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M.^1^^/^^ ■ ,:.i BRIDGE:, tND SI IRRUCI \ VIADUI I BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES THE STORY OF ERIE By EDWARD HAROLD MOTT m New York : JOHN S. COLLINS, Publisher 253 BROADWAY 1901 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY JOHN S. COLLINS COPYRIGH 1 . 1901, BY JOHN S. COLLTNS THE REASON FOR IT. Why the history of a railroad ? Particularly, why a history of the Erie? Many times during his work in the production of this Story of Erie the author was asked those questions. They were apt, and it was but natural that they should have been asked, for, at first thought, it is difficult for the average per- son to understand what there might be of interest or general importance in the details of the conception or building of a railroad. To-day there could be but little more than local interest or importance in such an undertaking, for the land is thick with rail- roads, and the purpose of none now constructing or to be constructed can be broader than that of local benefit. But when the idea for a railroad through the region and over the route now occupied by the Erie first found expression, seventy years ago, rail- roads were so strange in this country, so almost un- heard-of, in fact, that in but three States of the Union had there been any movement made toward a practical application of them as a means of trans- portation — in Massachusetts, in Pennsylvania, and in Maryland ; less than sixty miles of railroad, or of what then passed for railroad, in all the broad land. The Massachusetts railroad was built to haul stone on, from a quarry, by horse-power. The Pennsylvania railroads were used and to be used for hauling coal from the mines, the cars running by their own grav- ity, or being hauled by stationary engines up in- clined planes. The Maryland railroad alone had been designed for the carrying of passengers as well as freight, with the hope that some day it might ex- tend as far as the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia — and the cars were drawn by horses. The idea of the railroad as the one great factor in the development, the expansion, the civilization of the country had not inspired any of the undertakings named, and had found no expression until William C. Redfield evolved it and called public attention to it, before the sound of a locomotive whistle or the whirr of a locomotive's wheels had been heard on the Ameri- can continent; and from that idea came the Erie, the first projected link of all the links of railroad that have been welded into one great chain of connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific, making not only possible, but creating, the marvellous develop- ment of theretofore unknown regions, and peopling them with industrious millions. When the movement toward the construction of the Erie began, Missouri was the only State west of the Mississippi; Chicago was a small village clus- tered about Fort Dearborn, and yet unnamed ; Buf- falo was a Western village, and Detroit a frontier post. Summer and winter saw the poor emigrant, with his whole household in a hooded wagon, which often served for vehicle, stable, and tavern, moving toil- somely to the distant West, or what was then called the distant West, ami it was rarely more distant than Illinois. Beyond the Mississippi was virtually a land unknown to emigration. Redfield's idea for such a railroad as he advocated involved even more than the project of those who at last acted upon it. He planned for the construction of a railroad from the Hudson River to the Missis- sippi, but that was a project beyond the power of his contemporaries to grasp the magnitude of. They said : " Let us reach Lake Erie with our railroad. Then other railroads will come from the West to meet us." And railroads did come from the West to meet them, brought into existence by the advance of the Erie westward. Then, as the Erie project took on form and substance, its purpose aroused the East to action, and Massachusetts began the pushing of a railroad westward, to share in. if not rule, the pros- pects brought to view by the Erie idea. If the build- IV THE REASON FOR IT : the Erie had not been begun when it was. New V City a I < entral New York would have been without railroads for yen--, for it was the prospi uniting of the Hudson with Lake Erie by such a rail that spurred the interests between Albans and Buffalo to the building of the local lines that were lidated as the New York Central Railroad soon after the Erie was completed to Dunkirk. Boston's connection by rail with the West was hastened a decade nr more by the Erie undertaking. It was because the Erie was advancing toward Lake Erie that all that system of railroads now known as the Lake Shore anil Michigan Southern came into ex- istence as early as they did, and that lines of railroad from the Smith and from the North were projected, and their building was begun and carried forward to meet the advancing Erie at some point along its route. Thus it may be said, truthfully, that the history <>f Erie is indirectly the history of the rail- roads of the country; and as the prosecution of the work of building and finishing the Erie between the ocean and the lakes, and the early operations upon it. were fraught with stirring and exciting incident without precedent here or elsewhere ; involved SO much of personal sacrifice, and enlisted in it the efforts of men so prominent socially and financially ; brought into the commercial life of the country so much that was new and of universal benefit ; evolved s.. many ideas in the science of railroading that be- came the basis of the future great development of that science, to the general good ; and gave such op- portunity, then and later in its existence, for the enhancement of individual interests and schemes, which opportunity was so eagerly seized and acted upon as to bring into the records of Erie events irtling and dramatic as any that enliven the of fiction, the story of it all stands unique among the chronicles of the time, and appeals not alone locality, nor simply to one particular "f readers. It is not alone the history of a rail- road. It is a history of men. and measures, ami methods that for two generations were potent in the social, financial, ami commercial affairs of this country and Europe; and every page of it is of human in- terest. This hail long been in the thought of the author. Hence "The Story of Erie." To tell of the task the compiling of such a nar- rative entailed would require a chapter as long as any in the book itself. It was begun more than five years ago, and has been in almost constant prosecu- tion. The records of three-quarters of a century, many of them long forgotten and hard to find, had to be examined ; musty files of newspapers, old a generation ago. carefully scanned, number by num- ber and year by year; old publications bearing on the subject, rare, and of obscure possession, hunted up and read ; railroad reports for nearly seventy years past inspected, volume by volume, and the Erie's showing in them analyzed and digested ; the records of Wall Street for half a century compiled ; the survivors of Erie's departed days, few and widely scattered about the country, unearthed, ami inter- viewed as to their reminiscences of those days — all these things, and main- more, had to be accomplished before the Story of Erie could be told. It may well be expressed in the words of quaint Thomas a Wood of old : '■ A painfull work, I'll assure you, and more than difficult ; wherein what toyle hath been taken as no man thinketh, so no man believeth, save he that hath made the triall." In the preparation of this work the author has had the earnest cooperation of Mr. John S. Collins, to whose encouragement of the undertaking, and tireless and persistent efforts in its behalf, are due its completion, and the superior style in which the book has at last been brought to publication. E. H. M. Niw York, June, 1S99. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. IN EMBRYO— 1779 TO 1S31. PAGE A Great Wagon Road between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, over the Route now Covered by the Erie Railroad, Suggested more than 100 Years Ago by Gen. James Clinton — Thirty Years later a State Road to Connect the Great Lakes with Tidewater, Through the Same Tart of the State, Demanded — First Suggestion for a Railroad Over the Route — The Redfield Pamphlet and its Wonderful Prophecies and Projects — A Government Survey of a Railroad Route that this Pamphlet Outlined in 1S29 — How the Project of a Railroad between the Hudson and Lake Erie was Influenced by a Railroad in South Carolina — the Proj- ect Abandoned, and a Canal Advocated ................. 1 CHAPTER II. TAKING FORM— 1 83 1 TO 1832. New York Railroad Fever of 1831-32 — First Public Meeting Advocating a Railroad from the Hudson River to the Southern Tier held at Monticello, Sullivan County, N. Y. — The Marvin Notice of Application for a Charter for a Company to Build a Railroad between the Hudson and Lake Erie — The Church Notice of Application — The General Convention at Owego to Discuss the Railroad Project — Birth of the New York and Erie Railroad 9 CHAPTER III. ORGANIZING ERIE— 1832 TO 1833. An Unsatisfactory Charter — A Government Survey Ordered and Discontinued — Charter Amended — The New York and Erie Rail- road Organized — Eleazar Lord the First President — First Board of Directors 15 CHAPTER IV. FIRST ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD— 1833 TO 1835. Bidding for Contributions and Donations — Opposition in the Western Counties— Philip Church's Protest — Demanding a Survey — State Aid Asked and Engineers Appointed — The Survey — The Light it Throws on the Knowledge of the Science of Railroad Construction Sixty Years Ago — Inclined Planes. Tunnels, and Careful Consideration of the Interests of the Canals . . 20 CHAPTER V. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES GORE KING— 1835 TO 1830. State Aid Asked for and Refused — Subscription Books Opened ami $2,382,100 Subscribed — Ground Broken at Deposit and Contracts Let — First Annual Report of the Company — President King's F-fforts to Construct the Railroad — Eleazar Lord Appears with a Plan which President King Does Not Approve — He Wants the State to Take the Work off the Company's Hands — A Bill to that Effect Almost Becomes a Law — President King Resigns 32 vi AM NTS CHAPTER VI. SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD— 1839 TO tS 4 i. PACI ie to Ih.- Driven, .it .1 ( osl of Upwards of $1, 000,000, to Prove Utterly Use- it to Have the State Assume Charge of the Work Fail! — The First Erie Legislative Investigation — Lord Retires .4* CHAPTER VII. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BOWEN— 1841 TO 1842. ill the Present Great Terminal Possessions of the Vanderbilt System at Forty-second Street, New York, Might Have Been the Er: - ,000 — The First Train on the Erie — The Company's Treasury Again Empty and in Debt • i.ooo to the State — The Company Makes an Assignment, and the Railroad is Advertised For Sale — The Sale Postponed. 52 CHAPTER VIII. ADMINISTRATIONS OF WILLIAM MAXWELL AND HORATIO ALLEN— 184a TO 1844. The South' i Western Counties Demand a Release of the Company from Wall Street Influences — William Maxwell, of ira. Succeeds Bowen as President — Maxwell Retires, and Horatio Allen Succeeds to the Place — His Plans Result in Dismal Failure — Eleazar Lord Again President 67 CHAPTER IX. THIRD ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD— 1X44 AND 1845. Work Resumed in Time to Save the Road from Sale — Asking the Legislature fur Relief, which is Held up Until the Company Agrees to Build a Branch to Newburgh — Trouble in the Management Over Changes in Route — Eleazar Lord Resigns ... 74 CHAPTER X. ADMINISTRATION OF BENJAMIN I.ODER— 1X45 TO 1853. $3,000,000 Loan Asked for and Subscribed in a 1'ew Weeks — ( tpening of the Road to Port Jervis — The Change of Route into Penn- sylvania and Trouble that Came from It — The Fortunate Circumstance of the Scranton T Rail — Railroad Opened to Bing- hamton — The Treasury Empty < Mice Mure — Dark ( lutlook f..r the Railroad to get any Farther on its Way — The Difficulty rcome — Triumph, i s = i — Final Link in the Chain — The Last Spike Driven — Opening of the Road from Piermont to kirk. May, 1851 — The Fi I ;h Excursion Train and its Distinguished Passengers — The Ocean United with the ency of the Piermont Terminus Apparent — I > I the Ramapo and Paterson Railroad into the Field — The Ultimate Terminus at Jersey City Inevitable — The New Jersey Railroads Pass to the Control of the Erie— The First Dividend 86 CHAPTER XI. ADMINISTRATION OF HOMER RAMSDELL— 1853 TO 1S57. inin Loder— Charles Minot Retires, and D. C. McCallum Comes in as General Superintendent and -trike on the Railroad — Ramsdell's Master Stroke in the Matter .,f the I ong I lock Franchises and Land for Terminal Facilities — Another Disastrous Strike — The Erie in .1 (ri-is— Ramsdell Retires 114 CHAPTER XII. ADMINISTRATION OF CHARLES MORAN — 1857 TO 1S59. A President \\ ignation of Daniel Drew as Treasurer— President M. .ran Assumes the Duties of ,hc Goes iDto the Hands of a Receivei . 123 CONTENTS vii CHAPTER XIII. ADMINISTRATIONS OF SAMUEL MARSH, PRESIDENT, AND NATHANIEL MARSH, RECEIVER AND PRESIDENT— 1859 TO 1S64. PAGB Wages Months in Arrears, and More than a Million of Other Overdue Claims — The New York and Erie Vanishes Forever, and the Erie Railway is Born — Bergen Tunnel Finished, Pavonia Ferry Established, and Piermont Ceases to be the Terminus of the Erie, Except in Legal Fiction — Erie During the Early Years of the Civil War — Death of Nathaniel Marsh , , 130 CHAPTER XIV. ADMINISTRATION OF ROBERT H. BERDELL— 1864 TO 1867. The Hand of Vanderbilt — Robert H. Berdell Elected President — Daniel Drew Becomes the Controlling Influence — The Drew-Erie Loan, and How it Helped Drew Worst Vanderbilt in a Wall Street Operation — Eldridge and the Boston, Hartford and Erie Scheme — Election of John S. Eldridge as President — The Coming of Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr 139 CHAPTER XV. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN S. ELDRIDGE — 1867 AND 1868. Vanderbilt Undertakes to Capture Erie by Buying up its Stock, and Runs Against Daniel Drew and the Erie Printing Press — The Famous Conversion of Millions of Bonds into Stock — The Long Series of Suits, Cross Suits, Injunctions, and Counter Injunc- tions — Flight of President Eldridge, Drew. Gould, Fisk, and the Erie Treasury to New Jersey — The Erie Scandal Reaches the Legislature — The Surrender of Drew, and His $5,000,000 Settlement with Vanderbilt ....... 147 CHAPTER XVI. ADMINISTRATION OF JAY COULD— 1868 TO 1872. Jay Gould Made President — He Amazes Wall Street — Drew Enters into a Bold Coalition with Him, Plays Him False, and Joins an Opposing Clique — Gould Pushes Them to the Wall — Wall Street Wild — Daniel Drew on His Knees to Gould and Fisk, but They Spurn Him— Gould Surprises and Alarms the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by His Moves Toward Making Erie the Nucleus of a Great Through Line — The " Classification Bill " and its Story — Foreign Shareholders Have Experience with the Methods of Gould and Fisk — Gould's Plan to Change the Management of Erie and Why It Failed — The Shadow of the Fisk Tragedy — The Influence of James McHenry Brought to Bear Against Gould — Gen. Daniel E. Sickles Moves Against Gould in the Interest of McHenry — The Incident of Lord Gordon-Gordon — The So-Called "Sickles Coup " — Betrayed by His Friends, Jay Gould is Overthrown — The Inner History of It All ............ 161 CHAPTER XVII. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN A. DIX— 1S72. McHenry, Barlow, and the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company the Power Behind the Throne — The Erie's Floating Debt S5, 000,000, and no Money in the Treasury — Barlow Appeals to Bischoffscheim for Aid and Gets It — The Extraordinary Con- tract with the London Bankers to Place the $30,000,000 I .nan — Dix Retires 201 CHAPTER XVIII. ADMINISTRATION OF PETER H. WATSON— 1S72 TO 1S74. Dividend Declared — The Gould " Restitution" — How Gould Brought it About, and Plucked Victory from the Jaws of Defeat — Story of the " Restitution " — Again Under Legislative Investigation — Watson Declares that the Erie Must Spend S40.000.000 at Once in Improving the Road — The Directors Order an Issue of $40,000,000 Consolidated Mortgage Bonds, and Send Watson to Europe to Borrow Money on Them — Barlow Antagonizes Dunan, General Auditor of the Company — I >unan Resigns, and Declares Publicly that all the Watson Dividends Were Fals< McHenry Secures a Lease of the Atlantic and Great Western to the Erie on His Own Terms, and the Seed of Much Future Trouble is Sown— Beginning of the Angell Suit by Attorney- General Pratt — Melancholy End of the Watson Administration 208 vui con n.x rs CHAPTER XIX. ADMINISTRATION 0] 111*. II J. JEWETT— 1874 TO 1 PAGH ■ 1' It Each Year (or Ten Vears to be Paid in Advance in One Sum of (150,000, Mr. ii — The Rising Clouds of the Mc Henry- Atlantic and Great Western-Entailment — Something cin the II urs: The Truth is Told — The Company Utterly Bankrupt, and the- Jewett Management Savi Destroj It — President Jewett Made Receiyerof the Erie Railway Company— Receiver ■ omplacent English Shareholders may be Aroused to Action, and Moves roward Deration — The Erie Railway Companj New York, Lake Trie and Western Kail- road Company — I i the Jewett Management — Failure of the Marine National Bank and the Firm of (.rant & Wan I 5 the Management — Passing of the June Interest, 1884 — John Kit 1 Assistant lent — Mr. Jewett Retires 23" CHAPTER XX. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN KING (PRESIDENT) AND I. G. M< CU1 LOUGH, RECEIVERS— 1884 TO 1895. A Stubborn Floating Debt — Ex-President Jewett Resents His Snubbing by Worrying the New Management in the Matter of Western ■inections — The Trouble Settled — A Dividend, and the Last — Erie Again Tottering Under Its Hurden — The Floating itself — Interest Money Used to Quiet It Compels Default— I \ppointed — The Drexel-Morgan Man to Rescue the Company from Its I lilemma — The Efficacy of a $100,000,000 Blanket Mortgage — Sale of the Road — The Erie Railroad Company Rises from the Ruins , 270 CHAPTER XXI. ADMINISTRATION OF EBEN B. THOMAS— 1895 (IN OFFICE, 1899). The New Erie Strengthened by Consolidation — Fnd of the Atlantic and ( (real Western-New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Corporation, the Long-time Disturber of the Krie's I'eace and Prosperity — For the First Time in Its History the Erie Pays as It Goes — What the Rehabilitated Erie Owe-. After all Its Years of Tribulation — Over $300,000,000 of Debt Represented by Its Stocks and bonds — A Study in the Growth of Erie 282 FIGHTING ITS WAV. 1832 TO 1850. Story ong Struggle in the Legislature for Corporate Existence and Power to Complete the Work it Had Undertaken — The barter and its Amendments — The First Relief Bill — Details of All the Legislation in New York and Pennsylvania that the Erie had to Fight for Almost a Score of Years tot iet 2c,s Till-: BUILDING OF IT. • in 1x5 1. .dd the Railroad — Work Begun in 1835 — Suspended in [837 — The Resumption of 1S3S-40, — Driving the First spik. :,i Piermont — Manipulating the Stock to Raise Money — How Con- tra - How the First Rails Were Bought in England — Opening of the First Section ol 1 id in i-|i — P.ankruptcy — Work Resumed in 1 846— The Shin II. .Now War — Pioneer Trains and Incidents — Tragedy and I rain Through the Delaware Valley and to Binghamton — The Cascade Bridge and Staruci 1 Via- duct — 1 — Driving the Last Spike— The Newburgh Branch — The Long Dock and Bergen Tunnel — Getting to liuflalo and Rochester — Jefferson Branch — War of thi Gauges — Nypano — Bradford Branch .... 310 CONTENTS ix THE TURNING OF ITS WHEELS. 1841 TO 1898. PAGB The Story of the Time-tables — Some Rare Old Time-tables in Facsimile — Development of Traffic — Henry Fitch, First General Pas- senger Agent — Beginning of Milk Transportation — Original Locomotives — The Strange Career of " The Orange " — Joe Meginnes and Other First Erie Engineers — Story of the " Diamond Cars," Sleeping Cars Built for the Erie Nearly Sixty Years Ago — Worden, the First Conductor— " Poppy " Ayres and " Hank " Stewart — First Superintendents — Erie's First Tragedy of the Rail and Its Sequences — Amusing Incidents, Strange Accidents — Story of How the Erie Brought the Tele- graph into Service for the Running of Trains — Original Railroad Telegraph Operators — Notable Strikes on the Erie, and Historic Accidents — The Side-tracking of Piermont and Dunkirk 373 UNDER THE LEGISLATIVE PROBE. Insinuations and Charges against the Management inquired into as Long Ago as 1S41 — The Search for the Truth in the Days of Daniel Drew — How the Action of a Senator Who Had Helped Investigate Erie Led to an Investigation of Himself — After the Classification Bill in 1S70, 1S71, and 1872 — Seeking Truth About the Watson Dividend of 1373 — Erie Secrets Come to Light — The Hepburn Investigation of 1S79 Throws Light on Various Things ......... 