The Nankin Township Historical Society

Plymouth Mail , June 23, 1899 The life of the prominent people of our towns are much the same as ours except that their trevails are given greater attention. If you recall, during the building of Henry Sustedt's [sic] factory at Romulus a tornado knocked it to the pilings. In this case it was spooked horses that knocked him down from his carriage to the iron bridge crossing the Rouge in Wayne causing a broken shoulder, two ribs, thigh and a thumb.

Plymouth Mail , May 18, 1888 I'm a conspiracy theorist on many subjects that others might think bizarre but in this instance I'm almost convinced that there was foul play concerning the Rouge River bridges. The statistical likelihood that two bridges--one near Newburg and the Merriman Bridge--in one area would collapse save for some kind of natural disaster, which is quite possible, is almost zero. Then again, the first article states that all the bridges in the area were in bad shape and I'm sure that the loads were too heavy, but I digress. Although it's highly doubtful that these were some of the bridges that were mentioned in the Schwarzburg articles from the 1830s, I suppose that it's possible. One of the accidents included August Blonk who was crossing the bridge near Newburg when he and his horses toppled over and he sustained a spine injury. The other incident included a Mr. Cole who was hauling a load of sand over the Merriman Bridge when it fell flat to th...