A bridge builder left generational imprint
Nettie Bishop (1857-1929) of Hannibal played a cousin to Sir Joseph Porter in a local production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, circa 1877-78. Nettie was the daughter of Goodwin Otis Bishop, a Civil War-era bridge builder. Photo was taken by the Deane brothers; identified by Mrs. Walter J. (Jennie) Hilton, and contributed by Mrs. Hilton's great--great-great great grandson, Joseph Haslwanter.
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
Goodwin Otis Bishop hosted a lawn party and church sociable at his home, located on the northeast corner of Fifth and Hill streets, Hannibal, on the evening of July 24th, 1877. The event was planned by the ladies of the Congregational Church. Admittance was 10 cents, and the proceeds were dedicated to the church organ fund.
The backyard of the Bishop home, which sloped gently eastward, would have offered a commanding view of the Mississippi River, providing an idyllic spot for such a summer function.
Musical entertainment was offered by the church choir, the Hannibal band, and a vocal solo by Nettie Bishop, 20-year-old daughter of the host.
Other highlights of the evening included recitations, games, ice cream and other refreshments.
Mr. Bishop, a bridge builder by trade, was connected with the construction of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, residing with his family in Hannibal as early as 1858. He also, according to his obituary published in the Quincy Daily Journal on March 6, 1897, operated a transfer boat between Hannibal and Quincy, Ill., connecting with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and Hannibal and St. Joseph, when Hannibal was the only eastern terminus of the latter road.
Nettie Bishop, born in Michigan in 1857, spent her formative years in Hannibal, attending the public schools, including Hannibal High School, which was located on the southeast corner of Sixth and High streets in 1874, when she was a student there. Nettie was a classmate with Gertrude Ashmore, who would later serve as Hannibal’s high school principal.
She was the oldest of Goodwin O. and Isabella Bishop’s four children, and the first to marry.
Despite her family’s decade-long affiliation with the First Congregational Church (which disbanded in 1880), she was united in marriage at her husband’s family church. John Lentner Lathrop Jr., was a member of Trinity Episcopal, where they married on Oct. 27, 1881. From there, the couple moved to Minnesota to make their home. John Lathrop Jr. assumed the job as paymaster for the Chicago, Burlington and Northern Railroad.
Inventor
In April 1860, Goodwin O. Bishop received a patent on improvements to a truss bridge, as announced in the Evening Star, Washington, D.C. *
Just five months later, Bishop, who was living in Hannibal, exhibited a model of a patent compound arch truss suspension bridge at the Fifth Annual Fair of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association. The description which accompanied the display: (The suspension bridge) “which has peculiar advantages for length of span, with more security for the length than any other patent. Also, for guarding against shocks from moving trains or other heavy bodies passing over the bridge, by means of counter rods running at an angle of 45 degrees from each end to center, connecting the upper chord with the arch chord, which supports the base chord, by longitudinal rods.”
The 1860s were interrupted by the state’s involvement in the Civil War. Mr. Bishop enlisted in the Marion Battalion, Missouri Home Guard, Company A. (In 1890, filing as an invalid, he was granted a pension based upon his military service. After his death in 1897, his widow, Isabella, was the recipient of the pension.)
In 1862, in an act of community service, Bishop served as fire warden for Hannibal’s Third Ward, which consisted of the region north of Broadway, to the center of Hill Street.
In November 1867, G.O. Bishop (now referred to as Capt.) and Maj. S. Dwight Eaton, formed a co-partnership for the purpose of carrying on the bridge building business on an extensive scale. The Weekly Courier-Post reported: “They are now prepared to construct either railroad or highway bridges of the most approved pattern, in the shortest possible time. They are also prepared to erect large buildings, turn tables and water tanks, and furnish materials, or to furnish bills of timber, lumber or iron work, on commission. Capt. Bishop is a bridge builder of great experience, and on the scores of bridges constructed by him during the (past) few years, not one of the number has failed to give general satisfaction. Mr. Eaton, is a civil engineer of great fame, and late superintendent of one of our principal railroads. All work entrusted to their care will meet with prompt attention. Address them at Hannibal, Mo.”
