Ghent Alfred (G. A.) Bridges was born on May 3, 1867, the oldest child of Cullen T. Bridges and Virginia Thomas Bridges. He grew up on Beechy Fork Creek in the Maple Grove Community of Trigg County. On May 8, 1890, he married the former Nettie Linden Cunningham and they became the parents of four children, three boys and one girl.
Ghent A. Bridges is most noted for writing and publishing the first history of the Thomas- Bridges families of Trigg County. His original book was only 84 pages long. Ghent spent years of time-consuming and at times frustrating research on the book as he worked to make the book a reality. Ghent became interested in learning more about the family history when he first read the sketch of the family history by Perry Thomas, his great uncle. Perry wrote the sketch in 1886 just a few months before he died. Ghent read the sketch when he was a teenager but it was not until several years later, in the 1920’s, that Ghent started his research work on the family. He sent out letters to numerous folks with the Thomas or Bridges name that lived in North Carolina and finally to people all across the United States seeking to research and create the definitive family tree. He only made one trip out of Trigg County to do his research and that was to visit the Old Brick Church in Smithfield, Virginia. With the help of his cousin, Marston Thomas, a printer, he published the 84 page book which included 20 pictures and two pages of advertising. The exact number of copies printed is unknown, but is thought to be less than 100 copies. It had a soft, brown cover and was stapled together and was on sale at the 1928 Thomas-Bridges reunion for 75 cents. Today original copies of the volume are hard to find and are considered family heirlooms. The book was reprinted in 1960 and again in 2016 for later generation members.
Ghent along with his brothers operated a business known as the Bridges Brothers Nursery, which helped to supply many an orchard in Trigg County with fruit trees. This nursery, located on the farm of Ghent’s father, Cullen T. Bridges, in the Maple Grove community, was operated by his sons
The nursery supplied a wide variety of fruit trees including apple, pear, peach, plum and cherry and in addition, it also supplied grapevines, rose bushes and ornamental shrubs. The Bridges brothers did their own grafting and set the seedlings out to grow to suitable size for transplanting. The business was established prior to 1908 and closed before World War I.
Ghent was also noted as an early photography expert. He and his wife, Nettie, maintained a photography studio in their home which included a darkroom where they could develop their own film. Ghent loved to experiment with photography and several of his photos show double images of his subject. He liked to develop photos on surfaces other than paper. In particular he developed photos on cloths which could be framed. He developed large two by three feet photos that were especially suitable for a wall frame.
Another job in Ghent Bridges resume was that of a school teacher. Ghent began teaching in 1886 in the county public schools when he was only 19 years old. Upon his death, he was said to have been the oldest active teacher in point of service in the county as he had taught for forty-seven school years.
In the 1800’s and early 1900’s teachers were not required to have formal training. These early grammar school teachers rarely had any education beyond what they have acquired in the very schools where they have to teach. And this was the case with Ghent Bridges when he taught in the one room school house at Maple Grove School. For many years Ghent taught at this school as well as other schools in the county.
Ghent liked to keep records. He maintained meticulous accounting records for the family nursery business. He also recorded a journal or diary of events in Trigg County from the late 1890’s up until his death in 1938. His journal included a recording of all the deaths that occurred in the county during that period as well as his comments on the weather, local fires that took place, prices of food and agricultural products and current events. An example of his diary was this entry for October 8, 1918 at the end of World War I and the developing flu epidemic:
This month in the good year 1918 will go down in both national and local history
as having more happy and tragic events that has transpired in many months before.
The greatest war which humanity has even known came to a close in this month.
Preliminary articles of peace and a complete surrender was signed by Germany and
on the eleventh, hostilities ceased. The call for soldiers were immediately
suspended and plans for disbanding a great many soldiers were begun. There was a
new outbreak of Spanish flu and many persons died. Five of the family of Mrs. J. L. B.
Darnell died including Mrs. Darnell herself. Four boys out of John Randolph’s family
died. John W. Kelly and Daniel H. Hillman also died about the same time and many
others died In other parts of the county.
Ghent A. Bridges died on April 15, 1938 and is buried along with his wife Nettie in the Drury Bridges Cemetery in the Maple Grove Community.
First Maple Grove School in the 1800s
LINEAGE:
(Ghent Alfred Bridges was the son of Cullen Thomas and Martha Virginia Thomas Bridges and the grandson of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges. Mary Thomas was the fifth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)
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