Cline's Ferry
by Jonnie Miller
The ferry was originally floated down the river from somewhere up farther north by Mr. Cline. It was operated until the bridge was built in the late 1920s.
In 1920 "Goob" Newton bought Cline's Ferry from Charlie Ward. The purchase included a little house and a ferry with a broken cable which originally was the only way across the Sabine River from Bon Wier to Merryville, La. He was promised an improved road to the ferry if he could get a cable across from bank to bank.
Skidders were outlawed at the time so another solution had to be found. Goob bought a 1200 foot cable for $25.00 through a friend, Chicken Hodges. Another friend promised to help. Goob secured one end to a large oak on the Louisiana side and rolled up the cable on the end of the ferry boat. He drifted about 200 yards off course but was able to get to the Texas side. Another friend who had a 16-oxen team caught the cable on the Texas side. These 16 oxen went down on their knees to pull the line out of the water. The men eventually clamped it around a tree until a windlass could be made to wind the cable and tighten it. At one point the team of oxen had to get down on their knees to pull the cable against the current.
Goob owned that ferry until the bridge was put across the Sabine.
There were three incidents of note that occurred during the operation of the ferry at this time. Two were tragedies and one was a near tragedy.
Frank Newton, a cousin of Goob's helped him operate the ferry. One day while ferrying a one-armed man across to Texas from Louisiana the ferry board made a bad landing on the Louisiana side and Frank jumped off with his chain to try to secure the boat to the bank. Unable to get it tied off the ferry drifted into the swift current of the river. Frank jumped back into the water to try to swim to the boat but because the river was so high and the current so swift he was swept away. There was a dugout boat that Mr. Jeans jumped into to try to save him but because he only had one arm he was unable to row to Frank's rescue. His body was found several days later after Goob got 120 sticks of dynamite and placed them under a log drift down river. It exploded and sent Frank's body bobbing down river. It was spotted as a white object and was pulled out. A homemade coffin was quickly built so that family members were spared that vision.
Another tragedy occurred to a nephew of Bill Collins. He was visiting his uncle and spotted a muscadine vine full of grapes up in a tree. He climbed up and was shaking the vines from the inside as a traveler got off the ferry. The man thought it was a squirrel and shot up in the tree, killing the boy.
The last incident was not so tragic. On the Louisiana side there was a steep bank down to the ferry. A strong chain across the bank was used to slow vehicles down as they approach the ferry. A drunk driver came in at high speed, broke the chain and drove straight into about 20 feet of water. Bill Collins was able to pull the much soberer driver out but the vehicle sank. Later they were able to get a diver to go down into the river and tie on to the car and drag it out.
The main reason for the automobile traffic across the ferry was the baseball teams in the small towns on either side of the river. In the summer the ballgames were the main entertainment in these towns so a lot of trips were made back and forth. At one time it was reported that 138 cars crossed in one day. The ferry was later sold and floated on down the river.