Photo of ice breaking up under the Barryville-Shohola Bridge with a middle support. Photo courtesy of M.B. Austin.
One very cold morning, about the first of January 1865, three teams of horses and mules were crossing the Barryville-Shohola bridge with two heavy loads
of wood.
The upper cable of the bridge (completed in 1856) parted near the center of the river. The bridge, teams, wood, and six men—Henry Lilly, Oliver Dunlap, William Myers, M. W. Quick, William Loftus, and Charles Deabron were thrown into the river. Three of the mules were drowned. The men were exposed to an hour
of very cold water, but lived.
The Barryville and Shohola Suspension Bridge Company refused to rebuild and the bridge was purchased by Mr. Thomas.
He erected a pier, mended the broken cable and used the same material in what he called the new bridge. He established his own schedule of tolls, high indeed, but to which the people cheerfully submitted first, because they wanted the bridge, and second because no power was known higher than Thomas.
It was last erected and completed in 1867, subserved the intended purposes and proved a good source of revenue during the remaining lifetime of Thomas which finally terminated on the fifth day of October 1882.
—Johnston, Reminiscences, pp. 349, 351.
