memory about the story was correct.
Recently, I received a copy of a Bethlehem Lutheran Church history (ca. 2002) from Pat Kappelmann, a former secretary of the church. In it were recollections of early church members. What caught my eye was the following.
“A number of parishioners lived across the Boeuf Creek from the church. The children walked to school and crossed the creek via a swinging bridge. There are stories of boys urging the girls to go on the bridge as a group and, when halfway across, the boys would intentionally cause the bridge to swing back and forth above the water, an activity that was not always appreciated. If the creek was high or in flood, the children had to find other accommodations until alternate routes home could be found. Local families extended their hospitality when needed.”
So Mother’s memory was correct. Unfortunately, she never found out about the explanation of the “swinging bridge”. |
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