446 FATHERS IN ERIE (Biographical) 458 PRESIDENTS OF ERIE (Biographical) 459 RULERS OF ERIE: Boards of Management from 1S32 to 1S9S — Treasurers — General Passenger Agents — General Freight Agents — General and Division Superintendents, from 1841 to 1899 ................ 473 TABLES: Mileage, Showing Growth of Erie, etc. ................. 483 Earnings, Expenses, etc., since 1*41 ................. 4S4 Quotations of Erie Stock, Common, since 1848 ............... 485 Quotations of Erie Stock, Preferred, since 1S61 ............... 486 FAMOUS CHARACTERS IN ERIE: Daniel Drew- — James Fisk, Jr. — S. L. M. Barlow 4S7 ERIE GRADUATES OF NOTE: Hugh Riddle — John N. Abbott — Benjamin Thomas — Edgar Van Etten — Frank S. Gannon — W. J. Murphy — J. H. Rutter — J. B. Morford — G. P. Morosini — A. S. Whiton 493 GAZETTEER OF CITIES AND TOWNS 500 ADDENDA. ADMINISTRATION OF E. B. THOMAS (Continued) 515 PRESIDENTS OF ERIE (Continued) 51S OFFICIAL ROSTER 5 iS INDEX 519 ILLUSTRATIONS. FRONTISPIECE (colored). pACE FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM COL. CLINTON TO HON. SAMUEL PRESTON 6 FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN IN AMERICA DRAWN BY A LOCOMOTIVE 7 FIRST LOCOMOTIVE AND PASSENGER TRAIN IN NEW YORK 9 FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM WILLIAM C. REDFIELD TO THE HON. SAMUEL PRESTON . . 17 ELEAZAR LORD facing 20 OLD SUBSCRIPTION AGREEMENT 21 JAMES G. KING facing 32 GEN. JAMES BOWEN facing 52 WILLIAM MAXWELL facing 67 HORATIO ALLEN ' facing 74 BENJAMIN LODER facing 86 FACSIMILE OF FIRST ERIE THROUGH TIME-TABLE AND NOTICE OF OPENING THE RAILROAD TO LAKE ERIE 97 FACSIMILE OF FIRST SPECIAL EXCURSION TICKET 98 HOMER RAMSDELL facing 114 CHARLES MORAN facing 123 SAMUEL MARSH facing 130 NATHANIEL MARSH facing 134 ROBERT H. BERDELL /<^'".<, r '39 JOHN S. ELDRIDGE facing 147 JAY GOULD facing 161 GEN. JOHN A. DIX facing 201 PETER II. WATSON facing 208 H. J. JEWETT facing 230 JOHN KING facing 270 J. G. McCULLOUGH facing 276 E. B. THOMAS facing 282 EDWARD HAROLD MOTT facing 295 RUINS OF THE OLD PILED ROAD-BED 325 ABNER GRIFFIS 330 NEWELL'S PIONEER PASSENGER TRAIN 367 A RARE OLD ERIE FREIGHT SCHEDULE, 1845 375 HENRY FITCH 3?° OLD ERIE TRAIN SCHEDULE, 1847 3§i TIME-TABLE, WITH ORIGINAL CODE OF INSTRUCTIONS TO TRAINMEN, 1S49 383-384 ERIE TERMINUS, DUNKIRK HARBOR, 1851 386 Ml ILLUSTRATIONS • RN DIVISION TIME-TABLE, 1851 388 IVE, TYPE OF 1S46 39' il WIDROW MEGINNES 39^ HUA P. MARTIN OF "THE ORANGE" AND "OLD 71") 393 [JAMIN HAFNER "THE FLYING DUTCHMAN") 39-i WILLIAM D. HALL <>F "H1NKLEY. 99") 395 CHARLES II. SHERMAN 396 CAPT. HENRY AYRES ("POPPY") 400 \V. II. STEWART ("HANK") 402 H. C SEYMOUR 405 MILK REPRODUCTIONS OF OLD ERIE TICKETS 407 A MORAN FREE PASS 4'4 AN ERIE FREE PASS OF 1S45 4'8 C. W. DOUGLAS 422 A RIDDLE FREE PASS 425 THE ORIGINAL ERIK BUILDING 426 ILK GARDEN IN OKI) ERIE EMIGRANT DAYS 429 CHARLES MINOT AND STAFF 43' OLD I RIE FREE PASSES 435 EMPLOYEE'S TRIP I'ASS 445 DANIEL DREW 487 JAMES FISK, JR 491 HUGH RIDDLE 493 JoHN N. ABBOTT 494 BENJAMIN THOMAS facing 494 VR VAN ETTKN 495 FRANK S GANNON 496 W. J. MURPHY 4-57 3. WHITON 499 MAI THE PROPOSED HARLEM CONNECTION facing 56 erii rERRiTORY, i S44 facing 78 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES THE STORY OF ERIE CHAPTER I. IN EMBRYO— 1779 TO 1S31. A Great Wagon Road between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, over the Route now covered by the Erie Railroad, to be Constructed by the United States Government, suggested more than 100 Years ago by Gen. James Clinton — Thirty Years later a State Road to Connect the Great Lakes with Tidewater, through the Same Part of the State, Demanded — A Preposterous Survey of a Route for such a Road Made — The Project Abandoned, and a Canal Advocated — First Suggestion for a Railroad over the Route — The Redfield Pamphlet and its Wonderful Prophecies and Projects — A Government Survey of a Railroad Route that this Pamphlet Outlined in 1829 — How the Project of a Railroad between the Hudson and Lake Erie was Influenced by a Railroad in South Carolina. The memorable invasion of the country of the confederated Indian tribes of New York State by the American troops under General Sullivan and General Clinton, in 1779, which was provoked by the bloody massacre at Wyoming the year before, led the army through the valleys of the Susque- hanna and the Chemung, and into that of the Gene- see. Although those regions were then virtually an unbroken wilderness, the far-seeing Clinton — states- man that he was as well as soldier — recognized at once not only the importance of those valleys to the future development of New York, but the great influence they were destined to exert in hastening the inevitable advance of civilization westward ; and among the very ruins of Indian homes and villages, whose charred and smoking line between the Sus- quehanna and the Genesee marked the end of ab- original supremacy in all that fair domain and in the State, he foresaw the beneficent changes that would come to those valleys within a few succeeding years, and took into his mind the great idea that domi- nated it all his after life. That idea was the con- necting of the seaboard with the great lakes by a thoroughfare that should pass through the counties bordering on the State of Pennsylvania, and which was to be but the beginning of a national avenue leading to what was then the far West. When the war was ended, the Federal Constitu- tion adopted, and the national government organ- ized, one of the first matters of importance that Congress was called to act upon was the petition of General Clinton and General Sullivan, who had become as enthusiastic as was Clinton in this stupen- dous project, for authority and an appropriation to construct a road, to be called the " Appian Way," from the Hudson River, and through the valleys of the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the Alleghany, to Lake Erie, the great route to be planned and car- ried to completion by General Sullivan. Congress had no constitutional authority to make an appro- priation for such an undertaking, and it came to naught. But until his death General Clinton never ceased to advocate the practicability and wisdom of his idea, and its great importance to the destinies of the country, emphasizing its palpable truth by pointed reference to the fact that the tide of emi- gration, which had set in steadily toward the" Lake Country" and the West, was being unduly retarded and held in check because of this very absence of thoroughfare in the intervening wilderness, with the result of incalculable detriment to the national wel- fare and to private interests. But agitation of the subject was not interrupted by the death of General Clinton. His illustrious BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES DeWitt > firm in the belief of his father, and his faith in its ultimate triumph was • when DeWitt Clinton came to the • 1 of the political and economic affairs of New times had changed. The War of 1S1: had been fought and won, and the counties bordering on . and those of the central and eastern . were its centres of political and commercial preponderance. Public and private interests demanded a better means of communica- tion between tidewater and the lakes. The South- ern Tier had its great rivers — capricious and uncer- tain though they were — as channels to transport its products to market, while its northern neighbors for their dependence only tedious, slow, and incomplete post roads. In 1S17, recognizing the justice of this demand, DeWitt Clinton, as Gov- ernor, called to the attention of the Legislature that great and long-cherished project, the construction of a canal to unite Lake Erie with the Hudson River. It is one of the remarkable facts connected with the history of internal improvements in this country that five years before Governor Clinton had sub- mitted his message advocating the construction of such a canal, but whose ideas on that subject were widely known. Col. John Stevens of New Jersey, then an old man, but still a wonderful one, wrote that he would undertake to build a line of railway, on which traffic in freight and passengers could be by means of steam locomotive power transported much more effectively and cheaply than it could be carried on the proposed canal. In company with the greater part of the world, DeWitt Clinton ridi- culed the <>1<1 engineer's ideas, and feared that age had unseated his great mind; but Stevens was sim- • 'in ahead of his time. . ernor Clinton's message to the New York State -ure- on the subject of the Erie Canal greatly alarmed the people of the Southern Tier and 1 ounties. The construction of a Canal from the lakes to the Hudson River, over the proposed route, they insisted would divert the course of emigration from their valleys, turn elsewhere the profitable trade of a wide region then tributary to them, and forever be a bar to a public thoroughfare fur them between the East and the- West, and to the uing of markets other than the hazardous ones of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. The members of the Legislature from all these counties were instructed to oppose the canal project in every way. 1 vWitt Clinton, however, had not abandoned the interests of those portions of the State, the enhanc- ing of which his father had in view in his project of a highway between the Last and the West, and he allayed the fears of the people, and won their sup- port for the Erie Canal, by a pledge — to which the canal party assented — to secure the co-operation of the representatives of the canal counties with thi of the opposing counties in the construction through the latter of an avenue best adapted to the topi raphy of those localities, at the expense, or with the substantial aid, of the State. Rut for the giving of that pledge there would have been no Erie Canal for years to come. In 1S25 the Erie Canal was completed and opened. The year before that, DeWitt Clinton brought the subject of a Southern Tier avenue before the Legis- lature, and recommended that some provision be made for a survey for a State road from the Hudson to Lake Erie through that part of the State. The survey was made, and with it began that persistent policy of chicaner}- and duplicity with which politics, selfishness, and ingratitude made fruitless for many a year the efforts of the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Alleghany valleys to escape from the bondage of commercial isolation. The route surveyed for this State road extended almost in a straight line, via Rath, to Ithaca, and from that place southerly -through the interiors of Delaware, Sullivan, Orange, and Rockland counties to Nyack, on the Hudson, with a branch to King- ston, Ulster County. It avoided all the valleys, and passed through only high, unbroken, and uncul- tivated lands the entire distance. The building of a road over that route would have been a task greater than that which confronted Napoleon at the base of the frowning Alps, for this one was utterly imprac- ticable. The survey was made under the influence of the politicians of the canal counties, and in spite of the palpable absurdity of the survey and the transparency of the scheme that prompted it, and THE STORY OF ERIE against the protest of the Southern Tier and the other interested counties, the Legislature, a major- ity of which was hostile to the State road, accepted and indorsed the report of the commission. Thus was the great idea of General Clinton made ridicu- lous, and his illustrious memory insulted by the first official movement toward a test of its value and practicability. The example of New York in preparing for the enhancement of its commercial interests by con- structing the Erie Canal had been followed, in 1825, by the State of Ohio planning a similar work for its own public betterment — a canal from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. To prosecute this work money was necessary, and Ohio was young and absolutely with- out credit. New York City was the only place where money might be raised. Two eminent men of Ohio were sent to New York as commissioners to negotiate the desired loan on canal stock issued by the State. They had no personal acquaintance with anyone in the city except Eleazar Lord, who was among the conspicuous capitalists and financiers of New York three-quarters of a century ago. The commissioners appealed to him, and as the result of his efforts in behalf of the Ohio Canal had indirectly great influence on shaping events toward the begin- ning of the New York and Erie Railroad, the story of them, interesting in itself, may find suitable place in this history. Eleazar Lord had enlisted friends of his in the Ohio Canal project, and with them invested largely in the State securities, on condition that the balance of the loan, $1,000,000, should be placed by the State within one year. This the Ohio commission- ers were unable to accomplish, and the work seemed doomed to failure, when Mr. Lord came to the rescue. In 1825 DeWitt Clinton was at the zenith of his power and influence in New York State, and none among his contemporaries in the whole country was more illustrious than he. But his ambition was yet unsatisfied. He fondly aspired to the Presidency. He was then Governor of the Empire State. The Erie Canal had just been completed. The great work was everywhere associated with his name. He was deeply interested in having the Ohio Canal con- structed, not only because of the influence it would have on the progress and welfare of the country, but because it would be an indorsement of his idea of internal improvements, and further spread his fame and prestige through the land. Eleazar Lord knew Clinton intimately, and all his ambition. John Jacob Astor, at that time, had a claim of $600,000 against the State of New York for escheated lands in Putnam County. He was anxious to effect a settlement favorable to himself, and he depended on Governor Clinton to further such a consumma- tion, the claim being in his mind just. This fact was also well known to Eleazar Lord, and it occurred to him that Clinton and his ambition and Astor and his financial interests might be formed into a com- bination that could be brought into service for the assuring of the success of the Ohio Canal. Gov- ernor Clinton was then in New York City, at the City Hall. Mr. Astor had arrived in town from Europe only a few days before. Mr. Lord at once secured audience with the Governor. Placing the situation before him in all its bearings on Clinton's prospects and Astor's interests, he said: " You will do well, I think, to call on Mr. Astor at once, and ask him to either take the Ohio State loan, or give such assurance that will warrant me in saying to such bankers as I may think best to take into my confidence, that he will subscribe for and take the whole loan, provided others do not outbid him for it." The Ohio Canal, completed, would be a great in- dorsement of his theories. Ohio had votes to give. Self-interest as well as patriotism appealed to him in the affair. So Governor Clinton acquiesced in Mr. Lord's view of the situation. He had an immediate conference with Mr. Astor, who lived then where the Astor House now stands. His arguments had such effect with the millionaire that in a short time Mr. Lord was able to truly say to several bankers that John Jacob Astor would take the entire Ohio State loan. That gave to the previously discredited security an instantaneous value, and capitalists vied so with each other in bidding for the loan that more than the amount of the issue was asked for, much of it at a premium. Of the loan Mr. Astor took B] 1 \\ 1 I.N llil I >< 1 \\ AND I III LAKES . oo. In the course of a few years the canal per cent, on the investment. a moment Ohio's credit was established, ami the buiL the canal assured. The il State passed a vote of than . Lord, Governor Clinton, and others, and they were invited to be present as guests ol the on the • of the breaking of ground for the canal, and their journey from Cleveland to the Ohio River was made amid the glad plaudits of the [e, who assembled everywhere along the route to do them honor. Rut with that demonstration pular homage, and the greater fame it brought him. it was fated that DeWitt Clinton should rest content. The goal of his high ambition was never hed. Dining that memorable journey DeWitt Clinton discussed earnestly the question of the public high- way from the Hudson to the Lakes through the southern part of New York State, and declared to Rlea/.ar Lord his unfaltering belief in its necessity, and denounced the people of the canal counties for breaking faith with the border counties, as they had done in procuring by their influence the preposter- ous survey for a road through the latter counties. He urged Mr. Lord to become personally interested in the matter, and to use his influence in bringing the project to a successful issue, and the New York capitalist was so deeply impressed with the impor- tance and great future of such an undertaking that he readily consented to Clinton's proposition. On his return to New York Mr. Lord advocated with such enthusiasm the subject of a Southern Tier State . that other influential men of the day were led to his way of thinking, and the result was the calling of a convention of people along the line of the pro- d road to protest against the action of the Leg- islature, and to adopt measures calling for a repara- tion of the injury done them. The convention met at Newburgh, X. Y.. October 19, 1826, and was in days. .\ report of it .lings was sent to the Governor, who placed it before thi islature at tl. n of i.Kj;, but that body took no action upon it. Refore furthi M be taken by the friends of the project, DeWitt Clinton itation of the subject cea Soon afterward, the feasibility of a canal through the Southern Tier between the Hudson River and Lake Erie was suggested by leading men in the Western counties, and the subject was being widi discussed and favorably received, when Benjamin Wright, the engineer of the Lrie Canal, and one of the greatest civil engineers of that day, made public his views. They changed the entire aspect of tin situation, and brought forward a problem in domes- tic economy the solution of which taxed for a gen- eration the energies, the genius, and the resouri of public-minded citizens, and demonstrated the ca- pacity and willingness of men to subordinate the general weal to political and personal ends. En- gineer Wright, in a letter published when the Southern Tier canal discussion was at its height, revealed the fact that, at the request of the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal Company, which had then almost completed the great canal from Honesdale, in Northern Pennsylvania, to tidewater on the Hud- son at Rondout, he had made a survey from the canal at Lackawaxen, Ra. , up the Delaware Valley to Deposit, X. Y., to ascertain the practicability of a branch canal westward to Lake Lrie; had ex- amined the Susquehanna and Chemung valleys, ami made exhaustive inquiries relative to the topography of the country west from Hornellsvillc, Steuben County, X. Y. He declared that the obstacles be- tween that point and the lake were too great to be overcome by a canal, but hinted that a railroad might not be impracticable. The attention of the public was fust really drawn to this route as one over which a railroad might be built, by a pamphlet issued by William C. Redfield <>f New York, in 1829, who had given the matter much study. The pamphlet was entitled a " Sketch of the Geographical Route of a Great Railway, by which it is proposed to connect the canals and navi- gable waters of New York, Pennsylvania, < >hio, In- diana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and the adjacent States and Territories, opening thereby a free com- munication at all seasons of the year between the Atlantic States and the great valleys of the Missis- sippi," and proceeded as follows: nmences 011 tin- Hudson River in the vicinity of the city of New York, at .1 point accessible at all seasons THE STORY OF ERIE to steam ferryboat?, and from thence proceeds through a favorable and productive country to the valley of the Dela- ware River, d :ar the northwest corner of the County of Sulli- van. From thence the route ascends along the Delaware to a point that affords the nearest and most favorable crossing to the valley of the Susquehanna, which it enters at or near the great bend of that river. Pursuing a westerly and almost level course through the fertile valleys of the Susquehanna and Tioga rivers, the route crosses the head waters of the Genesee, having in its course intersected the terminations of the Ithaca and OwegO Rail- road and the Chenango and the Chemung canals in New York, the Great Susquehanna Canal in Pennsylvania, and sev- eral other points that afford important facilities for inter- communication. " From Genesee River our route enters the valley of the Alleghany and proceeds along that river, which affords a navi- gable communication with Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania canals, and the Ohio River. From Alleghany the route in- tersects the outlet i if the Chautauqua Lake, on which com- munication may be had with Lake Erie, and proceeds to the headwaters of the French Creek to Pennsylvania, from which it again communicates with the