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1823 homestead finds new life as retreat for Bridges-Royer family
RUSSELLVILLE — The Bridges-Royer Farm in Russell Township has lived a number of lives during its 201 years of existence.
It began as one of the first Indiana land grants in Putnam County to Christian Fall Jr. in 1823.
For much of the last century, it was the home of Perle “Mutt” Bridges, as he was born there in 1916 and died there on Feb. 20, 1990, having operated Bridges Black & White Farm (fittingly, a Holstein dairy operation) on the property.
Now owned by Mutt’s daughter Candy Royer and husband Dick, the land has found a new life in recent years. While the Royers maintain a home in Crawfordsville and rent out the old house, the land itself has become a weekend getaway for the Royers, their sons and other family and friends, featuring a cabin overlooking Big Raccoon Creek.
That history and more was honored recently when Candy accepted a Hoosier Homestead Farm Bicentennial Award for continuous family ownership for 200-plus years.
While 103 Hoosier families were honored during the ceremony for either 100, 150 or 200 years of family owners, the Bridges-Royer family was one of just six honored for bicentennials.
“We were one of the first families to get an Indiana land grant,” Candy said.
After Christian received the original land grant, it passed on to son Michael on June 23, 1840.
Michael died by 1854 and left the land to two daughters — two-year-old Delilah Jane and infant Sara Ellen.
Delilah Jane married William H. Bridges on Feb. 1, 1866, thus bringing the property into the family name it has been in for most of its history.
Both William and Delilah Jane Bridges lived to relatively old ages, particularly for their time, with Delilah Jane dying in 1929 and William living until 1942, when he would have been 97 or 98 years old.
While their long lives were certainly a blessing, they also presented a unique problem in the early years of the 20th century — the house was crowded for a two-room cabin built in the late 1820s.
When brothers Mutt and Jeff (you read that right) Bridges were born on April 6, 1916, they were an unexpected set of twins who brought the number of people living in the house to 10 across three generations.
Soon, mercifully, a third room was added to serve as a kitchen, though the house had neither electricity nor running water until after World War II.
“It’s been an evolving house,” Candy said.
Once running water was added, a portion of the kitchen was carved out for a small bathroom.
Much of the house is trimmed in knotty pine, which led Candy to believe that wood may have been on sale. However, a conversation with cousin Sara Bridges revealed that her dad trimmed their home in the same wood, so it may be a family tradition.
In keeping with the time, it was originally a log cabin, with logs still visible in the foundation.
“The house is really sturdy,” Candy said.
So sturdy, in fact, that in 1992, a tornado came through, destroying two barns and tearing the roof off the original (still standing) barn, but not hurting the house, at least not too much.
The house itself was picked up and put back down ... still intact. The old barn lost its roof, but it was soon reinstalled.
Prior to that setback, the barn was long used as the center of operation for the Black & White Farm, which maintained a herd of around 100 head. While Mutt started it as a milking operation, he soon discovered he didn’t want to be in the milk business.
Instead, the farm became more of a breeding operation, with Mutt raising the females until they were about ready to calve and then selling them at the Lebanon Sale Barn.
These days, it’s quieter on the farm. The family has not resided at the home since Mutt’s death in 1990, but they still maintain it as a rental. Dick raised cattle on it for a few years, but later got out of that business.
Much of the 106 acres, meanwhile, is cash rented to a farmer who grows hay.
The real activity on the farm now comes back a long, grass lane with a club started by the Royers’ two sons, Aaron and Brian.
Along with several of their friends, the boys started the Fifth Saturday Club, which gets together anytime there’s a fifth Saturday in a month.
“They called me one day when they didn’t have a place to go on Fifth Saturday and said, ‘We want to build a cabin on the farm,” Candy recalled.
Thus, the Fifth Saturday cabin came to be. This group of Southmont High School graduates spent the next few years building the cabin themselves. Most of the wood for the structure came from an old Montgomery County barn they had torn down. The windows, meanwhile, were a mismatched set of returns to the Roachdale lumber yard, which was owned by the father of one of the other members.
There wasn’t actually that much money invested in the cabin, other than metal for the roof and some treated lumber for the porch.
While the building is not on the grid, it gets electricity from a pair of solar panels reclaimed from one of the sons’ jobs. There’s no indoor plumbing, but there is a rain barrel, a gravity shower and an outhouse. Cooking is done via propane.
Even the wood for floors came from trees that were cleared for the project.
“They all have a love for learning new things,” Candy said.
What they have now is a little rural paradise on a bend of Big Raccoon Creek, complete with a zipline, kayaks and other recreational items.
And it’s not limited to warm weather. The cabin is heated by a reclaimed wood stove that Dick and Candy used in their home years ago. A hill nearby in one of the fields, meanwhile, is perfect for sledding.
It’s proven the perfect gathering spot for the club and the family.
“During the pandemic, this was a godsend for all of us,” Candy said.