No this bridge was not in Cedarville, but right here at the northerly edge of our city. One edge of it was in Freeport while the other end, and I presume still is, in Lancaster Township. Now that the State Hwy. Rt. 26, crosses the river on West Street, it may be that the old name of "Cedarville Bridge" for the iron bridge at the end of Van Burne Ave. (and the wooden one which preceded it) is but little known by Freeport residents of today. There are not many people left who remember when this was the road to Cedarville and other northerly places in our county.

I have a fair recollection of the wooden bridge, and of the long elevated approach to it at its northerly end. This approach way was built up on posts and extended for several hundred feet over low land. Some of this low land contained ponds and puddles left from flood times and these were good frog and mosquito ponds.

I do not know when the iron bridge was erected but I believe that it was in the mid 1880's. The first iron, or steel bridge on Stephenson Street was erected somewhere near the same time. The bridge on Stephenson now, is the third one, (plus a temporary one used for a few years) which have been at this place for about the same length of time that the Cedarville bridge has been in service. There is, or was, a cast plate on this bridge which told that it was built by some "Iron Bridge Company" and since iron is more lasting than steel, this may be the reason for its long life.

The old time road, after crossing the bridge, ran north, with a slight bend toward the east for about half a mile, then turned around a slough of river back-water in a northwesterly direction for another half mile where it joined the town-line road running north. I presume that this old road has been changed but little, for it is many years since I last saw it. And the last time that I did go over it I saw that the slough, in which my father and I used to catch bull-heads was pretty well filled up with silt. Recently our newspaper mentioned steam boats on the river in long ago times with an expressed wish that such boats might come again. That will never be for steamboats are largely a thing of the past. The boats on our river never were more than tub-boats pulling scows loaded with cord-wood or small picnic launches. One of the latter boats was owned and operated by John Ellis, a blacksmith and I had the pleasure of being in its a numbe rof times. Our River - the Pecatonica, is a very crooked and very muddy stream without any scenic beauty and thus does not appear inviting to those who love boating.

On the road beyond the bridge there were two homes, the one on the east side being that of the Schiller family. They were German people and I remember being told that at an earlier time the German people used to gather there on Sunday afternoons, and if I'm not wholly mistaken it was known as Schiller's Garden or Schiller's Grove. Some of the German immigrants, not so long in America, quite naturally sought eac others company. The home on the west side of the road, with its yard extending to the river bank, was that of Daniel Hoover who were Easteners. Mr. Hoover operated a small soap factory on the same property. They were staunch Methodists, belonging to the First M.E. church. They had a large family.

We frequently crossed the Cedarville bridge to go fishing int he "Island Slough" which once had been the course of the river. It is shown on the map of 1871. After the river channel had been straightened this slough filled up rapidly, geginning on the east side of the loop of the old river course. But the west side, for quite a long time, remained a nice pond with good fishing and good skating in the winter.