Alleghany and the Pennsyl- vania canals on the one hand, and may be connected with the harbor of Erie on the other." Thence the route was to proceed parallel to the lake line, through the States of Ohio and Indiana, to a point of junction with the Mississippi River, im- mediately above the Rock Island Rapids. In this pamphlet its author foresaw with prophetic accuracy the course of the railroads that would connect the infant states of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois with the Atlantic seaboard, and foretold that these rail- roads would advance with incredible rapidity the set- tlement of those vast and fertile regions and would divert their trade largely to the great Eastern me- tropolis. He showed his possession of accurate knowledge of the topography of the vast country lying between the Hudson and the Mississippi, and made an extraordinary forecasting of the rapid set- tlement of the Western states, the magic develop- ment of their agricultural and mineral wealth, and the rapid and constant growth of the city of New York. He set forth under nineteen distinct heads the great superiority of railroads to canals not then fully established, and he anticipated that after the construction of the great trunk railway connecting the Hudson and the Mississippi, many lateral rail- ways and canals would be built which would com- bine in one vast network the whole great West with the Atlantic States. He said " this great plateau will indeed one day be intersected by thousands of miles of railroad communications, and so rapid will be the increase of its population and resources, that many persons now living will probably see most or all of this accomplished." With this pamphlet the author published a map on which the proposed rail- road appears with connections traced by his pencil to prominent points on Lakes Erie and Michigan now reached by the Erie Railroad. This remarkable Redfield pamphlet found wide circulation, and in 1831, the principle of internal improvement by the Government finding favor with the existing national administration, Col. DeVVitt Clinton, son of the great Clinton, and a member of the United States Army Engineer Corps, was de- tailed to make a reconnoissance of the country from the Hudson to the Mississippi, along the route of the proposed railroad. He carried the work to the Ohio portage waters, and made a report to the Gov- ernment showing that the project was practicable so far as he had investigated, although the general features of that portion of the line within New York State were not as favorable as the friends of the undertaking had anticipated. (The letter on page 6, in facsimile, from Clinton to Hon. Samuel Preston of Wayne County, Pa., a pioneer of the Delaware Valley, and one of the very earliest advocates of railroad construction in this country, is interesting in many ways as bearing on the subject of this proposed railroad.) Thus, then, came the first suggestion of a railroad over that rugged route as the evolution of General Clinton's idea of a great national Appian Way. In the light of events then, this was a bold suggestion. When the Redfield pamphlet appeared there were but nine miles of railroad in the United States that could be classed as railroad in operation. That nine miles was a crude gravity road, or road of inclined planes, which had been running then something more than a year, connecting the Summit Hill coal mine with the Lehigh River at Mauch Chunk, Pa. True, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had been begun; the South Carolina Railroad was building, and several companies were under charter to build local railroads in New York State. But no mind had reached so far into the future of railroads as had that of Redfield, and he lived to see his daring a&S~' Ad/ ' /fJ/ <^£>„c . '-;£<£ %^/<- /^c<7*. ?Z^_t£> "tv AW ! i-', ~S ^c*s <&<£- Jtex^O ^Z^zu^ <&; ZZ/^^z^ To //t^^t^u^f JZ& stL^^*^^? '^S'^&zysi-^ ^^ ^C^lr SZZ^C £*J^Z^ TON TO HON. SAMUEL PRESTON. ORIGINAL LOANED BY MISS ANN PRES1 MIDDLETOWN, N. V. Washington, Decembers, 1831. ^ ,Y M d Friend: When I had tlic pleasure to meet you at your house, you promised to procure for me tne ,cvcl '"it of the rou'- 1 f„ r the railroad between your place and the Susquehanna River, and also the [Thi Delaware and the Susquehanna.— Author.] I hope that you will bi and that you will 1 ments without loss of time. ild that ii ntion to promote the objects of the road. I hi in this 1 t. By Pennsylvania 1 allude to the northern ter that our friends in bi than to adopl ate conventions for thai : t would I the members of Congress in both States and whose 1 on to procure a tion l>y Congress to make the surveys next nt, ought to be done. n spectfully, yours, DeWitt Clinton. THE STORY OF ERIE prophesies, if not all come true, yet the truth of them established and their quick fulfillment inevitable. It is a curious fact that it was the South Carolina Railroad that hastened the beginning of the New York and Erie Railroad, and made it the second railroad in the world projected and designed for the use of locomotive power. This motive power on railroads had become a comparatively old and uni- versal thing when the Erie was ready to place its first locomotive in service, but when the notice of application for a charter for the New York and Erie Railroad was published in 1831, there were only four locomotives in use in this country, and only one rail- road then in operation had been built with the orig- inal intention of having locomotives as its motive and it was attached to the first train-load of pas- sengers ever drawn by a locomotive in this country, January 15, 1831. Among those present on the memorable occasion was Hon. Henry E. Pierson of Ramapo, N. Y. Mr. Pierson was on his wedding tour, and chanced to be in Charleston on the day the railroad was opened. He and his bride were passengers on the train — thus giving them the dis- tinction, doubtless, of being the very first bridal couple to enjoy a railroad trip. Mr. Pierson shared with his brother-in-law, Eleazar Lord, the belief in the importance of some avenue of communication through the southern portion of New York. The success of the trial trip of the locomotive on the pioneer South Carolina Railroad satisfied him that a -*-^ewy^>:. "v WST "W ■-J J <9 ;\ v FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN IN AMERICA TO BE DRAWN BY A LOCOMOTIVE IN' ACTUAL SERVICE, SOUTH CAROLINA RAILROAD, JANUARY 15, 1831. (FROM AN OLD PRINT.) power. This was the South Carolina Railroad, be- tween Charleston on the coast and Hamburg on the western border of South Carolina. In December, 1830, the first six miles of that railroad were opened. The pioneer locomotive built for use upon it was de- signed by Horatio Allen, who became President of the New York and Erie Railroad Company some years later. It was built at the West Point Foun- dry. New York City, and was named " The Best Friend of Charleston." The engine was placed on the railroad in October, 1830. It was " set up " by Julius D. Pctsch, a Charleston machinist, who had never seen a locomotive before. Nicholas Darrell, another Charleston machinist, became its engineer, thus being the first locomotive engineer in America in actual service. After several trial trips the loco- motive was pronounced ready for regular operation, similar road would be feasible between New York and Lake Erie. He returned home in 183 1, enthu- siastic over the subject, bringing the first news of the wonderful railroad opening at Charleston. His representations aroused Eleazar Lord to enthusiasm on the subject of a railroad from the Hudson to the Lakes, and he became an earnest advocate of such an undertaking. As the locomotive " The Best Friend of Charles- ton " was thus instrumental in spurring men to action in the matter of a railroad between the Hud- son River and Lake Erie, the history of its career and fate may properly have a [dace in this chronicle. That history was thus tersely related in the Charles- ton Courier of June 18, 1831 : ' The locomotive ' Best Friend ' started yesterday morning to meet the lumber cars at the Forks of 8 BETWEEN 1HK OCEAN AND THE LAKES . and. while turning on the revolving plat- suffered to accumulate by the the fireman, a negro, who. pressing on irplus -team from by which means the boiler burst at the bot- tom, was forced inward, and injured Mr. Darrell, the engineer, and two negroes. The one had his thigh broken, and the other received a severe cut in the face .. at one in the flesh part of the breast. Mr. Darrell was scalded from the shoulder blade down his back. The boiler was thrown to the dis- tance of twenty-five feet. None of the persons are dangerously injured except the negro who had his thigh broken. The accident occurred in consequence of the negro holding down the safety-valve while Mr. Darrell, the engineer, was assisting to arrange the lumber cars, and thereby not permitting the necessary escape of steam above the pressure the engine was allowed to carry." That was the first locomotive explosion on record, but the " Best Friend " was patched up at a machine shop, and was in service a long time thereafter. J^©_ CHAPTER II. TAKING FORM— 1831 TO 1832. New York Railroad Fever of 1831-32 — First Public Meeting advocating a Railroad from the Hudson River to the Southern Tier held at Monticello, Sullivan County, N. Y. — The Railroad Meetings at Jamestown and Angelica — The Marvin Notice of Application for a Charter for a Company to Build a Railroad between the Hudson and Lake Erie — The Church Notice of Application — The General Convention at Owego to Discuss the Railroad Project — Differences of Opinion about the Propriety of One or of Two Corporations — The Sentiment of the Convention Favorable to Two Corporations — Defection of Philip Church — A Letter from New York that Resulted in the Final Agreement on a Single Charter — Birth of the New York and Frie Railroad. At the beginning of 1832 there were forty-four miles of railroad in operation in New York State— the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, 15 miles long, between Albany and Schenectady, and the Ithaca and Owego Railroad, 29 miles long, between the two places named. The Mohawk and Hudson Rail- road Company was chartered April 17, 1826, and was the first railroad in the United States designed for passenger traffic. When the railroad was fin- ished in August, 1 83 1, locomotives had come into use, and one, the DeWitt Clinton, was tried suc- cessfully, and the experimental train was run from Albany on the 9th of the month. This was the first passenger train and locomotive ever run in the State of New York. As an interesting relic of those in- fant days of railroading a facsimile reproduction is here made of a sketch of that pioneer excursion train and locomotive. This picture was cut by a silhouette artist, J. H. Brown, as the train stood in the Albany yard, just before it started. David Mat- chew was the engineer, John T. Clark was the con- ductor. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad is now a part of the New York Central Railroad system. The Ithaca and Owego Railroad Company was chartered January 28, 1828. Its railroad was con- structed by aid of the State, and on the inclined plane system, and was run by stationary engines at planes, and by horse power on the levels. It is now a portion of the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- ern Railroad system. The construction of these railroads brought to New York State the first serious visitation of rail- road fever in this country. There had been thirteen railroad companies chartered in the State since 1826, but, with the exception of the New York and Har- lem, the Saratoga and Schenectady, the Rochester Railroad and Canal, and the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, nothing had been done on them beyond obtaining the charters. But a sudden craze for rail- roads came in the summer of 1831, and the Legisla- ture of 1832 found no less than twelve applications for charters for railroads before it. A local news- paper of that day thus jocosely pictured the situa- tion : It is almost impossible to open a paper without finding an account of some railroad meeting. An epidemic on this sub- ject seems nearly as prevalent throughout the country as the influenza. From Albany to Buffalo the inhabitants, not satis- fied with the canal, are holding meetings to further the project of a railway between those places, and our friends on the east side of the river, angry that the Hudson should suffer itself to be frozen up, have resolved to withdraw their patronage from it and forthwith construct something that shall answer for cold weather as well as warm. Instead of the good old- fa-hioned way of going twenty miles to market one day and back the next, we may expect shortly to be whisked along at the infernal rate of thirty miles an hour. — Independent Republican, Goshen, N. )'., Dec. 26, 1831. It seems more than strange that this newspaper went to distant portions of the State to find exam- ples of the rage for railroads, and had nothing to say about one that was then being just as eagerly dis- cussed along its own prospective line, and on which the very town where the paper was published was to be a prominent station. For months the subject BETWEEN NIK OCEAN AND THE LAKES of til l.\\c m New Yon. 1 "unkirk. , the first public i on the subject of a railroad to cover the I subs it j occupied by the Erie, was given • Monticello, Sullivan County, \. Y.. on J . which meeting was con- tinued the n< as the followin dings from the rec fy: the inhabitants of the village - .', !. Chester's on th - ;i, relative tu the pro instructing a railroad - uthern part New York, pursuant That we view with deep interest the project of con- i the Hudson River, through the Rocklai . Sullivan. Delaware, Broome, and T of a l>ranrh thereof t" said Hudson ge, and that we will use Our utmi further the undertaking. That John I'. Junes. Piatt Pelton, Hiram Bennett, - 51 t. and Archibald C. Xiven be a committee d object. There is no record of what that committee did to " promote the object," but it is to be presumed that the publication, some weeks later, of a certain notice of application to the Legislature of New York satis- fied the Monticello people that the work was going forward satisfactorily without the necessity of their promoting. It is to their lasting honor, however, that they were the first to put in tangible form an expn appreciation of the practicability and importance of the great work under discussion, al- then as yet without form or coherence, and although, under the influence o quent cir- . they were tint permitted to enjoy any t benefit from its consummation, ut three months later than the Monti- tember 201, a meeting was hi ••1, Jamestown, Chautauqua County, ' ion <>f a railroad through the unties, b the Hudson Erie. This mei chiefly through the efforts of Richard I'. Marvin, then and unknown lawyer, but who became a man of eminence, and. la.vin, h tatii in the State. Young Marvin had thou I | .';. . ply on th on of bet- ter means of communication between tidewater and the Western part of the State, ami was "lie of the first to foresee the superiority of a railroad for that purpose. Of this Jamestown meeting linn. Elial T. Foote, who was the first judge of Chautauqua County, was the chairman. The result of the 111 ing was the drafting of the following notice by Mr. Marvin, which was published in the Albany Argus, then the " State Paper," and in the newspapers of the Southern Tier, such publication being a neces- sary legal procedure in those days: Railroad.- Ap - will be made to the Legislature this Slate at its next session for the passage of an act to incorporate a company to construct a Railroad from the city of New i Southern 'Pier > 1 : the village of Jamestown to Lake Erie, with a capital of six mil- lions of dollars, or such other sum as may be deemed necessary. -September _'0, 183I. This notice to the Legislature was practically the first positive step toward the project of building a railroad between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Early in October, 1831, a notice signed by Philip Church and others was printed in the Allegany County newspapers calling a meeting to be held October 25, at the court house in Angelica, " for the purpose of adopting measures in relation to the contemplated railroad from the city or county of New York to Lake Erie, or the portage of the sum- mit of the Ohio Canal " (the Redfield project 1. The meeting was held. Philip Church was chairman, and Asa S. Allen and Daniel McIIenry secretaries. Philip Church made an address in which he said that he, with others, had been for a year past moving to form a company for the purpose of connecting the port of New York with Lake Erie, and had drawn a notice "f application i" that effect. He read the notice to the meeting, and a committee — Philip Church, Hon. John Griffin, B. I". Smead, J. B. Coolcy, am! Miles — was appointed to draft resolutions expressing the views of the meet; which was adjourned until the next evening, ( •< I ber 2<">. The result was that the plan of the Na- tional Railroad was ignored anil Philip Church's idea approved. His notice of application for a railroad was adopted, and was published according to law. It was as follows: THE STORY OF ERIE ii NOTICE OF INCORPORATION. Notice is hereby given that an application will be made to the Legislature at its next session For the passage of an act incorporating a company with a capital of ten millions of dollars for the construction of a railroad from the city or county of New York to that part of Lake Eric lying between the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek and the Pennsylvania line, together with a branch of the Alleghany River, anil also for the establishment of a ferry across such part of the North River as the route of the main line of the railroad may pass over. \o\ ember 2, 1831. To further the interests of such a railroad, citizens of Owego issued a call for a convention at that place, as being a central one and convenient for the pur- pose, to discuss the matter by delegates from all the counties interested. This was approved by all, and the date of the convention was fixed for December 20, 1 83 1. The Pumpellys and Drakes of Owego, prominent citizens and large landowners, were the prime movers in the proposed railroad at Owego, and at Binghamton the Whitneys and other leading people brought their influence to bear in favor of it, although that community believed more in the value and importance of the Chenango Canal than they did in the efficacy of a railroad to enhance their interests. The publication of the applications for a railroad charter had an effect on the people of the southern tier and interior counties of New York that was by no means assuring to the sponsors of the proposed company in the western counties. The railroad was to be nearly five hundred miles long, and that a work of such magnitude could be carried to a success- ful issue by one corporation these people doubted. The State itself, with all the strength of its govern- ment and the resources of its treasury, they argued, had been ten years in constructing the Erie Canal, and here was a work, seemingly as formidable, to be boldly undertaken by a private corporation. They affected to see only utter failure as the outcome of such an unheard-of project, and insisted that there should be at least two separate companies chartered. Conventions were held at various places in these and the adjoining counties, the delegates being composed of the representative men of those portions of the State, and strong protests were made against the single charter project. At a convention held at Binghamton, December 15, 1831, at which the coun- ties of Seneca, Tompkins, Tioga (which then in- cluded Chemung County), Broome, and Orange, in New York State, and the Pennsylvania counties of Wayne, Susquehanna, and Luzerne were repre- sented, the plan of two charters instead of one was discussed and approved — that is, the convention ad- vocated the application to the Legislature for a char- ter for a railroad from Owego to New York City, and approved of the project for a railroad from Owego to Lake Erie. At this convention, as at all the county conventions that had been held, dele- gates were appointed to attend the general conven- tion of people along the line of the proposed rail- roads at Owego on December 20, 1831. As it was from the result of the action of this gathering of the representative men of the counties then interested in the undertaking that the New York and Erie Rail- road Company and the railroad from the tidewater to Lake Erie were born, the proceedings of the Owego Convention, although only the cold, formal, official report of them is possible at this late day, are an important part of the history of Erie, and are reproduced here as they were published in the Oiuego Gazette of December 22, 183 1, together with the comment of that newspaper on the gathering and its work : RAILROAD CONVENTION. One of the most numerous and respectable conventions, we venture to say, that has been convened in this State, for objects of Internal Improvement, was held in this village on the 20th and _>ist inst., < ,11 the subnet of a railroad