Twelve Mile Creek Bridge
From Pieces of the Past, Volume 3, pages 244-245 by Jim
Reis and reprinted here with his permission.
Twelve Mile Creek begins in the Gubser Mill area of southeastern Campbell County and empties into the Ohio River near Oneonta, which was once a thriving community in the days of riverboats and early passenger railroads. While Twelve Mile Creek is not large in comparison to the Licking or Kentucky rivers, the creek was a major transportation obstacle in the 1800s, especially during storms.
The first real effort to span the creek near its mouth came in 1886 with the construction of the C&O Railroad. A Kentucky State Journal account on Sep 9, 1886, said a large number of barrels of concrete were brought in for the railroad bridge. By January 1887, the foundation for the bridge piers was in place, but high water suspended all other work. Project engineers said they were having problems reaching solid rock for the piers.
The work unexpectedly became major news on May 26, 1887. Convict labor was used on the railroad construction project and that morning, a group of convicts was working out of Comer's Camp, opposite New Richmond, Ohio. Oscar Marshal, who was in charge of the convict party, had taken the group about a mile from the camp when a mule started to lose its pack. marshal was refitting the pack when one of the convicts, George McLaughlin, struck Marshal from behind with a shovel.
As Marshal fell to the ground McLaughlin and another unidentified prisoner beat him repeatedly. The two prisoners started to run as a guard, Dudley B Wilson, approached. Wilson fired several shots, hitting both and a third convict who got in the way. McLaughlin, serving a five years sentence for robbing a circus train near Frankfort, was shot in the head and died the next day. At a coroner's inquiry McLaughlin was described as a desperate character who had tried to kill a guard at the Greenwood Mines, another prison work camp.
The other convict involved in the beating was expected to die from his wounds, but a week later the newspaper noted he was still alive. Marshal, meanwhile, died from his injuries.
Completion of the railroad line and bridge resulted in the placement of a post office in Oneonta in 1888. Twelve Mile Creek was back in the news in the 1940s during a push to construct Mary Ingles Highway-Kentucky 8, which parallels the railroad tracks along the Ohio River. The creek again proved a major obstacle. An old bridge previously located further up the creek, where a road crossed was considered, but as part of the plans for the new highway, another bridge site was proposed farther downstream, nearer the mouth of the creek.
The new site was near several Indiana mounds that had been explored by University of Kentucky geologist. Work on the bridge uncovered some additional relics.
Gov. Earle C Clements and U.S. Senator John Sherman cooper
agreed to participate in the dedication and special police were deputized to
handle the crowd, which would include members of auto clubs from throughout the
state and Cincinnati. The bridge which cost $90,000, was dedicated August
25, 1948.