Early Ferry
By Grace Meger in 2014
About the Ferry, the men who worked them, unique stories... and, mishap’s... the “LAND OF THE RED AND WHITE” book, tells of some mishaps with the ferry and of crossing the river...some meant death and others, the people who were involved, got a good laugh. at the time...
My dad was a ferryman at one time in our lives and worked there when there was a death and it is very traumatic, to the operator and the family... with this type of incident, rumours get around, that cause some people to handle crossing the river a little differently than others and someone was heard saying that they had to all get out of the car and let Dad drive on by himself, then later thinking that if the car and Dad went down, shouldn’t they all go with him... this method didn’t keep them from being scared though...
If, you look close at this picture on the left, up on the bank to the left of the ferry you can see what they called the “dead man”... that being the tripod that anchored the cable, that made the ferry secure, and guide it back and forth across the river... I imagine there was a terrific force on that cable, when the river current was pulling ferry downstream... that was part of the power that moved the ferry across to that other side...
Babe tells me that there was two DEAD MEN, the second was to winch the Ferry out of the river for the winter...