from Lake Erie to the Hudson. It was composed of delegates from some fifteen or sixteen counties, besides many gentlemen from various sections interested in the proposed object members of the convention. It is but justice to say. and we allude to the fact with much pleasure, as evincing the high estimation in which the proposed improvement is held by an intelligent public, that the convention embraced much of the wealth, talent, and enterprisi of this enterprising State. We have only time to remark, that a cordiality of sentiment pre- vailed, in relation to tin- me.i i;i to be pursued for the attainment of the grand object in view, to a degree that reflects the highest credit on the convention, and fun the most satisfactory evidence that the object will be per- d in until finally accomplished. The proceedings will be found beli iw. Till'. PROCEEDINGS. At a meeting of del. rom the counties of Chautauqua, 1 ik traugus, Allegany, Steuben. Tioga. Broome, Chen Delaware, Ol ego, Greene, Sullivan, Tompkins, and Seneca convened at the villag W( _'o. on the 20th day of Decern- BE I WEEN 1 III l M I .AN AND I HE LAKES - Pumpelly, nd John C. ■ ies. ntlemen, their cre- I R, P. Marvin, X. S • ■ • C. J. Fox, i i A. Crooker. ight, I". McHenry, Philip Church. S. Hubb J. I i vans, John Cooper, Samuel Erwin, Samuel B Iward Bacon, O. F. Mar- shall. Win. Lake. lice. McClure, Z. A. 1. eland, Hei . :. — Win. Maxwell. Lyman Covell, John G. McDowell, Pumpelly, John II. Avery, Jonathan Piatt, S Sweet. J S Paige, Charles Pum- •i R. Drake. L, A. Burrows. me. — Hoi >avis C. Case. Theodore I ' Whitney, Levi Dimick, H. C. Bacon. Vincent Whit — John C. Clark. John Newton, Dexter Newell, urch, Robt. D. McEwen, E. W. Corbin, Willis Sher- Delaware. — Benning Mann. Wm. Webster. Hugh Johnson, t( r. Andrew Parish. go. — Sherman Page, Isaac Hayes, Albert Benton, D. Lawrence. Win. Angel. Peter < R. Konl. Geo. Mor- rell. D. Hatch. S. D. Shaw. Sullivan. -Randall Street. Piatt Pelton. Seaman Isaac Van Loan. Jas. G. Elliott Tompkins. — Henry Ackley, Jacob M. M'Cormick, Francis A. Bio Ebenezer Mack. Julius Ackley, Win. R. Col- lins. Levi Leonard. W. A. Woodward. J. B. Gosman. Murphy, Jas. De Mott, C. Pratt. J. B. Farr, II. 1). Barto. T. B. Wakeman, Ira Clizbe, O. Beseley, of the City of New by invital in the convention. The lution was adopted: Morrell and Woodcock, of Tomp- •;. . Avery and .1 of Tioga, deli gati i a Railroad Convention held at Binghamto attend this convention, be admitted to :ne. Mr. g resolution, which was ting of om from n\ ention be appointed to ■■■ iideration of thi it ion • i d from the chair as follows: if i tl raugus,Haight keuben, Burrows of Tioga. Virgil ' ware, Sullivan. S( aman ol i Bl I Wakeman of New to the Pn idi nt of the I on Lord. Richard M. ; n< r, Ri« h- ;ri ' R a rail- ■i. and The committee appoint' I report to the convention the subjects which should particularlj occupy their attention at the present meeting, respectfully report: im. That it is expedient that application bi to the . at their ensuing session, for the incorporation of a company with tl try privileges to construct a raili i Lake Erie, commencing at some point between the mouth of Cat! Creek and the line of Pennsylvania, and to run from thence, through the south- ii tier of counties, by the waj of the vil to the Hudson River, or to connect with railroads already chartered, or otherwise, as may he deemed most advisable with a view to reach the city of New York by the best rail- l with a capital of $5,000,000. jd. That a notice of the foregoing application, emanating from this convention, and signed by the officers then forthwith published in the public papers, as the law din 3d. Thai a committee consisting of five members bi ed to prepare and report to the convention a memorial to the Legislature, embracing the abovi mentioned subjects. 4th. That Executive Committees be appointed in the several counties interested in this application, for the purpose of cir- culating and forwarding memorials, procuring the publica- tion of notices, and dicing such other things as may be neces sary to forward the objects of this application. 5th. That a central corresponding committee be appointed and also column: rrcspotidcnce for each of the coun- ties interested in this application. All which is respectfully submitted. D. G. GAKNSEY, Chairman. The following-named gentlemen wen- appointed a mittee to draft the memorial to the Legislature: Messrs. Burrows, Leonard. Drake, and Avery of Tioga, and Clark of Chenango. The following-named gentlemen were appointed a corre- sponding committee: Messrs McClure of Steuben, .1. Pumpell) of Tioga, V. Whitney of Broome, Clark of Chenango, Page ol < Itsi go On motion of Mr. Page, the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That the central committee be authorized to pub- lish the proceedings of this convention, and notice of applica- tion in all the counties immediately interested in this project, also in the cities of New York and Albany. The following named gentlemen were appointed executive and corresponding committees: Chautauqua County.- II. II. Camp, Sacket, W. I hi ter, T. \ Osborne, V Diason, J. Mullet. (). Tinker, O. M'Clure, J. Van Buren, S. A. Crum, Asa Gage, L. Crosby, D. Sherman, Solon Hall. I Convers, S. Tiffany, A. Plumb, T. Campbell, J. Wait, I >. < '•. < iarn i irat«£tw.— S. N. Clark. II. Sexton. A, Gibbs, D. Backus, A. Mead, F S. Martin, II. Beach, P. Spencer. •any.- S. S. Hai lej B F Smead, D Mi Henry. G. Mill I 1 ' all. M. Smith. J. Griffin, S. I A. C. Hull. Steuben. II. Matthews. X. Besley, J. R. Gansevoorl R Roby, C. Cook. T. Raynolds, .1. Van Valkenburgh, P. Swart. II. I.. Arnold, I >r. Hunter. Tioga.- J. R. Drake. G. .1 Pumpelly, I. \ Burrows, Thi I Fa) Mi" Maxwell. S. Tuthill. G, B. Baldwin. T. North, C. ( Irwin. THE STORY OF ERIE i3 Broome. — J. Whitney, T. Robinson, T. G. Waterman. C. Eldredge, G. Tompkins, P. Robinson, J. Hinds, jr., W. Sey- mour, B. B. Nichols, \V. Whittemore, Judson Allen, John W. Harper, Robert Harper, Peter Robinson. Chenango. — Geo. Welch, Silas A. Conkey, J. Latham, Rufus Phelps, W. Clark, Eleazar Fitch, Jas. G. Mersereau, C. Hoff- man, L. Bigelow, M. G. Benjamin, R. D. McEwen, Ezra Corbin, Otis Loveland, Nathan Boynton, Dan. Stow, Ed. Connell, Rufus Chandler, O. Parker, Wiley Thomas, P. G. Burch, Elam Yale. Otsego. — J. Hayes, D. Laurence, E. R. Ford, J. Goodyear, J. More, M. MacNamee, S. Crippen, M. M. Chamberlain, A. Morse, J. Bryant, C. Davidson, G. H. Noble. T. R. Austin. Delaivare. — N. Edgerton, J. Edgerton, A. Parrish, S. Gor- don, V. P. Ogdcn, W. Cannon, S. Lusk, Sylvester Smith, Nathan Mann. Greene.— A, Van Vechten, J. S. Day, Piatt Adams, M. Wat- son, S. Fuller, W. Edwards, H. Gosler, Z. Piatt, J. J. Brandow, S. Nichols, D. A. King. Schoharie. — Thos. Lawyer, W. Mane. Ulster. — Theron Skeele, J. Keirsted, J. Trumpbour, John Suydam. Sullivan.— John P. Jones, R. S. Street. A. C. Niven. H. Bennett, P. Pelton. ('range. — G. D. Wickham. W. Walsh, Judge Seward, T. S. Fisk, Stacy Beaks, Abraham J. Cuddeback. Rockland. — J. H. Pierson. New York. — J. S. Talmadge, Nathan Weed, Silas Browne, Eleazar Lord, Ben De Forest, R. Hiker. S. Swartwout. Jas. Lynch, Silas Stilwell, Arthur Bronson, R. G. Day, Silas E. Burrow's, Josiah Hedden, B. Robinson. R. M. Lawrence, Robt. White, J. D. Beers, W. G. Buckner, Richard Ray. /•kins. — J. S. Beebee, S. B. Munn, jr., S. Marck, H. Powers, S. Love. Seneca.— C. Pratt. P. De Mott, Seba Murphy. J. Maynard, W. R. Smith. On motion of Mr. Burrows the following resolution was adopted: Resolved. That the convention cordially approve of the appli- cation to the Legislature lor the construction of a railroad from the village of Ithaca to the village of Geneva. The thanks of the convention were voted to the President and officers for the able discharge of their duties. Geo. Morrell, President. Geo. M'Clure, ~J Jas. Pumpelly, > \' ice-Presidents. S. S. Haight, S. Page, D. G. GARNSEY, Secretaries. J. C. Clark, Such is the plain official report of the Owego Con- vention, from which dates the birth of the Erie; but there is an unofficial side to the proceedings of that convention which demands recognition in this chron- icle of Erie. The convention was held in the court house. Philip Church of Allegany County was chairman of it as it was originally organized. The sentiment of the convention was so much in favor of the application for charters for two separate corpo- rations that a resolution favoring such a proceeding was likely to be adopted. This was so utterly op- posed to the original idea of the Chautauqua County Convention, as proposed by Richard Marvin, and the ideas of Philip Church, and, as they believed, was destined to make the building of the railroad beyond Owego so exceedingly doubtful, that Mr. Church resigned as chairman of the convention and took no further part in its deliberations. Some weeks prior to the meeting of the conven- tion at Owego, Eleazar Lord had written to the cor- responding committee of the original Jamestown Convention, in which letter he favored and recom- mended the two-corporation idea. The committee delegated Richard Marvin to reply to Mr. Lord's letter, which he did, making it as able and earnest as he was capable of making it, and insisting that the work must be undertaken as a whole, as one enterprise, and constructed by one company. Just before Philip Church resigned as chairman of the Owego Convention, and while the excitement over the probable outcome of the debate on the railroad question was at its height, a memorable incident occurred. It is thus described by Richard Marvin, who was a delegate to the convention : " A prominent citizen of Owego came rushing into the convention, and handed to the President a letter addressed to ' The President of the Convention then in Session.' The President, Church, handed the let- ter to the clerk, and it was opened and read. It was from Eleazar Lord. It was brief. After regret- ting his inability to attend the convention, he then in few and emphatic words declared that the entire road to Lake Erie should be embraced in one char- ter, and be constructed as a whole by one company. The letter contained no argument. I understood then, and have always understood, that this letter was a response to the letter of our committee." This letter was not from Eleazar Lord alone. It was also signed by such representative New York business men of that day as Richard M. Lawrence, William G. Buckner, Robert White, and Richard Kay. Mr. Lord, in his" Historical Review of the New York and Erie Railroad," records that the letter was a strong presentment in favor of a single charter. •4 BE 1 WEEN 1H1-: OCEAN AND I'HH LAKES M y was cho the resignation of Philip was referred to the If it ■ ter that brought about the result shed it would be difficult to surmise what in the sentiment of the ■n. Alter a long and hotly- in that committee, the resolution follows: That it is expedient that application be made to mrc of th ssion for the in- impany with the necessary privileges to from Lake Erie, commencing .it some the mouth of Cattaraugus Creek and the line nnsylvania ami to run from thence t" the Southwestern by the way of the village of Owego to the ■ n River. ect with railroads already char - may be deer ble, with a view to reach the city of New York, by the best railroad route, with - =000.000. This resolution met with a vigorous opposition in the convention, but was finally accepted as the sense of the meeting by a substantial majority. Just why 'titcome did not satisfy Mr. Church and Mr. Marvin that the Owego Convention was not com- mitted to the two-corporations plan it is now im- ile to know, but, according to the Marvin remi- "f the event in the archives of the Chau- tauqua Historical Society, such was the case, and it only through strong personal appeals to Church by Marvin that the former was induced to take any further interest in the project. He yielded to these went to New York to confer with Elea. and other New York capitalists on the subject, with the result that Church was named as (me of the incorporators of the company in the charter presented to the following session of the New York Legislatui hurch application franu-d.it the Angelica Convention in October, 1831, being adopted by the memorialists instead of the one tlrafted at the Owego Convention. The people of Broome County and that part of New York had been for a Ion- time striving for the building of the Chenan Canal, ami the influence of the si 1 ling in favor of that I figured prominently in the discussion of the proposed rail- road, especially at Binghamton — so much so, that on December 23, (831, three days after the conven- tion at Owego, at a public meeting held at Bingham- ton. one of the resolutions adopted was to the effect that '" we feel a deep interest in the contemplated railroad, but we feel a deeper interest in the con- templated Chenango Canal, and consider its con- struction of paramount important ." An interesting reminiscence of those days of the Erie's origin is contained in a letter from Mrs. John Barker Church, a daughter-in-law of Philip Church, who, in the latter part of I S3 1 , wrote to her father. Professor Silliman of Yale College, as follows: " Mr. Church goes to New York for the winter, endeavo ing to make interest for the railroad, which is now a topic of much feeling throughout the country. If they get it, it will be indeed ' annihilating all time and space.' They talk most seriously of being able to go from Buffalo to Xew York in twenty-four hours! You ma}- smile at this, but I assure you, it 's all true. " CHAPTER III. ORGANIZING ERIE— 1832 TO 1833. An Unsatisfactory Charter — The Subscription Committee Thinks the United States Government Should Make a Survey for the Railroad — The Government Survey, the Krie Canal, and New York State Politics — President Andrew Jackson's Reason for Ordering the Government Survey Discontinued — " It Would Interfere with the Management of the Politics of New York State'* — Redfield's Indignant letter — The Survey through Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan Counties — The Original Subscribers to the Stock — The Charter Amended, and the New York and Erie Railroad Company Organized — Eleazar Lord the First President — The inal Board of 1 Erectors, which I lomprisi I the Most Prominent of New York City's Pusiness Men and Capitalists of that Day — The Kiist Yice-President, Treasurer, and Counsel. The original draft of the charter for a company to build the proposed railroad was made by the Hon. John Duer of New York. In this the capital of the company was placed at $10,000,000, and it was pro- vided that after the subscribing of $500,000 of that amount the company should have authority to or- ganize. The old opposition to the construction of an) r means of transportation through the State of New- York that might divert business from and lessen the commercial and political influence of the canal coun- ties at once showed itself among the representatives of those counties, and the proposed charter for such a thoroughfare was so amended during the session that when a charter was at last granted by the Legis- lature, April 24, 1S32, it was by no means a document calculated to further the interests of a great public improvement, for the completion of which a large por- tion of the population of New York State was appeal- ing, and on which the enhancement of the material interests of a wide extent of the country at large depended. (Page 295, " Fighting Its Way.") As finally adopted, the charter fixed the capital of the company at $10,000,000, but provided that it should all be subscribed and 5 per cent, of the subscriptions ($500,000) paid in before a company should be organ- ize. 1; named as incorporators Samuel Swartwout, Stephen Whitney. Peter White, Cornelius Harsen, Eleazar Lord, Daniel LeRoy, William C. Redfield, Cornelius J. Rlauvelt, Jeremiah II. Pierson, William Townscnd, Egbert Jansen, Charles Borland, Abram M. Smith, Alpheus Dimmick, Randall S. Street, John P. Jones, George D. Wickham, Joseph Curtis, John L. Gorham, Joshua Whitney, Christopher Eldridge, James McKinney, James Pumpelly, Charles Pum- pelly, John R. Drake, Jonathan Piatt, Luther Gere, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jeremiah S. Beebe, Ebenezer Mack, Ansel St. John, Andrew DeWitt Bruyn, Stephen Tuttle, Lyman Covell, Robert Covell, John Arnot, John Magee, William McCoy, William S. Hubbell, William Bauman, Arthur H. Erwin, Henry Brother, Philip Church, Samuel King, Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Jeromus Johnson, John Steward, Jr., Henry I. Wyckoff, Richard M. Lawrence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Nathaniel Weed, Hubert Van Wagenen, David Rogers, John Hone, John G. Cos- ter, Goold Hoyt, Peter I. Nevius, Robert Buloid, Thomas R. Ronalds, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Benjamin L. Swan, Grant B. Baldwin. William Max- well, and Darius Bentley — representative men of the city of New York. and of each count}- interested in the building of the railroad; provided for the con- struction of a double, single, or treble track railroad from New York, or some point near New York, through the Southern Tier, by way of Owego, to Lake Erie, the railroad to be begun within four years, and $200,000 expended in construction within one year thereafter, one-quarter of the railroad to be completed and in operation within ten years from the date of the charter, one-half within fifteen years, the whole within twenty years, or the charter to be null and void ; named a subscription committee of eighty persons, a majority of them living at a dis- tance from New York City, where the headquarters |;i;i WEEN 11 li. OCEAN AND 11 IK 1.AK1 S of (hi tablished, and provided not be begun on a double track until 1 ipleted between the Hud- ;rie, and ; :d freight had been carried over it. td was not otherwise defined that " it is to begin at the city of New York, such point in its vicinity as shall be most eligi- md convenient therefor, and continue through luthern Tier of counties, by way of Owego in to the shore of Lake Erie, at some eligible point between the Cattaraugus Creek and the Pennsylvania line." The company was restrained from making any connection with railroads in Penn- sylvania or New Jersey, without the special permis- of the Legislature. At a meeting of the incorporators held at the Merchants' Exchange in New York, May 9, 1832, at which Philip Church presided, William C. Redfield being secretary, a committee consisting of Eleazar Lord, Walter Bowne. Morgan Lewis, William Pauld- Stephen Whitney, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Law- rence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Nathaniel Weed, William C. Redfield, Samuel Swartwout, and Rich- ard M. Lawrence, was appointed to adopt the nec- measures for effecting a survey of the route " during the present season." It was the sense of the meeting that it would be useless to solicit money to build a railroad the sur- vey for the route of which had not even been made. It was also the opinion of many of the incorporators that, even if they procured money to pay for mak- survey, it would be impossible to obtain the $10,000,000 subscriptions and the amount of cash >sary to organize a company to act on the sur- But, on und that the proposed railroad would be a grand avenue for the quicker opening up of the public lands, a link in the chain <>f communi- cation between the East and the West, and thus an undertaking tending to national benefit, it was re- ting that th. ,1 Government to and solicited to make the survi the railr> t in this proposition in the in- terior countii committee issued a call to all who wen frii ,1 New Y01 1 Erie Railroad to convene at OwegO on June 4, [832, and there take the subject under advisement. The assemblage was large and enthusiastic. Philip Church was chairman and J. R. Drake secretary. A committee consisting of J. R. 1 >rake, J. 1 i. Avi and S. B. Leonard was appointed to correspond with the proper officers of the General Government in relation to the survey of the railroad route, and to solicit subscriptions for the object, and to create a fund to be appropriated in premiums for useful infor- mation respecting railroads and railroad machinery; that subject having also been brought before the convention — a circumstance in itself eloquent of the meagre practical knowledge pertaining to the mat- ters in hand that the founders of the Erie possessed, and of the crude ideas of railroad construction that then prevailed. The effort to raise money by subscription to pay for the survey failed, and it was at last resolved by the committee to ask that it be made at the public expense. This proposition was placed before the authorities at Washington. The subject of internal improvements at that time being a paramount one, President Jackson approved of the proposition, and in the latter part of June, 1832, an order was issued from the War Department for the making of the sur- vey at the expense of the Government, the work to be in charge of Col. DeWitt Clinton, who had made the reconnoissance for the proposed Redfield rail- road survey in the autumn of 1831. Colonel Clin- ton arrived at New York with four assistants soon afterward, and began preparations for carrying out his orders. On July 4. before he had completed his arrangements for beginning the survey, an order was issued from the War Department suspending the work unless its cost should be paid for by the New York and Erie Railroad Company or by private funds. This sudden change in the attitude of the Government was the first serious blow of the many the railroad project was to receive before the com- ing of the time when it should unite the ocean with tin' lakes. It was announced th.it th.