Edinburg Talk!

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Furnas Mill Bridge Leading Into Atterbury (Built 1891)
Edinburg, Indiana

Historical & Family Comment:
The Furnas Mill Bridge, which carries Road 650S over Sugar Creek in the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area northwest of Edinburg Indiana, United States. Built in 1891, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This bridge was travelled by my family roots. My grandfather and father used this bridge by horse and buggy and later automobiles. The reason I say this is because my grandfather had farms on the future Atterbury land. Also, they fished and trapped up and down Sugar Creek. They sold animal pelts in Columbus which I wrote about before. Below are three pictures of the bridge. The first was taken during the year of 1906, and the other two are in recent years after repairs were complete during 2006.

The Bridge and Mill were named after Orlando & Joseph Furnas early settlers. The mill stood on the west bank of Sugar Creek, had a capacity of sixty barrels per day, and was one of the best and most successful mills around. Go here to read a brief about Orlando & Joseph Furnas:
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~injohnso/biosketch/blueriver/furnaso.html

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Furnas Mill Bridge Fish Story
Edinburg, Indiana

The story was told many years ago by my father. As we know fish stories have been around since fish were caught all over the nation. Well, the story goes that my grandfather and father during the early 1900s were on the Furnas Mill Bridge and the water level from the Blue River, Driftwood River and Sugar Creek was extremely low level. Apparently, they had a rifle or shotgun (not sure which) and they sighted a super large catfish in a portion of Sugar Creek as they walked the bridge. They shot the fish and the story goes on to reveal that the catfish was six feet long.

Now, back in those days I can believe fish in the rivers and creeks were pretty large. Today, on the television fish and history channels, I have seen super large catfish being caught by a hand method and they sure are whoopers. Anyway, it is a story being passed on about the Furnas Mill Bridge in the old days. As I said before the bridge was constructed in 1891.

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Furnas Mill & Dam (Related to Furnas Mill Bridge)Before & After Camp Atterbury
Edinburg, Indiana

Brief Overview: After you crossed the Furnas Mill Bridge there was at one time a very old grist mill on the banks of Sugar Creek. Starting around 1832 the mill was called Foster Mill. Then in 1875 Mr. Orlando Furnas purchased the mill and related dam and renamed it Furnas Mill and Furnas Dam. The history indicates that several other grist mills were located on the Blue River and Driftwood, however this Furnas Mill was larger and served a vast amount of the community.

History says that Furnas Mill was operating at the turn of the century (1900s) and was considered a historic monument, and was still grinding out corn. Then on 31 July 1913 the Furnas Mill was struck by lighting and burned down. Below is a picture of the Furnas Mill before it burned down, after that is a picture of the remnants of the Furnas Dam. The large water grinding wheel to power the mill is not shown in any pictures I could find.



Looking close you can see stones still popping up in Sugar Creek which were part of the Furnas Dam. After the Mill burned down cabins were built in the area and a camping and fishing grounds were established around 1930.




Sources: Newspaper Franklin Democrat dated 8 August 1913 and US Government publication "The History of American Settlement at Camp Atterbury. Colored picture found on internet of the remnant dam area.

Government Pub: www.indianamilitary.org/Camp%20Atterbury/Publications/HistoryAmericanSettlement/HistoryAmericanSettlement.pdf

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This postcard shows the First Christian Church, located at Walnut and Perry St. Date is unknown as card was unused.

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This photo is looking to the west on Main Cross St. and is showing a Mobil Oil Station on the N-W corner of Main and Main Cross St, the date and subject in the photo are unknown.

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This photo is looking to the east on Main Cross St. The date is unknown. The old Interurban station can be seen on the left at Main St.

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The 1881 Edinburgh Baptist Church, colored, established 1881 is shown at the corner of Center Cross and Main St.

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Eden Park . In 1915 the town of Edinburgh was given a lot for a public park at the corner of Walnut and Thompson streets by Dr.R C and Mrs.Lucy Marshall, today it is the location of No.1 fire station.