By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
The vintage images of Ashtabula County covered bridges on this page are the work of the late Walter Jack.
They were contact printed from 5-by-7-inch negatives owned by Jack’s granddaughter, Karen Rang, of Erie, Pa.
Jack was a prolific writer and photographer who lived in Northeast, Pa., but made frequent trips to Ashtabula County. A Hillsdale, Mich., native, Jack became connected to this area and relocated here after marrying a woman from Pierpont.
Rang, who was 10 when Jack died, recalls her grandfather as a man with a passion for history and covered bridges. He also had a great memory, which was full of details that he took to the grave.
“He knew where (the bridges) were, so he never marked (their locations on the negatives/prints),” Rang says. “He had a fantastic memory.
Jack was a professional photographer and had a portrait studio in his Northeast home. He wrote for the Erie Times, a New York paper and probably many other publications. Little of his work survived because he preserved it by pasting the articles in wallpaper sample books that were stored in the attic. Mice and time accordingly destroyed much of that work, although several of the books were given to the Jennie Munger Gregory Museum of the Ashtabula County Historical Society.
The library at the museum was named in his honor. Many of the old books that once populated the shelves of that room were from his personal library, a once massive collection that shared the second floor of his home with the studio, recalls Rang.
These days the museum’s library is more focused on providing access to local-history materials, so the books from his collection are not displayed. However, Jack’s writings on local history have been collected and are available there, says Jean Metcalf, a historical society volunteer who has worked on the project.
Jack’s photos, for the most part, did not fare as well. Rang says her grandfather’s estate included “boxes and boxes” of negatives, which were acquired by her parents, the late Edward and Hazel Jack, after his death. They were stored in the basement of their home and remained there until 2005, when her parents’ estate was liquidated.
“The boxes were totally mold. You couldn’t separate (the negatives),” she said.
A handful survived. Appropriately, they are of covered bridges.
“He loved his bridges,” Rang says.