- work had been ordered discontinued because President Jackson's advisers had d that there was no constitutional war- rant for it ; but, accordin azar Lord's reminis- THE STORY OF ERIE 17 /frrVYV C/^^*-t— C M tf-*-*-^/, ,^C6^^^ /r «^$c -^~ s^^s^ CS^p^o -*^y^^^ ^ «^£^ ^^-~ p^s FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM WILLIAM C. REDFIELD TO THE HON, SAMUEL PRESTON. ORIGINAL LOANED BY MISS ANN PRESTON, MIDDLETOWN, N. Y. New York, 7«/r 25, 1832. RESPECTED FRIEND : Being on the point of leaving town I have just time to inform you that the survey of our Railroad has just been suspended by order of the President of the United States. Thus we find that every thing which is calculated to promote the growth and prosperity of the Northern, Middle and Western States is vetoed by the Execu- tive authority. If the citizens of Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York understand this fact as they ought they will express their indignation to our Sovereign despot at the next election. For the rest we must wait with resignation the progress of events more in favor of the Railroad. Yours in haste, W.M. C. Rl hi IELD. cences, it was learned that politics and partisan in- with the survey at the public expense, at the re- fluences had again conspired to obstruct the progress quest and on the representations of a then promi- of the contemplated railroad through the Southern nent Democratic politician of New York. Tier of New York State. The President frankly ' This gentleman tells me," said the President, said to a committee of the Erie incorporators that " that the building of this railroad would make a Colonel Clinton had been ordered not to proceed thoroughfare that would be a rival of the Erie Canal, 2 1 WEEN THE ' »< EAN AND THE LAKES I of whose political patronage would be I by the patronage of the rail- the latter not being under State control, thus making it impossible to manage the politics of the veil as they are managed now; and, surely, as the gentleman says, that is of far more import- ance than the raili te already amply pn >- vided with m commercial transportation by anal." i William C. Redfield, who, as we have seen, first brought the subject of such a railroad forward, and who had its interests greatly at heart, voiced the bitter disappointment that this act of the President lit to all friends of the infant project in the letter to the Hon. Samuel Preston on page 17.) This unexpected darkening of the prospects of the New York and Erie Railroad at the very start was discouraging to the advocates of the enterprise. The New York and Erie Railroad Company could not defray the expenses for the survey for the pro- posed route for the very excellent reason that there is yet no New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany, nor could there be one until $10,000,000 had subscribed as its capital and $500,000 of it paid in. That event was, under the circumstances, a great distance in the future. But the friends of the railroad did not lose heart. The counties to be benefited by the work were appealed to and asked to mike up the necessary fund for the expenses of the survey through their respective territory by pub- ibscription. The only counties that responded to the call were Rockland, Sullivan, and Orange. The following letter will throw some light on the subject of this now long-forgotten Eric survey: Mo \". V.. September 28. 1832. D. K. Minor, 35 Wall St.. New York. ends of the New York and Erie Railroad to learn that the survey of tin- route near lenced last week under the direetion of and that it i^ proposed to continue the survey to the Hudson this fall. The first ten miles of the ible. Tlx iparativel) and a gradual Delaware and Hudson Canal of from twenty to twenty-five feet per mile. Respectfully your:,, J P. JONl 1 ' I ■ ■ '■' of the New York Aim ri- can and the Am, rican Railroad Journal. J. P. [ones was State Senator John P. Jones. .1 power in South- em New York in those days. tid in paying the expenses of the survey, the United States Government furnishing the engineer corps, which was in charge of Colonel Clinton, t he- first subscriptions to Erie stock were made. October [832, as follows: Eleazar Lord, merchant. New York, 201 shares; Rufus L. Lord, merchant. New York, 420 shares : Michael Burnham, printer. New York, 101 shares; Richard M. Lawrence, merchant, New York, three shares; Jeremiah If. Pierson, manu- facturer, Ramapo, N. Y., 151 shares,; Josiah G. Pier- son, manufacturer. Ramapo, N. Y.. one share; Cor- nelius Goetchings, one share; Solomon Humphrey, one share; Daniel C. Heuring, one share: Thomas Ward, clerk. New York, one share. With the ex- ception of the Goetchings, Humphrey, Heurii and Ward subscriptions, on which 5 per cent, was paid, the subscribers paid in 10 per cent, on their subscriptions, the total cash received being $9,880. The survey through Rockland. Orange, and Sulli- van counties was completed in the fall of 1832, and a report of it made to the Government and the com- pany, which was the last ever heard of it, that being, however, a matter of no particular consequence, as it was of no use whatever to the furthering of the advancement of work on the New York and Erie Railroad. The experiences of the Subscription Committee thus far in its effprts to get the great work in some tangible shape left no doubt in its mind that unless the Legislature could be induced to modify the char- ter in important particulars, and to grant other con- cessions, there would be no possible use- of spending further time or labor in efforts toward forwarding the undertaking, even so far as the organizing of a company. To these ends, such modifications and concessions were asked for at the session of the New- York Legislature for [833. In the face of much opposition from the canal counties the charter was at last so changed that a subscription of only $1 ,000,000 to the capital stock, instead of the entire $10,000,000, was mad' obligatory before the company could or- ni/e, of which 10 per cent, must be paid in. The quorum of the Subscription Committee was also re THE STORY OF ERIE 19 duced to a number that could be readily obtained at any time. With this amended charter, the committee went to work. Subscription books were opened pursuant to the following notice: NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. A'oticc. — The Books for subscription to the capital stock of this company will be opened at the .Merchants' Exchange in tli is city on the gth, iotli and nth day- oi July next, be- tween the hours of twelve and two o'clock. One million dollars of the stock is required to be subscribed before the commencement of the work, in shares of one hundred dollars each, five dollars on each share to be paid at the time of subscription. Dated New York, 24th June. 1833. COMMISSIONERS. Morgan Lewis, Gideon Lee, Robert White, John G. Coster, Stephen Whitney, Hubert Yan Wagenen, Isaac Lawrence. Goold Hoyt, Elisha Riggs, Thomas T. Woodruff, John Haggerty, John Steward, jr., Peter I. Nevius, Michael Burnham. N. B. — Applications by letter to the Commissioners inclos- ing money or checks will be received as subscriptions. The necessary subscriptions to the Erie stock were received by the commissioners on the days adver- tised, so that they were able to issue the call for the election of the first Board of Erie Directors as fol- lows: NOTICE OF ELECTION-NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. One million dollars of the capital stock of this Company having been subscribed in conformity with the charter, the stockholders are hereby notified that an election for the choice of seventeen Directors of the said company will be held at the Merchants' Exchange on Friday, the 9th day of August next, under the inspection of the Commissioners as directed in the charter. The poll will open from 10 to 12 o'clock A. M. By order of the Commissioners. New York, July 19, 1833. The men selected as this original Board of Erie Directors were: Stephen Whitney, Peter Harmony-, John Duer, Goold Hoyt, James Boorman, William G. Buckner, Elihu Townsend, Michael Burnham, Eleazar Lord, Samuel B. Ruggles, Benjamin Wright, D. N. Lord, of New York; Jeremiah H. Pierson, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, of Rockland County; George D. Wickham, of Orange County; Joshua Whitney, of Broome County; James Pumpelly, of Tioga County. Eleazar Lord was elected the first President of Erie; Goold Hoyt, Vice-President; William G. Buck- ner, Treasurer; and John Duer, Counsel. The or- ganization of the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany thus became a fact on August 9, 1833, although but 5 per cent, of the required subscriptions had been paid in, instead of 10 per cent., as the chartci specified. CHAPTER IV. FIRST ADMINISTRATION "1 ELEAZAR LORD— 1833 TO 1S35. Don tions — Opposition in the Western Counties — rhilip Church's Protest — 3 Appointed. II. I'm Lon Survey: I ain Wright, mte lor the New V.irk and Erie Railroad — The Light it Throws on the Knowle -Queer Idi itions, and Conclusions — The Route of the Railroad as md Amusing Calculations — Inclined Planes, I unnejs, and Careful Consideration of the Vet that Survey, as a Whole, Stands To-day as a Striking Monument to the Engineering Genius of that I. FAIN l'-llKAkl 1 D BEGINNING. the first - ns that received the favor- able consideration of the Hoard was made by Eleazar to the el :t that before any of the Company's :ibed capital should be expended for other pur- iit of way and donations of land should be ed from the people along the line of the pro- '. railroad. This action of the Board might been prompted by motives that its members for the best interests of the Company and its work, but it was far from being one to in- spire invi others with any great degree of confidence in their wisdom or qualifications as prac- tical business men, or in the sincerity of their' pro- or the beginning and progress of the railroad work. it had been the plaint of the the railroad that they could do nothing until a survey of the route gave them something ble to base their representations to the public on. eminent had been appealed to for aid in t; ct, without success. The people of ' in the -1 work had ignored a iiing but a survey could avail islature had come to their relief ii; fication of the charter they had been able to call into their treasury | com- pany. Undei the cii it would naturally that tli- availed I 3 of that ample full' [ without delay to the ordering of a survey for a route for the desired railroad, and thus secured the tangible some- thing on which to build their hopes of popular finan- cial support. Instead of doing that, they immedi- ately resolved to expend none of the money until right of way and donations of land from people along the line of the proposed railroad could be solicited, when, as a matter of fact, there was no " line of the proposed railroad," and could be none until one might be surveyed. It is by no means un- reasonable to suspect that much of the opposition that was manifested against the efforts of the Erie founders to establish their project might have risen from the contemplation of this and subsequent short- hted, foolhardy and inconsistent measures they and their early successors were responsible for. In September. 1833, less than a month after the Company was organized, Eleazar Lord, " By order of the Board of Directors." issued an address to the people of the Western counties, in which he said: We sec no prospect of procuring means adequate to this great undertaking, bul on the contrary Red that they carni'it in obtained; thai is, that subscriptions i" tin- -took of the company sufficient for the object will not be made. unless extensive and valuable donations of lands and money from the proprietors and inhabitants, on ami near the route, are mad- ompany, constituting such a fund as to in- spire the requisite confidence in the value and security of the stock, anil to compensate the loss of income (.11 the funds employed in the construction of the road, during the time upied by the work, and perl two or three ye thereafter. This circular also made plain the fact that the ulti- mate route of the railroad would be influenced by ^_^ c& THE STORY OF ERIE 21 such donations, and avowed that it was the deter- mination of the Company to abandon the undertak- ing and relinquish the charter unless the requested donations were made. The cessions asked for were to be lands six rods in width along the route, and the same amount at each end of the railroad, with all the timber that might be thereon, as right of way, and as many acres of land in tracts as the donor saw fit; the larger the donation the better chance the donor would have, it was intimated, of seeing the railroad pass over or contiguous to his property. The circular further stated that " if with the aid now solicited the stock should be deemed desirable on books being open for the capital, the donors of land and money might avail themselves of the op- essential subscriptions to the stock of tiic company on the part of the State or of individuals, until preliminary steps have been taken to ascertain the capabilities of the route and the cost of construction. Application was also made at an early period of the session (183.3) by the eastern corpora- tors for amendments to the charter, * * * asking a reduc- tion of capital from ten to six millions, and permission to the company to organize and enter upon its operations on a subscription of $500,000. The former part of the request was granted; the latter modified so as to require a subscription of $1,000,000. This great reduction, united with the permis- sion to commence and prosecute its object on subscriptions of small fractions of its capital, at the same time that it afforded facilities for its commencement, evidently would have brought into extreme jeopardy the completion of the rail- road, or its continuation to any great proportions even of its extent. In order to preclude consequences so disastrous to the claims and the hope of the western residents of the Southern Tier of Counties, their immediate representatives procured to be incorporated into the amendment a clause requiring the whole route to be surveyed before any section thereof should be undertaken. I, The Subscriber, aji iohabilaM of the count) 01" Steu ''« Vork andj£ne Rail Road « pan? shall construct their rail 1 'iuough tbecounty of ?(- ^reby agree >oi^% Uiem the <°\iw P^U^C^J^U^^.^^ jQ*~*t^/c^^^, "■-*■" ■» ,hB We**; -, t of»aid rail road »he Hudson .rirer Iq/.te line*f jt». . \, c\ Witness m. , ,-'.*Uy d'ejM our thousand eight bund Sealed and-delipered i f j -2-C-*' 1 the year of our Lor Jytx^-^SoA^K/c f the Canisteo was a wilderm broken here and there by lumber settlements. Hor- nellsville was a town of 300 inhabitants lying on the e of a swamp. Westward across the steep bar- rier of the Alleghany Mountains were at intervals small villages in Allegany and Cattaraugus coun- ties. The settlement of the most importance n< est to which the railroad was to approach, between Hornellsville and Lake Erie, was Jamestown, and that place it avoided by a distance of three and one- half miles, passing northwest through Chautauqua County to the hills overlooking the lake, down the wild slopes of which it dropped by two routes, one terminating at Dunkirk at the northwest, and one at Portland harbor at the southwest. The chief indus- try of the Delaware, Susquehanna, Canisteo, and Alleghany valleys sixty years ago was lumbering. The rivers were the channels by which the vast amount of lumber from the forests of the Southern Tier and the Pennsylvania counties adjoining reached the market. Hundreds of saw-mills manufactured their products, and upon various branches of the business the prosperity of that part of the country through which the railroad was projected depended. Even at this day, with all the modern appliances and advanced knowledge of railroad science at their imand, few men would be found willing to invest their money and give their time to the development of a country of similar resources by the construction of a railroad of the magnitude of this pioneer rail- road, projected when railroad building was in its earliest infancy. Chief I 1 Wright made his report on the survey to the Secretary of State, in January, 1X35, who submitted it to the Assembly, as follows: THE STORY OF ERIE 25 State of New York, Secretary's Office, Albany, January 29, 1835. To the Speaker of the Assembly: I have the honor to communicate herewith, in pursuance of the resolution of the Assembly of the 14th inst., the profile, map, and accompanying report of Benjamin Wright, of the survey of a railroad from New York to Lake Erie, made under the Act of 6th May, 1834. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, John A. Dix. To John A. Dix, Esq., Secretary of State. Sir: His Excellency, the Governor, hiving been pleased to appoint me to execute the survey, and make an estimate of the expense of a railroad, from " at or near the city of New York to Lake Erie." under the act of May 6th,- 1834; which said act requires me to file the report, maps, profiles, and estimates in the office of the Secretary of State, in con- formity to said act, I now present my report, maps, profiles, etc., to be filed in your office as the law directs; and beg leave hereby to report: That, in undertaking the important and responsible duty of surveying the route of a railway communication from the Hudson River, near the city of New York, to Lake Erie. I deemed it essential to keep in view the great public objects sought to be obtained by the proposed work. It was obvious that the road was to be constructed not only for the accom- modation of the inhabitants of the district immediately adja- cent to the route, but also in order to furnish the means of a regular, rapid, and uninterrupted intercourse at nearly all seasons of the year, between the city of New York and the extensive and populous communities upon the western lakes and waters. The vast and acknowledged benefits which have been experienced throughout a great part of the State, and especially by its commercial emporium, from the construc- tion of the Erie Canal, as well in the increase of population and wealth, as in the progress of agriculture and trade; the augmented value of lands, and the rapid and unexampled growth and creation of cities, towns, and villages along the route, had plainly proved that a thoroughfare running through the Southern Tier of Counties, and properly suited to their topographical character, could not fail to impart similar ad- vantages to that important and valuable section of country, while the pressing necessity of establishing a channel of com- munication within this State, which should be open during nearly or quite the whole of the winter months, and thereby remedy the evils occasioned by its high, northern latitude. had not only been felt sensibly by the inhabitants of the metropolis, but had excited public attention throughout a great portion of the fertile and extensive regions upon the upper lakes, and in the valley of the Mississippi. The long line of counties in our own Slate through which the road would pass, favored as they are with a healthful cli- mate and an enterprising population, abounding in natural resources which the proposed work could not fail to develop, also possessed an additional importance in their peculiar topography; being intersected in numerous directions by important streams, leading into that section of the country from other parts of the State, and thereby furnishing striking facilities for connecting the proposed toad with lateral branches capable of accommodating large masses of our population. Keeping, therefore, steadily in mind these gen- eral considerations, I deemed it an incumbent duty, in select- ing the line of location for the proposed road, to obtain a route, which, as far as should be practicable, might combine: (1) Reasonable ec .my m it, construction; (2) Rapidity and regularity of communication for pa en ei . light mer- chandise of value, and the public mail; (3) Cheapness of transportation for bulky commodities; 141 Facilities of con- nection with lateral branches; (5) The general mmoda- tion of the inhabitants, and the development of the resources of the country along the route. And 1 considered it also necessary to take into view not only the present, but the prospective advantages of the route; and to arrange the graduation of the whole work in reference to such further additions and improvements as might hereafter become 1 sary, in order to accommodate a great increase of trade and pi irtatii hi. Being guided by these general outlines, I commenced the survey of the route on the 23d of May last, under the appoint- ment which 1 received from his excellency the Governor on the 21st of that month. The work was divided into two grand divisions; of which, the eastern, extending from the Hudson River to Bingham- ton, was under the direction of James Seymour, and th. era, from Binghamton to Lake Erie, was placed under Charles Ellet, Jr., both acting as my assistants, and subject to my supervision. Those gentlemen, with my advici approbation, each had two, and often three or four p; employed in explorations through the season. I take great pleasure in stating that the surveys thus committed to their care have been executed to my entire satisfaction and I refer to their reports and estimates as exhibiting the industry and skill with which their duties have been dischargi .1 I have personally inspected the lines surveyed nearly their whole length, and have particularly considered and examined every part of the route at which there could be any reason- able doubt or difficulty: and we have fully advised and pared opinions as to all prices estimated for the graduation of the work. It is possible, and I may saj probable, that the shortness of time allowed for the completion of so long a line of survey in some instances not noticed by me. may have pre- vented our ascertaining the very lust and cheapest routi which some portions of the country may have been capable; but I have become perfectly satisfied, from the lines already run and minutely measured, that a feasible routi obtained, free from formidable difficulties, and capable 01 being completed with economy and dispatch. A more minute and careful exploration over some particular parts of the country will enable the engineer to adopt very considerable alterations and improvements at many points, both as to the graduatii >n. and also the . . 