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The
Stoutsville Bridge was built in 1856-1857. It was built over
North Fork of Salt River on highway 24 east of Paris. The
bridge was a 120 foot span at the cost of about $5,000.
In
1932 the bridge was torn down to make way for an iron and
steel bridge across North Fork. The bridge was torn down by
the State Highway Department under the direction of Carl
Elliott, then the project engineer for the Missouri State
Highway Department. It was his grandfather who built the
bridge for the county. Elliott originally planned to take the
bridge parts to the family farm in Illinois and reconstruct
it, but encountered difficulties in taking it down and keeping
it intact and finally gave up on the idea. The bridge remains
were destroyed. Many of the original large stones still remain
on the site, as do the earthen approaches.
The
bridge was known as the Elliotsville bridge. Before the
village of Stoutsville was established, when the railroad came
through, there was a small settlement just north of the
bridge, known as Elliotsville. It included an ice house, a
country store building and two or three houses. Some of these
buildings were still in existence as late as the early 1920's,
but have since all disappeared.
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