Bridgeton Historic District (Bridgeton, Indiana)
| Bridgeton, Indiana | |
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| Unincorporated community | |
Bridgeton Country Store est. 1865
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| Nickname(s): Lockwood Mills, Sodom | |
 Parke County's location in Indiana |
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 Bridgeton
Location in Park County
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| Coordinates: 39°38′42″N 87°10′39″W / 39.64500°N 87.17750°WCoordinates: 39°38′42″N 87°10′39″W / 39.64500°N 87.17750°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Indiana |
| County | Parke |
| Township | Raccoon |
| Elevation | 561 ft (171 m) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EST (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 47874 |
| Area code(s) | 765 |
| GNIS feature ID | 431520 |
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Bridgeton Historic District
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Sprague-Webster-Kerr House 1878
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| Location | Bridgeton, Indiana |
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| Built | 1823 |
| Architect | Works Progress Administration; Et al. |
| Architectural style | mid-19th Century Revival, Late Victorian, Italianate |
| NRHP reference # | 92001167 |
| Added to NRHP | September 4, 1992 |
Bridgeton is an unincorporated community in Raccoon Township, Parke County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. It is notable for its covered bridge, which was destroyed on April 28, 2005, by a fire set by an arsonist. A historically accurate reconstruction of the bridge was completed in October, 2006.
Around 1823 a sawmill was built on the banks of Big Raccoon creek south of the Ten O'Clock Line by two men, Joseph Lockwood and Issac J. Sillman, for Joseph O'Niel and James Wasson. A buhrstone was added later to grind corn and wheat. Daniel Kalley and a James Searing would later buy the mill in 1837 from James and Mary Wasson for $1,600. Within a few several years a distillery was built but around 1845 the mill and distillery burned down.
Here the story of the mill at Bridgeton splits between two different resources. One is from the Indiana Historical Society and the other is the paperwork submitted to the National Park Services for Bridgeton's application as an Historic District.
The NPR version states that by 1848 the Onsley brothers and William Bean would replace the mill with a hewn log building to fill the need of a local mill. That same year a hewn log bridge was built to span the Big Raccoon Creek giving farmers to the north of town easier access to the mill.
The Indiana Historical Society states that the fall after the mill was destroyed by fire that the townspeople staged a "frolic" to build a new log mill. Searing then sold the mill for $2,000 to James Mullikin and Dr. Henry T. Ketchem. Ketchum soon sold his share back to Searing and in 1851 Mullikin acquired complete ownership of the mill. Mullikin then, sometime before January 1859, tore down the mill and built a new one as well as a general store. Stones were installed for grinding corn as well as stones for wheat. In January 1859 William Beal purchased the mill and surrounding land but sold it to William Blaize in December 1860 for $8,000. In 1862 Ralph Sprauge would acquire the mill.
Sprague and his son-in-law, George W. Phelon, entered into a partnership to run the mill. The partnership was dissolved in 1874 with Sprague continuing to run the mill until he sold it in 1882 to Daniel Webster.
Daniel Webster had been born three miles outside of Bridgeton in 1830. Webster had been a farmer and had made a small fortune in the coal mining business before investing in the mill.
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Wikipedia