1st 1 it t he -a • >rk The great objeel of securing rapidity and regularity of com- munication between the city of New York and the lake, being one of paramount importance. I have studiously sought to avoid the use of stationary steam power on inclined planes, as being productive of delay, danger, expense and difficulty, and in this respect have been so successful that, with the ex- ception of one single plane, near Lake Erie, I have bro the whole line within the power of locon ines, draw- ing passenger cars, light merchandise, and the public mail. The steepest acclivity encountered on the whole line, with the exception before mentioned, will be only 100 feet per mile. And having been furnished with 1 lence. that by recent improvements in the locomotive steam en on the Baltimore and 1 Him Railroad, they have been 1 nabled to ascend the acclivity of 176 feet to the mile, drawing BE rWEEN 1 HK OCEAN AND THE LAKJ S , enty while ui ■>.. I have tine line, the valle) the linear - undulatinj irked ut neverthi inter- their branches, which h pursue the general din lich of thi It is this all- nal feature in the ihy of the which the valleys of these streams ntle ascents and descents, and lich will explain the reason why I . route, without the .'. < r. through portions of the State ising as he does the nu by the ordinary stage ■ insuperable obstacles to the -id work. The route, in mnd the hills, and il •mount any considerable acclivities in which the line crosses into which the raphically dividi true that the departure from a straight line thus occa- E the winding of the water-courses, has ned the whole route between New York ■ when it i- considered that great rapidity •i and chi have been r portion of country ai the country wholly for- [ any other route, more direct, without nd that the circuity of route will be n - a formi The natural bound the valleys ubdivide it into ■ it: riding seventy- Hudson River orth of the City Hall of New York, to wangunk mountains, Hudson from those flow- re. rom the point •i laware and its nit twelve miles northw iding the quehanna. ) the hanna nmit thirteen miles ■ ■ from the point the i iencsee, thirtj summit three miles east of the village of Cul County, The fifth or Allegany Division, extendi the valley of the Alleghany and its tributaries eighty-three miles to the I the inclined plane, distant four or live miles from Lake straight line. The sixth or Lake Erie Division, embracing the short and rapid descent to the lake, including the inclined plane and the two branches, one to Portland, nine miles, and one to Dun- kirk, eight and a half miles. The ■■nly points where the rates of ascent exceed sixty feet per mile, will be found on the summits above specified, as forming the boundaries of the six grand divisions of the route. The acclivities in passing these summits are respectively as follows: < >ne grade of loo feet to the mile in pacing from the Hudson River Division, down the west side of the Shawan- gunk mountain, into the Delaware Division; one of seventy feet and one of sixty-One feet to the mile, in p om the Delaware Division to the Susquehanna Division; one of seventy feet and one of sixty-five feet to the mile, on crossing the ridge between the Susquehanna and its tributary, the Chenango River; and one of seventy-two feet to the mile in passing from the Susquehanna Division to the Genesee Divi- sion. I have no doubt that all these ascents and descents above specified may readily be surmounted by locomotive drawing ;er cars, light merchandise, and the mail. But in order to aid the p I. it will be necessary to station, at the several points above specified, either auxiliary locomotive engine-. practical on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, or an increase of animal power, as is used in passing the Parr I on tin- Baltimore and Ohio Road That this can be effected without any material interruption or inconvenience, will be when it is recollected that the western slope of the Parr Ridge, on the last mentioned road, has an ascent of no an 253 feet to the mile, an acclivity nearly three times t grade on the proposed route; but that it is nevertheless surmounted at all times by burthen cars, heavily loaded, aided only by an increase of animal power. It will be borne in mind, also, that at least three-fourtl the heavy tonnage passing on this road, will descend east- ward toward tide water. The elevation of the head of the inclined plane near Lake Erie being 1303 feet above the Hudson River, the products of the western country, passing eastward, will necessarily descend 1303 feet more than they will ascend, and their passage will consequently be aided to that extent by their own on. It i-. however, bj no means impossible that in the course of twenty years the great increase of the population and agricultural products of the- ir, and the necessity of expediting their pa--. market, may render it expedient and economical to additional tracks, with a compound n power, and grades reduced in all cases to thirty feet per mile, with sta- tionary engines, operating on inclined planes and located at liate points ..Ion- the road. In that event, the entire changi along the whole line without altcr- th.'in thirty or fort) mile- of the road. And. ,il though I ,1,. not believe that this change will ever be made, or become necessary, except in the event of so great an in- ill track- as to make Steady, uniform power tin- best; in which casi I believe that stationary power applied on the iK-. would be found the best, and u ed a: Messrs. Walker ami Ra-trick proposed, on the I and Man- THE STORY OF ERIE 27 Chester Road, as reciprocating power. I have thought it proper to state how far it would effect the graduation of the road to substitute planes and stationary power, and grades in other places of thirty feet per mile. The change of the place last mentioned would only apply to burthen car-, in any event, as passenger cars would be liable to less da trouble, and delay by using the locomotives or extra animal power to surmount the dividing ridges. In making the survey and location, I have had lim exploration made on various parts of the route in two or three different directions, and more particularly near the Hudson River, where four different routes to several land- ings were examined, and if the funds had held out to ac- complish some further examinations in Rockland County, and time had permitted, I should have pursued still another line, and followed on the northern side and eastwardly side of the Hackensack River, so as to join the line which runs to the river at Tappan. Such a line ought to be explored before final location of the road through Rockland County. Another part of the line in Orange County ought also to be noticed, as deserving of further examination. A strong and ardent desire to accommodate by passing in the immedi- ate vicinity of so important a town as Goshen, and former examinations for a railroad having produced impressions favorable to that route, I had supposed it would prove the best ground, and therefore spent our labors upon it. and it was not until it was too late that we observed the formation of the country from near Chester through by Florida, and the practicability of passing the Wallkill near Pellett's Island and joining the present line some six or seven miles w< 1 of the Wallkill. that we supposed we could change from the route near Goshen. This route requires an instrumental survey, but unless it proves greatly superior to that by Goshen, as now returned, the accommodation of so important a town ought to give it the preference. The route between the Wallkill ami the Shaw- angunk mountain and a final location on this part, are inti- mately connected with the suggestion about the Florida route. It has been proposed to cut open the top of Deer Park Gap, which is a deep depression of the Shawangunk mountain, about fifty feet at the highest point. This is done in order to reduce the grade upon each side, and particularly cm the west side, to 100 feet per mile. The east side can be easily reduced to a grade of sixty feet for a short distance and then much less. I have looked at this point, and given it consider- able thought, to determine what ought to be the present plan. in reference to future improvements, when the great 111 of business on this road will demand every facility thai the nature of the country will permit: and it has brought my mind to the conclusion that, before the lapse of twenty years after the completion of the road, a tunnel will be driven through the mountain, of about three-quarters of a mile in length, whereby its elevation would be so far reduced as to admit a grade of probably seventy-five to eighty feet on the west side, and about thirty mi the east. As the acclh 100 feet to the mile on the west side of the mountain is the steepest grade encountered on the road, it has also app to me to be well worthy of consideration how far this ascent could be relieved by the adoption of an inclined plane with a stationary engine; believing that if it is admissible on any intermediate part of the route it might be employed at this point for the relief of the burthen cars to great advantage. The idea of the tunnel and the stationary engine, will, how- ever, be matters of subsequent inquiry, and are now referred to only as parts of an ultimate plan, proper to be borne in mind in the permanent location 01 | The line as located then rom the foot of Shawan- gunk mountain, by a high embankment, across the Valley of 's Kill, and then crosses the Delaware and II Canal without difficulty, and soon enters the valley of the Neversink River, which it follows to the mouth of a branch of the river, called the Sheldrake, and up that to it- source; thenci ireral branches of the Mon- gaup, it reaches the head of the Calicoon, a branch of the Delaware, which it follows to its junction with the latter ri\er. A route has also been surveyed down the Popacton. or in Branch of the Delaware: and there are also several other routes through Sullivan County, which have been ex- amined, and regulai surveys carried over them. One I passing near Monticello, which is the county town of Sullivan County, would on that account desi rve a pn Ference, if the facilities and advantages arc nearly equal as to other point-. such as grade and cheapness of construction: and alt!; our surveys as we made them did not show as favorable a line by Monticello as by the other route. I think a further and more critical examination should be made through this dis- trict of country to find a route more favorable than we have yet seen: and. should this be the case, we should. I think, shorten the route some miles, and obtain the advantage of carrying it through a more pqpulous and settled country. Although the route following up the Eastern or Popacton branch, and then the Beaverkill. and Willemock, and Little Beaverkill, has been regularly surveyed, and profiles of it returned. I however consider the route by the Calicoon to be so far preferable that I have not required my assistant to give me quantities on this route, and have not of course estimated it, but it can be done hereafter if necessai useful. In carrying the route of the railroad through the heart of Sullivan County, and thereby giving great and permanent advantages to a large district of country, capable of sustain- in. 1 considerable population. I will make this passing re- mark, that by passing down the valley of the Xeversink. from the foot of the Shawangunk mountain, until I reach, valley of the Delaware River, and then passing up the Dela- ware to the mouth of the Calicoon. I might have found a route of much easier grade, and one which would not average- over fifteen feet to the mile. But to that plan there are in my mind, serious objections: 1 I' would be a more c sive line to grade, on account of it- passing along steep hills, with heavy ledges of rocks, requiring expensive rock excavations. 2. It would not accommodate or be very Use- ful to Sullivan County, as the country along tin- bank of the Delaware is not generally favorable for cultivation. 3. It might come into collision with the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and perhaps divert some of its legitimate and fair and in construction it might interfere with that impor- tant and very useful work, for the execution of which its enter- prising proprietors deser 1 gratefully considered. The line then passes up the Delaware from the Calicoon to llage of Deposit, from which a lateral road may be extended into the heart of Delaware County. The route then crosses by a bridge the Main or Mohawk Branch of the Delaware, and thence follows up the Oquago Creek to its source, on towards Bettsburgh; from whence it de- scends to the Susquehanna and. passing that river near Xine- vah, follows up the valley of Belden Brook to its source and. 1,1 \\\ l.l.N fHE OCEAN AND THE LAKES i lam- mined between ,und, ,-. on nton, 5um- gher than I ne but by examined m that the northern route light fCT, will | local it will gb ling into the populous and the Upper nadilla, ai ■•' the the counl md, and parts of tl inties. P je Brook on the determine which side oi i near its mouth; a lss into the growing and hamton, determined me to have the ide; but, ascertaining that the Che- ■ ■ : en finally located, I directed a S the river near the ik. This part of the line I do not con- nally determined until the pleted When that shall be done, we can fair chance of carrying our railroad on the And, should this be the ide of the Che- near to Binghamton, and pass over the i the upper part of that villa) i the Chenango River the route in following down the ul i,,rty n es through the here it will become conn iw in preparation i<>r navigating the • : ind Ithaca railroad, ii line witli the important and fertile nt t" the Cayuga and Sen. i i I •nil of the h near the Pennsylvania line north >n squehanna ) by Elmira, Big Flal nd P tinted Po t, • and the Canisteo; and then, 1 ! falling into River. Of ■he point where we near Almond the grades SO. tward, we pass the our grade mile: but which can lie somewhat mo, the ivn that a few miles, and then up h the villa gi ■ ami down the \.,''. any River. Through this d ' mmit between the waters oi the Susquehanna : ".1 the waters of Genesee and Alleghany, we have Some grades which reach fifty feet per mile, as the line is now run; but it is believed that con- siderable improvement will be made in this part on a rc\ of the line. Having reached the valley of the Alleghany, we pa-- down il iut twenty-six miles, over excellent ground, generally, to the Indian village, near the ('.■Id Spring ('nek. 1 leaving the Alleghany, we pass up the vallcv ..i the Cold Spring and over a small swell of land, and descend into the valley of the Little ConewangO (a branch of the Large Cone- wango), and passing down that stream and the large I wango, through the village of Randolph ill Cattaraugus County, and the village of Watcrboro and Keiincdyville, in Chautauqua County, following down the valley of the ' Conewango to the Casadaga branch, and up that to its junc- | I tiautauqua outlet; we then follow up the Casadaga ■ reek, and up that to near Rear Lake. Here we arrive at the dividing point between tin waters which run southerly into the Alleghany. which run northerly into Lake Erie. At this point, we are only about live miles in a direct line from Lake Erie and 740 feet above it. And here is a place where we find ground favorable to descend by one plane 506 feet in a distance of about one and a half miles. At the foot of this plane we find ourselves nearly equi- distant from Dunkirk and Portland. At Dunkirk the Government of the United States have expended considerable money in the construction of a harbor and are preparing to expend more. At Portland there has been no in. cept by individuals. Tin Gov- ernment of the United States have had a regular survey and estimate of cost, to make a harbor. It is said that the cost of making a harbor, upon the plan- reported by Captain Maurice, of Portland, would be $40,000. A route was surveyed from Randolph, in the Count] ..: Cattaraugus, up the valley of the Greal Conewango t" its source, and then striking off toward Dunkirk. This route was tried ill order to find a more direct and shorter course to Dunkirk, or to Fayette, at the mouth of Silver Creek. This latter plan has claims for its natural advantages for a harbor, and probably will receive attention at a future day. In running the line to the head of the Conewango. and from thence beginning to descend the declivity towards Lake Erie, I was in hopes oi tin. line ground Favorable for descending at fifty or sixty feet per mile, and reaching Dunkirk by that grade and thereby doing away with tin necessity of stationary steam power and incline. I plani 5, hut I found the whole face of the country so cut by gulfs, and intersected by ridges, that I was defeated in my project and abandoned it. The plan appear- to me to deserve further exploration before a final ton. 1 had also lines of survey run on each side ol the Chautauqua Lake, and thence to Portland. In selecting the Casadaga route, I have considered the ad ing through the centre of the County of Chau- 1 pi lung w ithin about three and a hal of Jamestown, a! pn ent thi ! all the towns in this valuable country. Its approximate to the hath Dunkirk and Portland tends to entitle it to a preference; while ■one probability that improvements will soon be made in the Alleghany River, so as to render it at all times navi- gable f'.r . and the fact that it may now he navi- iderable period in the spring, render it Dtinue the route as far as practicable, down alley of the Stream, and thereby facilitate- the din . ■ THE STORY OF ERIE 29 munication between the city of New York and the great valley of the Ohio. And it ought also to be borne in mind that the construction of the road as far as this point will go far to insure its continuation through the Western States to the .Mississippi River; in which event, the great western branch would have the main line near the mouth of the Casadaga Creek. The total amount of the linear extent from the Hudson River to Lake Erie will be 483 miles: which distance may, however, be shortened from ten to fifteen miles by alterations in the route which may be found desirable upon a further survey. The curves upon the road are generally easy, none of them having less than five hundred feet radius. The gradu- ation of the road has been estimated throughout for a double track, including embankments in all cases of solid earth, and embracing all necessary bridges, viaducts, and culverts, to- gether with the expense of grubbing and fencing: compre- hending, in fact, the whole cost of the road, except that of the superstructure, and of the damages (ii any) to be paid for the land to be taken. According to the report of Mr. Seymour, the expense of graduation thus estimated for the 222^4 miles between the Hudson River and Binghamton, will amount to $1,551,982, being $6,968 10-100 per mile. And according to the report and estimate of Mr. Ellet, the expense of graduation thus estimated for the 260J4 miles, will be $1,165,536, being $4,478 51-100 per mile. Total graduation for the 483 miles, $2,717,- 518, or $5,626 33-100 per mile, including fencing, clearing in timber land 100 feet on each side (to prevent trees falling on the road) and also bridges over rivers, viaducts, culverts, road crossings, etc., etc. Cost of Grading as above $2,717,518 00 Add 10 per cent, for contingencies 271.751 00 $2,989,269 00 The cutting and embankments are all twenty-five feet wide, and the slopes of the embankment are one and a half base to one perpendicular. This I consider as a permanent and solid form, and calculated for stability. The expense of super- structure will vary according to the particular plan which shall be adopted. I have caused cross sections of several different roads now completed to be drawn, and have also drawn some which I think well adapted to the country through which the road will pass, for 400 miles, if a wood and iron road is adopted. (Mr. Wright here refers to two of these roads, one of which " if built of yellow pine and oak, or chestnut, will cost, in Orange or Rockland, about $2,830 per mile," and the other " will cost about $3,400 per mile.") Such as the Camden and Amboy, and the Columbia and Philadelphia road, cost ten to twelve thousand dollars per mile. The Petersburg and Roanoke cost about $2,600 per mile, as I have been informed. These are all for a single track, with one turnout or siding to each mile. Brought forward $2,989,269 00 If the sum of $3,400 per mile be taken, it amounts to 1.642.200 00 Add for engineer, etc., 3 per cent, on $4,359,788. . 