09/19/2025
Dark Tales on the Interurban Bridge: Victims of the Electric Railway
The Interurban railway was completed in 1906, connecting St. Joseph, Michigan to South Bend, Indiana. It was a line of electric streetcars that reached a speed of about 50 miles per hour. The bridge that spanned Lake Chapin became known as the world’s longest interurban railway bridge at the time, at a length of 1600 feet. The railway itself was operated by the Southern Michigan Railway company and Berrien Springs had two stations on the tracks – a larger one on Main Street downtown near where Green Wellies is currently, and another smaller one on the campus of Andrews University on Grove Avenue.
The News Palladium in 1907 reported that Dr. Fred McOmber bought the first ticket on January 1st, 1906. Druggist Henry Kephart was the first paying customer to St. Joe on May 31, 1906. You might remember both McOmber and Henry’s father Phil from a recent article I wrote about the Hotel Oronoko. Berrien Springs certainly was a “small world” a century ago. The Southern Michigan Railway Company operated the line, and they eventually merged with another line and rebranded as the Northern Indiana Railway Company in 1930. By 1934 the line was abandoned, as well as the world’s longest bridge. America was still feeling the effects of the great depression and streetcars were becoming obsolete as more and more people opted to travel by automobile. The bridge remained, like a tombstone of times past, until 1939, when it was removed. Only the concrete abutments remain, well… most of them.
In 1908, an 18-year-old local girl named Bessie Gillespie walked from her parents’ house on Cass Street to the center of the Interurban bridge and flung herself into the water below. According to witness accounts, she paused before she jumped. But after she landed in 20 feet of water, she got caught in some driftwood and was rescued by a man nearby in a boat. By one account, she tried to jump in again, although it is unclear as to whether she tried to jump off the bridge again or just out of her rescuer’s boat. Townsfolk regarded Bessie as a bright and popular girl, and her actions must have been caused by a temporary bout of nervous instability. Whatever her troubles may have been at the time, after the bridge incident, she seemed to resolve them, as she lived until 1955.
In 1909, 70-year-old rug weaver A.E. Boulton of Niles was in town on business. It was a warm July day and Boulton – who was deaf – was walking along the tracks on the bridge and didn’t hear the train approaching behind him. The current of the train was shut off, the brakes applied and the motorman clanged the bell in warning. But because he couldn’t hear the warnings, Boulton was struck and thrown off the bridge, hitting one of the concrete piers before tumbling into the water. He most likely died before he hit the water.
In October of 1912, two cars on the track were both headed north from Niles when the first car, No. 403 car lost its trolley pole and stalled on the tracks just before the bridge. The No. 306 car crashed into it at around 50 mph. Of the approximate 80-100 people on board the two cars, no one was killed but there were several injuries, and a few people came very close to losing their lives. Mrs. John Gent of Benton Harbor and a male companion were on the stalled car and jumped out right before impact. They rolled down the hill and nearly into the deep water of the lake. She lost her handbag, which was full of money and valuables. Dr. Smith of Berrien Springs and Dr. Ullery of Niles tended to the many injured. Mrs. Sarah Johnson was unconscious for several hours after the collision. But she recovered, as well.
Less than a year after the big streetcar crash came another crash, this one involving an automobile driven by local rural mail carrier Clarence Spaulding of Buchanan. He and his wife were crossing over the tracks ahead of a southbound train a short distance south of the bridge. They were both thrown from their car into an embankment and their car was demolished. Mr. Spaulding was, at least by the News Palladium’s account, seriously injured near his head but both he and his wife survived the accident, which is more that can be said for his automobile, which was reduced to splinters.
In December of 1915, 20-year-old Miles Skinner accidentally led his team of horses onto the interurban bridge in the late night/early morning hours. One of his horses fell and got stuck between the railroad ties. Skinner had find the help of the policeman Arthur Gorham, along with about 20 other men to help free the horse. Thankfully no cars came through until later that morning, or there could have been tragic consequences. Arthur Gorham, incidentally, was also a survivor of the 1912 interurban railcar crash.
You might think that the dark tales of the interurban end when the line went out of operation in 1934 and the tracks were removed, but the bridge itself still remained. Even if wasn’t being used for streetcars, it still attracted occasional pedestrians taking shortcuts across the lake, and children considered it a long playground. In 1935, 12-year-old Lyle Carr was electrocuted to death when he touched one of the high voltage wires above the bridge. He was walking on the top girder 25 feet above the top of the bridge, probably balancing himself with outstretched hands. He was flung 65 feet into the water below. He is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery.
A full three years later, the bridge was still a live wire. Another youth, 17-year-old Perry Rider of Niles, was electrocuted on his way home to Niles. He was hurled 45 feet into the water, revived by campers from Camp Betz, only to die in the hospital an hour later. He is buried in Silver Brook Cemetery in Niles. Rider’s death, tragic enough by itself, caused a bit of a commotion when the coroner Louis C. Kerlikowske ordered an inquest into the death. A local paper’s story about the inquest falsely stated that Indiana & Michigan Electric Company owned the bridge. General Manager of I&M, Mr. Loftus, corrected the record about the bridge having been sold to a Chicago junk firm that hadn’t yet torn it down. The inquest later recommended that the bridge be barricaded.
In 1939, the bridge was finally torn down, and the scrap metal was purchased by Benton Harbor Malleable Industries. This is what it looks like now. But hopefully not for long.
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