Smithson has bridge dedicated in his honor

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Commissioner Bessie Smithson and members of the Pete and Stella Harvey family were on hand for the dedication of the Jack M. Smithson Memorial Bridge. Pictured are, from left, Theresa Bryant with children Nick and Katie, and Smithson.

County Commissioner Bessie Smithson was on hand, along with members of Pete and Stella Harvey’s family, as the Warren County Road Department recently held dedication ceremonies for the Jack M. Smithson Memorial Bridge on Wheeler Road.

The bridge, installed over Hickory Creek, was designed and built as a replacement for the former one-lane bridge at that location. Smithson’s late husband Jack, a county commissioner who passed away in 1999, was instrumental in paving the way for the bridge.

According to Assistant County Road Superintendent Levie Glenn, the bridge has been completed for some time, but had not been officially dedicated. Christine Harvey’s family donated some of the land for the larger two-lane bridge, at the urging of Jack Smithson who was Highway and Bridge Committee chairman at the time. The bridge will also bear a plaque honoring the memory of Pete and Stella Harvey.

“It was built in 2003,” said Glenn. “Of course, it started before then, the preparations and getting the land. It was a state-aid bridge, which the state furnished 75 percent and the county 25 percent.”

Bessie Smithson, who served out her husband’s term, then ran and was reelected on her own, said the bridge was an important project for her late husband.

“He knew that it was badly needed for our district,” Smithson said. “It was a one-lane bridge and it was very hazardous. So he went and visited Christine Harvey and she donated some land. It was her wish that it be named the Jack M. Smithson Memorial Bridge.”

Harvey family member Theresa Bryant attended the dedication ceremony with daughter Katie and son Nick. Bryant is the granddaughter of Pete and Stella Harvey and the niece of Christine Harvey. Bryant said the new bridge is a great improvement.

“It’s certainly newer and nicer,” Bryant said, “and beats crumbling concrete,” she added, making reference to the deteriorating condition of the previous one-lane bridge built back in 1927.