High incomes
In 1868, The Evening Post, New York, randomly listed the following Hannibal men with “tolerably large incomes.”
J.T.K. Hayward, $23,417
J.K. Hayward, $12,445
John C. Cruikshank Jr., $15,575
G.O. Bishop, $13,190
David Dubach, $9,500
Bridge building
In 1868, Bishop won the bridging contract for the Hannibal and Central Missouri Railroad.
In 1873, Bishop advertised in the Louisiana, Mo., Journal, for 200,000 ties for the Mississippi Valley Western Railway, to run from St. Louis to Keokuk.
By 1875, Bishop and Eaton had parted ways. The Bishop family was now inhabiting the house at 400 N. Fifth St., previously occupied by the Eaton family.
In 1876, Bishop was the contractor for repairs for the Sny levee break at Cincinnati Landing.
In 1876, G.O. Bishop and A.R. McKenzie took a contract for making extensive fills on the Louisiana branch of the CB&Q railroad, at Cocklebur slough and the crossing of the Sny, a short distance south of Rockport. The Hannibal Clipper reported: “The fills will require over 50,000 yards of earth, and Bishop and McKenzie, who are old and experienced contractors, will do the work in a most satisfactory manner.”
Also in 1876, Pike County, Ill., contracted with Bishop to build a “Bishop’s Combination Howe truss bridge” over McCray’s creek, on the wagon road leading from Hull to Kinderhook, Ill.
In September of 1876, the Hannibal Clipper reported: “Capt. G.O. Bishop goes to Waterville, Kansas, tonight, with a brigade of hands, for the purpose of constructing a number of bridges on the extension of the Central Branch of the Union Pacific, from Waterville to Washington. Two of the bridges will be of 150 feet span, and will be of the combination Howe truss pattern. It is the intention of Capt. Bishop to complete the bridges and treble work in three months.”
In April 1879, Bishop and his son, Otis John Bishop about 17, arrived in Montgomery County, Kansas, to superintendent the year-long track laying on the South Kansas and Western Railway. The South Kansas Tribune reported that W.T. Bishop, a pioneer businessman of Independence, Kansas, was a brother to Hannibal’s G.O. Bishop.
In October 1881, G.O. Bishop and Col. C.B. Coventry of Chicago entered into a contract to build the Kansas City, Springfield and Memphis Railroad, from Springfield, Mo., to a point opposite of Memphis, Tenn.
Bishop told a reporter for the Kansas City Evening Star in October 1881 (the same month and year as his daughter Nettie’s marriage in Hannibal):
“We will lay about 275 miles of track, using 56 pound steel rails, of which a large order is now being prepared at the Vulcan Iron works of St. Louis. We will use the Coventry patent track laying machine, which was used in laying the C&A tracks into this city. The advantage of this machine lies in the fact that no teams are needed for hauling ties, rails, etc. An inclined tramway is thrown from the cars on which ties are propelled on rollers to the point of laying and rails are unloaded in the same way. By using the machine we can lay track in a swamp as well as anywhere else not being retarded by difficulties of teaming. We will begin work about Nov. 10 and push it rapidly forward.”
More patents
Bishop obtained at least two more patents:
Jan. 20, 1877: G.O. Bishop, Hannibal, nut lock.
Feb. 10, 1884: Car truck, G.O. Bishop, Hannibal
Capt. Bishop died March 5, 1897, and is buried at Riverside Cemetery, beside his wife, Isabella, who died in 1900.
* “Tied arch. Surmounted by a Howe-configured trussed arch with a web of crossed struts and vertical ties, plus an additional layer of double-intersecting diagonal ties. The tied-arch chord serves as the bottom chord of the trussed-arch above.” Source: Society for Industrial Archeology, Occasional Electronic Publication No. 1