130.791 00 $4.-62.260 00 This sum will grade and bridge over rivers the whole road for two tracks, and put down one track, which is all that ought to be done until the road is traveled nearly its whole length; and this also includes the inclined plane and steam power to operate upon it, and also a long and expensive wharf into the Hudson River. These estimates are. in my opinion, liberal, and such as will make an excellent road: and, as I have before observed, then' are many places where a great reduction might be made in the expense, by a small alteration of the grade. There are also very great reductions which may be made in the outlay of capital, in the construction of this road, by making timbi 1 work, in many places, where I have made calculations of earth embankments. There is no doubt that when a final location of a working line shall be made, the engineer will be able to make small variations in the line which would very greatly reduce the expense. I make these remarks to show that there is no doubt in my mind of the estimate being amply sufficient for grading the road. The bridges over the large rivers I have also estimated higher than they will cost, if only built without regard to roofing, or otherwise protecting them from the weather. I have considered and planned these bridges to be only si or eighteen feet wide, and so formed as to have a double track over them, but that so fixed that loaded trains of cars cannot pass each other on these large bridges. I did not think so much weight as two trains of loaded cars passing different ways ought to be permitted to pass on a bridge at the same time. It would perhaps bring fifty tons or more on it at the same moment, which is improper, unless in one long, extended train. I have also estimated one turnout or siding to each mile. If locomotive power is used on the long easy grades before mentioned, these turnouts ought to be dispensed with, and only placed at every five or ten miles, as they are found extremely troublesome where locomotive power is owing to carelessness and inattention in leaving them open when they ought to be shut. I find that on railroads now in use, the test of experience has shown it necessary to take up turnouts, which had been placed every mile, and only place them once in ten miles, and that at the water stations for the locomotives; and in this case the man who attends the water stations sees to the turnout being in its place, whenever the cars are coming in sight. In making the estimate I have put down the item of fencing, and also clearing away the timber on each side of the railroad for 100 feet wide, to prevent trees falling on the road. 1 items are of that kind that in many instances there may be arrangements with the owners of property to save some part of the estimated cost. I have said that water stations, where locomotive engines are used, are generally about ten miles apart; this is the case on some roads: on others these stations arc twelve miles and more distant. This is regulated by the ity of the water cars or tanks carried by each locomoth e The country through which we pass is admirably adapl furnish water convenient and cheap. The springs in th< of hills are ir road. SO that it will only be necessary to introduce some aqueduct logs, and brin water to the proper elevation required. In tli' reports of railroads which have been co and now in use. the heavy and expensive items for poi stone which has been used to fill up trenches has added very greatly to the expense. Experieno however, satisfied most of the practical engineers that the road does not stand '1 when laid on broken stone as when laid on planks BE l\\ I EN Mil. I »( EAN AND I HI LAK] S i tim- them tin id will be ited is cir- i I that the boldest curve need not be r curves than n the United Si And I » or will ar ' se turning them. The the eastern division n of Liberty, in the County of tid the junction of the Papact ware with the North or Mohawk inty. down the Calii difficulty ent; and that tl kill route would have one inclined plane near rhi- route by the Beaverkill is. however. nine miles shorter than the Calicoon route: and. admit- ling around the mountains, then the distance •ill further shortened three miles at least, making Still, it a] m a comparison that tl • nting to some- ■ n the Calicoon and Dela- ted my mind in favor of gh an increased distance. under whi Made provides that of New York, or it- vicinity, onvenient. The River where the road would strike it ■ further revision, and knowing that no in locating the road through and funds pre- ■ ither parts and then it would be made All v illy submitted. Wright, r X. Y. and Erie Railroad. k. January TIp in this original survey for the N i insisted ■>: I . Her and R. S. V. ids <>i" pa Thomas L. Ogden, Jr., Philip Church, Jr., D. G. Kennedy, D. E. . W. Ingersoll, F. Nichol- tter, C. L. Seymour. W. I '■ ineerW tants, Seymour and Ell technical, embrac- intific discourses mi inclined planes and ab- struse algebraic demonstrations of power, etc. The remarks of Engineer Ellet on the possibilities of rating the proposed inclined plane, without which it was thought Lake Erie could not In- reached .is the western terminus of the road, and his recom- mendation as to the management and economizing of locomotive power in raising other elevations on the Western Division, cannot but be provocative of amusement in these later days of railroad construc- tion and operation. Mr. Ellet said: " As there are always some articles, such as lumber and certain produce, which may lie retained at the head of the plane to bi occasion requires, to assist in the elevation of the ascending cars, it would not he proper to ntirely tin derived from this souri We cannot hope to n of the arrival and departure of the trains moving in either direction, so as to ain the full [i of the descending loads; nor can we fix upon any amount of tonnage that may he commanded at all times, without interfering with the regular transit, to ac- iplish, in part, this object, unless we assume an amount far below that which must actually pas-. Yet I think if we can predicate our calculations on the supposition that the weight which may In retained at the head of the plane for this purpose, together with that which may accidentally ar- rive at the pt< iiit to l>e so employed, i- barely suf- ficient i me all the friction both of the cars and machinery, we shall not he disappointed in practice. But 1 mid not wisl to bi undersl 1 t" - la reliance m such a in general, when arranging the ma- chinery of stationary engine-, for. in mo this aid would he fortuitous and attended with such uncertainty as to render any dependence upon it extremely hazardous: and it is only because of the peculiar situation of the present plane that it i- deemed proper to ,uh ise it. " Xo inconvenience need result from the necessity of o sionally letting down a few car- .it a time: since no delay will ii ur at the foot of the plane for want ol powei to convey them through the next stage; the ile-cent from tin- point to the harbors of Dunkirk and Portland being more than suf- ficient t" overcome the friction. I'm- tin -.urn- reason it would ii. lor the engine, which had drawn the d to the head of the plane, | eding with it beyond this p. lint; -o that the stationary ould always he relieved lit the weight of the locomotive and its convoy, which it is not mi' ndi d to causi to pass the plane. Twi i ti ins may hr sidered a -mi" ienl 1 1 I [ine ons weight to draw from the lake to thi .lit. where some of the gl ! ceed thirty two feet per mile: and tin-, to", may he deemed a sufficient an engi nward from the head of the plane, where none of the grades exceed twenty feet mile. "There is one point between tin I ! ' onnewango and th. hanj River where the | et pei mile, and an engine, under very unfavorable circumstanci would be unable to overcome this height with such train THE STORY OF ERIE 3i it would be found convenient to load it on other parts of the line. I have no doubt of the perfect practicability of reduc- ing this inclination very much, but even in its present state it can present no serious obstacle, since it can rarely happen that the extraordinary load and most unfavorable situation of the road will occur at the same time. For if the load be found to be less than might be taken with the greatest advantage, it may always be increased along the line of the road by the travel, lumber and produce of the country. " We may, therefore, calculate the power of the engine on the supposition that the gross weight to be raised is twenty- five tons, and the friction is destroyed by the descending load. We may suppose the velocity is twelve miles per hour, so that, if it should hereafter be found desirable to increase the loads, it may be done by changing the gearing so as to diminish the velocity of ascent, and augment the force of the machinery. Or, making due allowance for extra power, we may consider two engines of sixty horse-power sufficient for this plane. The probability is that this will be eventually found insufficient for the accommodation of the trade, and that it will be necessary to construct another plane to assist in overcoming this ridge. This will not be necessary, how- ever, until the trade exceeds 400 tons per diem in each direc- tion; when, and sooner, perhaps, a double track from the lake to the Hudson will have become indispensable. " On a line of such great length it will be necessary to place extra locomotives at intervals along the route, to be em- ployed in case of accident to those forming a part of the regu- lar system, or to replace them whenever, from any cause, it be found requisite to withdraw one. At some of the positions where these engines of relief will lie required, a machine shop will be established for the repair of disabled cars and loco- motives, and at which the trains will generally halt for the convoy carriage to receive its supply of water and fuel. Let us -uppose one of these establishments to be located at the village of Almond on the Caneadea. where the locor which had drawn the train up the valley of the Canisteo would begin to require assistance. Xow, even were the line per- fectly level, it would be necessary to have engines in waiting at certain points to relieve their predecessor and draw the load through the next stage; and we may place one at this station, as well as any other. Suppose, then, an engine tons weight arrives with a load of twenty-two tons at the end of this stage. My present remarks are intended to show the arrangement where the combination of difficulties is the great- est. In general, the train brought to this point by such an engine, need not be less than fifty tons. If there then be an engine of eight tons attached to it. the two together will be able to ascend a grade of seventy-two feet to the mile, with- out diminishing the load, and without any slipping of the wheels under the most unfavorable circumstances. On ar- riving at the summit, the lighter engine will be detached, and the other will be able to surmount unaided the sti ascents that occur between this point and the village of Cuba. The distance from the village of Almond to this place, by the line of the railroad, is forty-five miles: and here I would pro- pose establishing another station for changing the engines, and keeping power in reserve. At this point, the engine of eight tons would be disengaged, and a lighter one substituted in its place. When the next train traveling from the west to the east arrives, it will have to commence at this place (Cuba), ascending a grade rising at the rate of fifty feet per mile. If the load do not exceed forty-live or fifty tons the heavy en- gine which is here attached would generally be able to carrj it through: and. if it do not exceed twenty tons it will still be able to accomplish the task, whatever be the situation of the rails. But should it be greater than these amounts, the engine which brought the train to the foot of the ascent must assist in raising it to the summit, and afterwards return to its place. " This arrangement. I will repeat, does not involve us in any additional expense, excepting at those times when the condition of the road renders necessary the assistance of the second engine, for these stations and these engines of relief will be required whether such ascents are to be encountered or not. We only change their location in consequence of these impediments, from that which might, in the contrary event, be selected as preferable." Before the railroad was built many changes were made in that original route, as will appear as this narrative progresses, but, although a railroad built according to the plans and over the route provided in 1834 would have been one utterly impossible of practical utilization, that survey stands to-day a wonderful exhibit of genius in railroad engineering, and shows an originality of thought, and a peculiar application of scientific principles to a work then almost unknown to the engineering world — an ap- plication which established a precedent for all future engineering of that kind. It is a matter to be deeply regretted that the maps and profiles of this survey, and the many plans for roadbed, superstructure, railroad machinery, etc., prepared and submitted with the reports, and which would be of inestimable historic value now, cannot be found in any of the public departments of the State of New York at Albany. There is no record of them after they were sent to the Legislature by Secretary of State Dix in January, 1835. This is also true of the Articles of Incorporation of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. This document is not in the office of the Secretary of State, where it should have been deposited, according to law, nor is there any record of its ever having been in that office. CHAPTER V. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES GORE KING— 1835 TO 1839. led by James Gore King — State Aid Asked for Unsuccessfully — The Company I Official Report of the Company. slative Aid Renewed— Bitterly Opposed, but a Bill Authorizing $3,000,0000! Mate « .1 Hindrance rather than a Help — President King Appeals to his Friends Build the Railroad with Somebody Else's Money — Legislature Refuses Aid. III. I a Plan — Why the Broad I ident King, Absent in Europe, Returns a — King's Policy is to Make the Railroad a Mate Work — A Bill for that Purpose Defeated by only One Vote — President King Resigns. I. MAKING A START. Till: survey of the route for the great railroad had made, but it was not claimed to be one on . the entire route was to be located. There till much to be done before the final location and beginning of the working of construction could be accomplished. The result of Eleazar Lord's management of the preliminary construction affairs of the Company had not met with the entire ap- .! of some members of the Board of Directors and certain friends of the contemplated railroad in rk City and interior counties, and being unab. -tore harmony, he resigned the office nuary, 1835. At a meeting of the Hoard of bruary 4 following, James Gore King ted to succeed him, and the thanks of the the stockholders were voted to the re- tiring t for " the great ability and disinter- with which he has discharged the duties of th It \\ Ived l>y the I that " the funds of t. 'any, in the hands of 'rime, V. . consisting of the full int of the first instalment of io.OOO shares of posited until othei d with the New York Life Insur- ance and Tn iject to the joint order of the 1' V e-President." This was a member of tlie bankii King, which house occupied in that da ition in the finan- cial world not unlike that of the house of J. P. Mor- gan cv- Co. of to-day. On the resignation of Mr. Lord as President, Goold Hoyt retired from the Vice-Presidency. Mr. Lord was unanimously elected to succeed him, and was also elected Treasurer in place of William G. Buckner, who resigned office and from the Direc- tory. Three others of the old Board retired, and Peter G. Stuyvesant, John G. Coster, John Rath- bone, Jr., all of New York, and Jeremiah H. Pier- son of Ramapo, were elected to their places. With these gentlemen were associated the following in the Board: James G. King, Eleazar Lord, John Duer, Peter Harmony, Goold Hoyt, James Boorman, Michael Burnham, Samuel B. Ruggles, Elihu Town- send, Stephen Whitney, J. G. Pearson, George D. Wickham (of Goshen), and Joshua Whitney (of Binghamti One of the first acts of the new management was to seek legislation for State aid. The bill presented to the Legislature at the session of 1835 was drawn to authorize tin- Comptroller of the State to issue and deliver to the Company certificates of stock to the amount of $500,000 upon the first expenditure by the Company of §1,000,000 in constructing the road, bearing interest at 4C per cent., payable semi- annually; also tin- same amount of stock upon every expenditure of an additional $1,000,000, provided that such State stock should not exc I 00,000; the road and its appurtenances to be n d to the St.ii urity for the payment of tin- princi- A ^ THE STORY OF ERIE 33 pal and interest of the money for which such stock was issued. This aid was asked for on the pica that it would insure the completion of the railroad, and was based on the report made by Engineer Benjamin Wright, that the railroad could be completed, with a single track, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie for §4,762,200, on which investment it was shown by the estimates of the Company that the railroad would return a profit of from 10 to 13 percent. Al- though the Legislature was flooded with petitions from people all along the line of the proposed rail- road, and from the authorities of New York City and Brooklyn, praying for the passage of the bill, there was a strong feeling in the same region against the legislation on the ground that it would authorize a misuse of the public funds, although, in fact, that feeling was fostered as a political measure. It found expression in the Eastern section interested in the building of the railroad, through a leading local newspaper as follows: The company incorporated have declared their inability to proceed upon their own resources, anil have petitioned for Legislative aid. A bill has been introduced in accordance with these petitions. Our opinion is that the State should construct the work as soon as its resources shall la- adequate thereto. We dislike this mixture of State affair- with -nock- jobbing operations. If the company cannot fulfill its char- ter, let the Legislature annul it and take the matter into their own hands. The Southern counties have an equitable claim on the State for assistance, and when it i- approved it should redound to their benefit, not to that of a private corporation. If the State cannot construct the road the avails will go into the public treasury for the common benefit; if otherwise, into the pockets of stock jobbers. If the work belongs to the State the tolls upon it may be reduced, after defraying the expense of its construction, to such an amount as may be necessary to keep it in order. If :; corporation ha- the control, it remains a single monopoly, to be managed in such manner as shall most conduce to the pecuniary benefit of the stockholders. These ami many (.titer reasons may be urged why a work of such magnitude, involving the intci of so i ection of country, should not be intrusted to a private corporation. We are happy to see that the sub- ject is awakening attention along the route of the p movement. — Independent Republican (Democratic). Goshen, X. V., Feb. _>4- 1835. The same feeling on the subject in the Western counties was voiced by an influential newspaper as follows : We are astonished, while noticing every petition introduced on this subject, that all the memorials ask for " aid " — not one requesting the State to construct the road. But we 3 venture to say that of all those memorialists not one in fifty knows they have prayed the Legislature to loan $2,000,000 to a wealthy company of speculators to secure them the in- heritance of the most valuable stock ever granted in Xew York — instead of asking