Mark Dale Bridges
Mark Dale Bridges was born on November 7, 1871 in the Maple Grove community of Trigg County, Kentucky. He was the fifth of ten children born to Cullen Thomas Bridges and Martha Ann Virginia Thomas Bridges. HIs parents were both natives of Trigg County and Cullen was a veteran of the Civil War. Mark’s siblings were Sallie Bridges, born in 1864 and died at the age of one; an unnamed infant, born and died in 1865; Ghent A. Bridges, born in 1867 and married Nettie Linden Cunningham; Ora Agnes Bridges, born in 1869 and married Robert Henry Thomas; John Trice Bridges, born in 1874 and married Maggie Dora Cunningham; Rosa Lee Bridges, born in 1876 and married Elmer E. “Ell” Cunningham; Cleveland Bridges, born in 1878 and died at the age of one; Molly May Bridges, born in 1880 and married Benjamin Flood Grigsby; and Jesse Clyde Bridges, born in 1887 and married Myrtress Grace “Myrt” Davis.
Dale married Mallie Mae Lancaster on November 8, 1891, Mallie or “Mal” as she was known was born on February 20, 1873 in the Maple Grove community and was the daughter of William Dorsey “Doss” Lancaster and Leonora Armitage Lone Whitaker Lancaster. Doss was a farmer and a native of Trigg County and Lone was a native of Missouri.
Although Dale was a farmer like many of his relatives, he was also involved in numerous other endeavors. He was a salesman selling organs, pianos and iron fences. He sold tombstones for the Beasley Monument Company of Paducah and numerous other items. He participated in several enterprises of the Bridges Brothers, including going on sales trips for their nursery business. He made these sales trips sometimes on a bicycle, and at times being gone for more than a week. Because of his many sales representations, Dale was well known and liked throughout the county and other sections of western Kentucky.
Between 1902 and 1908, Dale built the family home in the Maple Grove community which was known as “Woodlawn.” He was assisted in the building of the home by his cousin, Bluford Bridges who was paid ten cents a day for his help. The framework for the home came from the woods near the house’s location. The foundation was laid out at night by the stars so it would be exactly east and west. A few years later after the house was completed during the period of the night riders, Mal was sitting on the front porch when a group of night riders came by looking for Dale. She sat on the front porch with a shotgun holding the riders back while Dale slipped out the rear door and hid in the nearby woods until they were gone.
As his father had fought in the Civil War, Dale was a member of the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and he took pleasures in attending their many conventions of “the old Confederate Soldiers” including trips to New Orleans, Chattanooga, Galveston and Washington, D.C. It was believed that he attended more Confederate Reunions than most of any person in Trigg County.
Dale and Mal were the parents of five children, Nellie Cleveland Bridges, born in1892 and married Mark McCarty; Flo Templeton Bridges, born in 1897 and married Ira Clifton Bridges; Preston Dale Bridges, born in 1899 and only lived for 18 months; Percy Dillard Bridges, born in 1902 and married Edna Pearl Thomas; and Douglas Eugene Bridges, born in 1909 and married Katherine Elizabeth Edwards and then married Dixie Louise Minton and later Letha Louise Plumlee.
Mark Dale Bridges died on July 27, 1927 at the age of 55 at his home in Maple Grove. He was buried in the family cemetery, the Drury Bridges Cemetery, near his home. Mal died eight months later of pneumonia on March 12, 1928 at the age of 55. She was buried in the Drury Bridges Cemetery next to her husband.
Mallie Lancaster Bridges
Dale and Mallie with their children
Dale and Mallie
Dale and Mallie tombstone
LINEAGE: (Mark Dale Bridges was the son of Cullen Thomas and Martha Virginia Thomas Bridges. Cullen was the twelfth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)
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