A hidden Ashtabula County covered bridge

Looks like great weather for our 2025 Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival and Tour. What a rare summer and fall we have had. Sunshine has brightened our days and warm temperatures have bathed us in a warmth we could never had imagined.
This coming weekend is a great chance to bike, ride, or walk through our biggest tourist draw, our covered bridges. We are fortunate to have the history of each one and a list of those that once stood over streams, creeks and rivers in our county.
There are many resources for our covered bridges available at the Jefferson Historical Society. These include every local book or paper or document recording the history of each bridge.
But one bridge which no longer stands has such a unique history that I chose it to whet readers’ appetite to visit the bridge sites.
Twenty-one years ago, while researching the early one- and two-room Ashtabula County schools, I met a wonderful educator and historian, Marian Alderman, who passed away in 2016. She introduced me to the history of Windsor Township. We visited the artifacts in the back of the old Christ Church Episcopal Church where I saw rare, old photographs of the township including schools, people and businesses. The photos were beginning to fade because they were not in archival protection.
After receiving permission, I photographed and copied every picture. When I learned about Windsor hermit, James Christy, and the educational fund set up after his death at his request, I was able to help them apply for funds to catalog and protect all the photos. They are now secure for generations to see.
Among the photographs was a unique scene which captured my attention. The charming sight was of a group of children sitting on and around a swinging bridge over Phelps Creek in Windsor.
Marian Alderman did not remember the photo and was not sure where it had been located and where was the school mentioned on the back? She had always heard of an Alderman school but could never locate the site. Marian Alderman’s husband, Marlan, was a direct descendant of Ellsworth Alderman, early Windsor settler.
I was able to learn this lost piece of history from members of the Brugman and Alderman family members who recalled their family members sharing the story of the swinging bridge. But none of them knew where it had been located since Cox Road no longer goes north and the site is now inaccessible to the public.
Exploration and some real sleuthing with Marian Alderman and our research team at that time led us to return to the photos at the Windsor Historical Society Museum in the back of the church. We were able to match the stories we had been told with the 1868 covered bridge and the swinging bridge pictures.
I included the story and pictures in my book on early schools. You can find it on page 133. Copies of the book are available at the Jefferson Historical Society.
I traveled with Alderman to the site of where the old school had been and discovered a house built on the former site of the school on the dead-end road leading to Phelps Creek and the bridges that once crossed it. The short, private road passes two houses and ends at the creek. The red brick house is on Route 322 just past Cox Road on the north side of Route 322. It is west of the historic Christ Church Episcopal Church.
Early Windsor resident, Ellsworth Alderman, had a daughter, Ada, (1867-1931) who taught for years in the Alderman School over Phelps Creek. She received advanced education at the academies of Orwell, Chardon and Jefferson. She began teaching at age 16 in 1883 and led classes in Huntsburg, Trumbull, Mesopotamia, New Lyme and Windsor.
Getting to the Alderman School from the woods on the other side of the creek was a real challenge. The creek ran through a ravine located between the homes of some of the students and the school. They crossed the creek from Killdeer Road by walking through a covered bridge used by horses and wagons. Killdeer Road is the present-day Huntley Road.
From underneath the bridge, Ellsworth Alderman could look up from his maple sugar house in the ravine below and wave to the children as they crossed the bridge to get to school. Ellsworth and Florence (Turner) Alderman had bought their home, named “Maple Gorge Farm” in 1873. It was right next to the bridge. For nearly 50 years, they worked a grove of fine old rock maple trees producing thousands of gallons of maple syrup they shipped all over the United States.
The Alderman covered bridge was built about 1868, the year before Ada Alderman was born. When she began teaching there the bridge was still being used. She never married and by 1924, was listed as a retired schoolteacher by Moina Large in her two volume books, “History of Ashtabula County.”
Although supported with stone abutments, a wooden walkway led up to the bridge from the road on each entrance which you can see in the accompanying photograph.
By 1890, the bridge had been standing for 22 years and had begun to deteriorate, deeming it unsafe for wagon or horse traffic. Boards were placed across the opening in 1890 and for a short time, the children were still allowed to use the bridge. Kids love danger and never consider the consequences!
Eventually, the bridge fell into such disrepair that a suspension footbridge was put in its place. Cables were attached for handrails and also placed underneath the wooden plank walkway.
The adventurous children loved to walk out onto the suspension bridge, sit down and then swing back and forth as hard as they could. Oh, to have been one of those schoolchildren. What fun and memories they made. If you look closely at the accompanying photo, you will see some of the more cautious, sensible students, perhaps even a teacher, standing on the creek bank. I can just imagine the threats of, “Wait ‘til I tell mother,” coming from their lips!
Five years later, in 1895, the constant strain on the cables caused them to stretch to the point the bridge posed a danger to the schoolchildren whether they thought that or not. The closing of the bridge caused the children to add more time to get to school. They were now required to walk several miles around the creek and come back to reach the Alderman School. At the time of these events, the area was called West Windsor.
Although you cannot drive to the end of the private road leading to Phelps Creek where the two bridges once stood, you can visit the Christ Church Episcopal of Windsor and tour the museum in the back of the building. Ask to look at their historical pictures where you will find the two bridges. Stop in at the Jefferson Historical Society building and view their exhibits. Enjoy the Covered Bridge Festival and Tour this coming weekend.