the State to construct the road, the of which after five years would become an everlasting and increasing fund suffii ieiit to defray all the State expendi- tures, to educate our children forever. The people have never intended to ask this grant for ;i company. We ask the State to perform this work. We demand it as a just claim. Y demand thai the Mate immediately take back the grant from the company, who have thus artfully stepped between us ami tlu- Legislature to vol. us of the claim we hold for the funds taken from us to complete the great canals. — Farmers' Advocate (Democratic), Bath. X. )'., Feb. 16, 1835. In the same strain the bill was opposed in the Legislature, strong points being made against it by Assemblyman Wilkinson of Onondaga Count}-, who declared that, under conditions for construction more favorable than those on the route of the New York and Erie Railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, the Camden and Amboy, and the Columbia and Lan- caster railroads, all then recently put in operation, had cost from four to six times as much per mile ($30,000 to $50,000) as it was estimated by Engi- neer Wright that the New York and Erie Railroad was to cost. Mr. Wilkinson also showed, to the disadvantage of the engineer's report on that sub- ject, a surprising knowledge, for that day, of the capacity and practical working of locomotives, and used it effectively in behalf of the influence of the Erie Canal. He also dwelt on the fact that the New York and Erie Railroad Company had been organized on a payment of but 5 per cent, of the amount of stock required to be subscribed in 1833, when the act declared that 10 per cent, should be paid, and that it had made no report to the Comp- troller, in violation of law. " In the winter of 1833, *' said Mr. Wilkinson, " they [the Railroad Company] said they would be- gin the work if they were permitted to organize on the amount of stock then provided for. The}- were permitted to do so. In September, 1833, they pub- lished a circular stating that they could not go on without liberal giants and cessions of land to them. In 1835 [recently] they profess to the corporation of the city of New York that they can finish the Dela- ware Division in two years without the aid of the State. Now they tell the Legislature that they BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND ["HE LAKES icnt. had an ned, and Stuyvesant, their pi . which • A the fust 10,000 subscribed in • which, it is alleged, was ,in G. Buckner, a Wall Street specu- ith the New York Life Insur- y. Among the four new 1 are trustees of the Trust Three "!' the other Directors are trus- ■ ■f the Tru~- nv, making six railroad directors in t; my. " The new President is James G. King. He is a e banker, sustaining a relation to our State rnment something similar to that of the Barings to the governments of Europe. your endorsement. Sir, throw this loan in market, and it will be strange if he is not a bidder for it at a premium. If the project was to be acconi- d for the sum estimated, and the profits to be such as we are told, he would not waste time in coming here and telling his intentions, but would make immediate provision for the hasty construc- of the work without your aid. If the calcula- they make as to the profits of the railroad when completed approximate to any degree of cor- rectness, we will be slow to believe that this Corn- would not go on at once and make the road. When the Company shall have shown that they in- to construct this work by setting about it in faith, and doing something to show it worthy of the attention of the State, then will be the proper time • [uestion of extending aid to it. iny abandon it, as they say they will if thej- fail in this plea for aid, then it will be time • ler whether it will be wise and sound ' o construct it." iiurch, who had come to doubt very much the s rn prom.' inder- takin I Albany watchin urse of events and, according to a letter he wrote to Belvidere, Allegany County, it wa ■ f.,r the future of thi road, and for t. of the counties through which the railroad was chartered to run in Western ork, that lie was present dining the consider- ation of the Erie bill in the Legislature in the win- ter of 1835, if his surmises and charges were con. The letter was written under date of March 23, 1835, and is in the scathingly polite ami incisive style ol which .Mr. Church was a master. This letter has been among the papers of the Church family at Bel- videre, N. Y., all these years, and now sees the light of publicity for the first time. Asa reflection of the feeling that prevailed among the diverse interests that were laboring to get the Erie project started, and of the motives that seemed to be actuating them, the letter is a most valuable contribution to the history of the Company and the railroad. '* I write. *' Mr. Church declared, " for the purpose of giving a history of the legislative proceedings in regard to the rail- road, and of the plans proposed with a view to defeat the traction of the western part of the road — plans which it me great pleasure t" saj 1 have been able to defeat " A Mil was introduced into the house upon principles which gave the widest range to speculations not only in stocks but in the lands on the route of the railroad. The company, after considerable debate, found that it could not he carried, and introduced, by Mr. Silby of Canandaigua, the following amendment: 'That the State should gi\c the company $500,- 000 on its constructing a railroad from the Hudson and Dela- ware Canal to Binghamton; $500,000 from Binghamton to Elmira; $500,000 from Elmira to Olean Point; $500,000 from Olean Point to Lake Erie." "Two or three weeks before the amendment was presented it was proposed to me to combine with the company in com- mencing the railroad at the Hudson and Delaware Canal. thence to Binghamton, Elmira, and so on to the Olean and Rochester Canal: thence descending the canal to Rochester; thence, by the railroad now making, from Rochester to Batavia and Buffalo To this I gave a most prompt and decisive denial, saying I would not admit of my pecuniary and local interests sacrificing the rights of the western half of Allegany and of the whole of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua County. and of withholding from them this railroad and the hope of all future internal improvements. " The proposed amendment, if adopted, would have left it in the power of the company to have made the railroad from the Delaware and Hudson Canal to Elmira. a distance of 201 miles, for which they were rom the State, which would be. proportionately, a much greater sum than receiving $_\ooo.OOO for the construction of the whole distance of 483 miles — the _*oi miles being also 1 1 1 ■ part of the road to construct. When the railroad once re... 1 ..ill. I be ti insported alt ; • anal and Seneca Lake to I thence to Canandaigua and Rochester by t In- railroads now in contemplation, and thence by the railroad to Batavia and Buffalo, which had. I believe. 1 actually commenced, leaving the Southern Tier west of Elmira without any improvement, as it was proposed to serve the country west of the Rochester and ' Bal. You THE STORY OF ERIE 35 will readily perceive how much shorter the distance from Geneva, even by way of Rochester, to Buffalo is than that from Elmira to Portland or Dunkirk. Add to all this is the fact that the end of a great improvement farthest from the sea coast is by far the less productive of toll, the company, therefore, actuated by all these considerations, during the term of seventeen years, until which they are not obliged to finish the railroad to Lake Erie, would have ample time and power, by arraying the rest of the State against us, to have withheld entirely the extensions of the railroad from Elmira to Portland or Dunkirk: but the members of the western counties, however obvious this was, did not perceive it. " The very foundation of our railroad is the uninterrupted use of it during the winter months and the velocity of move- ment on it, giving a continued and rapid communication be- tween the country and the city of New York. By commenc- ing at the Hudson and Delaware Canal these two great features, its only support, were abandoned, and consequently all the members from New York, except three, voted against the bill, although they all more than ever have been in favor of the main project, and after a most violent and continued struggle of fifteen days the bill was. I am happy to say, entirely lost, notwithstanding Mr. Lord, Mr. Ruggles, and many lobby members sent by the railroad and the Trust Com- pany were making astonishing efforts in its favor. " At the commencement of the debate Mr. Ogden of Dela- ware County made an allusion to me, although not by name, which was most triumphantly refuted, and Mr. Burke of Cat- taraugus made a smart but injudicious speech, in which he attacked the motives of persons opposed to the bill, and which was full of personalities. This not only produced warm retorts on these members, but also occasioned, unjustifiably, very violent abuse of Mr. King, who had written a letter his friends were indiscreet enough to read to the house, and also upon Mr. Lord, who was in attendance on the part of the company, but who had not by any act brought his name into the Legislature. No one ever recollects so warm and long a debate. " Since the failure of the bill I have proposed to the friends of the company to join in trying to obtain the construction of the road by the State; but they have refused, saying that the company intends itself to construct the work, which, of course, is entirely out of the question. I cannot say at present what course I shall take in regard to our application from Allegany, and the one from New York, both joining in recom- mending its construction by the State. " During the debate the Hudson and Delaware Canal stock rose from about 70 to 114. and many hundred shares have been sold at the advanced prices. I never felt more gratified than I have at this triumph over those who would have sacri- ficed the western counties, and indeed the whole project, to their own local and sordid views." Yet, at the next session of the Legislature, 1836, a bill quite similar to the one so vigorously opposed and emphatically condemned by Mr. Church became a law, and it is recorded that it was opposed by Mr. Lord. Whatever of insincerity might have pos- sessed his contemporaries in Erie, or however much he might have believed they were swayed by ulterior motives, either must have in time been made sat- isfactory to Mr. Church, or the work of their suc- cessors he must have regarded as having condoned for it all; for, in reply to the invitation sent him by the Company, May 1, 1S51, to be present on the occasion of the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk, he wrote as follows: Angelica, May 10. 1851. Gentlemen: I accept with great pleasure the invitation of the Board of Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company to be present at the contemplated opening of that great work; prosecuted with much energy and devotion, with so much skill and science constructed. I remain, gentlemen, etc., etc., Yours, P. Church. But the people in other localities along the line of the proposed railroad did not share Mr. Church's views on the Erie relief bill of 1835, an ^ their dis- appointment over its defeat was great. This feeling was vigorously expressed by an Owego newspaper, in its issue following the defeat of the bill. ' It is with feelings of mortification, disappointment, and regret," this editor wrote, " that we announce the defeat of this bill in the Assembly on Friday of last week. The vote stood 61 to 45 ; who could have calculated upon such a result ? Who, in view of the strong claims which the Southern Tier of counties have upon the State, and the acknowledged impor- tance of the proposed road, who could have antici- pated such a course at the hands of a Legislature claiming to be honorable and high-minded ? Xo one. We do not hesitate to say that their conduct has been illiberal and unjust in this matter, and dis- honorable to them as Legislators. But we console ourselves with the conviction that the matter is not eoine to rest here. This road must and will be built! The intelligent and enterprising citizens of the Southwestern counties will never suffer them- selves to be duped in this manner. They have rights which the}- will be bold to assert and, we trust, found able to maintain. If treated in this way, they will be driven to tlic ballot box for redress. There they can make themselves heard — and there they will be found ! For our own humble self we would waive every political consideration rather than submit to a system of persecution so unjustifiable and dishonorable. No man shall have our vote whether for Governor or a less responsible station. BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ■!u enough, and firmness em and inde| enougl le out boldly and lendently in favor of this grand improvement." npany did not abandon the work, and ■ pened books for subscriptions to . and, during the spring and sum- mer, - 100 were subscribed, on which 5 per nounting to $118,105. The pros- nterprise were cheering, and early in the fall of 1835 the question of making a on the work by breaking ground for the came up in the Board of Directors. This brought forward differences that resulted in the first us trouble in the Erie Director}-. The Company's charter, it will be remembered, ded that the work of constructing a railroad . begin at or near New York. Eleazar Lord . large landowner at Tappan Slote mow Pier- mont), Rockland Count}-, on the west bank of the Hudson River, and the survey of the route for the railroad located that place as one of the most feasi- ble for the Eastern end of the road on the west bank of the Hudson. When the question of breaking ground for the railroad came up in the Board of Directors, the announcement was made by Presi- dent King that, in the interest of the Company and the furtherance of its project, an amendment to the charter had been obtained, authorizing the begin- ning of the railroad's construction to be made at any point on the line of the route that the Directors saw fit to select. The President said that in his judg- ment the interests of the enterprise would be best subserved by making the beginning in the Delaware y near Deposit, a locality 175 miles or more 1 the Hudson River. tzar Lord and his friends in the Board pro- • the beginning of the work in the rocky and isolated Delaware Valley, denouncing it 'Ay, and the inauguration of a policy of ruin. New York, they declared, was the proper starting- of the railroad, and that it should be b and built from there to Goshen, or if more desira- ble, ti on with the Delaware and Hi il in the Delaware Valley. nt King that, although the section of the road he thought it best to put under contract was a difficult one to build, owing to the rocky char- acter of the country thereabout, the very act of undertaking such a task would inspire confidence in the Company, showing, he maintained, a disposition not to shirk the difficulties in its way. He favored putting under contract forty miles of roadbed from Deposit down the Delaware Valley to Callicoon, and the Board sustained him. Eleazar Lord resigned as Vice-President anil Treasurer, and Peter G. Stuy- vesant was elected to succeed him. A company (the Hudson and Delaware) had been chartered in 1830 to build a railroad from Newburgh, N. Y., to the Delaware River. A portion of that proposed railroad is now the Newburgh Branch of the Erie. Mr. Lord and his friends thought they had reason to believe that President King was inter- ested in that project, and that his motive was to have the New York and Erie Railroad built east- ward, and then over the route of the proposed Hud- son and Delaware Railroad to Newburgh, where the eastern terminus was to be made, on the west bank of the Hudson, instead of at a lower point in Rock- land County. Whether that was President King's intention or not, he advertised for bids for contracts for forty miles of the roadbed between Deposit and Callicoon Creek. The work was divided into forty- four subsections, and twenty-six different contracts were let November 5 and 6, 1835. The total of the bids for the forty miles was $313,572, or $7,742 a mile. The Company then had in its treasury just $196,409. First ground was broken for the New York and Erie Railroad on the east side of the Delaware- River, near Deposit, Delaware County, N. Y. This important event occurred at sunrise on the morning of November 7, 1835. There were present about thirty persons, among them President King, Comp- troller Samuel B. Ruggles, Treasurer Peter G. Stuy- vesant, Lieutenant-Governor Root, Judge Drake of Owego, Judge Pine of Deposit, and prominent local personages. The morning was clear and frost}-. As the sun came up, and tinged the surrounding hills with the cold glory of an autumn dawn, Presi- dent King announced the purpose of the gathering, and in the course of his address made the following remarks: "What now appears a beautiful meadow THE STORY OF ERIE 37 will in a few years present a far different aspect — a track of rails, with cars passing and repassing, loaded with merchandise and the products of the country. The freight will amount to $200,000 per annum in a very few years." The latter declaration being re- ceived with great incredulity by those present, the speaker concluded his prediction with the modifying expression — " At least, eventually." The address completed, Mr. King shoveled a wheelbarrow full of dirt, and Mr. Ruggles wheeled it away and dumped it. Each one present went through the same rou- tine, and quite an excavation was made, and could be seen for several years afterward, the road as finally located passing to the right of the spot. The shovel and barrow used were loaned by Maurice R. Hulce of Deposit, and President King took the shovel with him to New York. It was preserved by the Company until 1S6S, when it mysteriously dis- appeared. Mr. King did not live to see the " track of rails " completed, but many of those present when he made his address lived to see the little excavation at Deposit succeeded by some of the grandest of engi- neering achievements, and the day when the " ex- travagant " prediction of Mr. King in regard to the freight revenue of the road seemed ridiculously small, in the light of events that raised the figures indicat- ing the receipts from that traffic from the hundreds of thousands far into the millions. Work on the railroad progressed for a time as if the Company's treasury were surfeited with money. The management felt confident, for the subscribers to the stock, most of them at that time New York merchants and bankers, were regarded as good for any call that might be made upon them at any time. At a time when prospects seemed brightest the ter- ribly disastrous fire of December 16, 1835, broke out in New York, and swept away the entire lower part of the city. Many of the heaviest subscribers to the stock of the New York and Erie Railroad Company were ruined by that conflagration, and thus one of the prospective mainstays of the Com- pany's treasury was destroyed. Following that ca- tastrophe came the historic panic of 1836-37. with its widespread financial stagnation and ruin. This drove into bankruptcy many more of the large sub- scribers to the Erie stock, and the prospects of the Company and its work were robbed of whatever of cheer and brightness they may have had. Never- theless, depending on favorable action of the Leg- islature on a renewed appeal for State aid to the amount of §3,000,000, the management of the Com- pany ordered a new survey to be made of the route for the road, which was begun by Engineers Captain Andrew Talcott and Edwin F. Johnson. The object of this survey was to ascertain the most favorable and feasible terminal points for the railroad, and, if possible, to modify and improve on the original survey of 1834. Captain Talcott, formerly of the United States Army Engineer Corps, had charge of the route from Lake Erie to Painted Post, in Steuben Count} - , N. Y. Engineer Johnson was in charge between Painted Post and the Hudson River. Although a strong effort was being made to have the Eastern terminus at Newburgh, before the survey was completed the Legislature had passed the first Erie relief bill, and this provided that the Eastern terminus must be in Rockland County, and it was fixed at Tappan. Captain Talcott also reported in favor of Dunkirk as the Western terminus of the railroad. It may be well to state that the propri- etors of Dunkirk had made the donation of 5,000 town lots to the Company, and that Cornelius J. Blauvelt and others had given ninety lots — although they were under water — at Tappan. The report of the Directors of the Company for the year 1835, which was the first official report ever made of the Company's affairs, gives in detail the condition and alleged prospects of the railroad at that time. It was filed in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, January 12, 1836, and was sworn to by James G. King and Samuel B. Ruggles, as the Executive Committee of the Board. January 2, 1835, and signed by them as President and Comptroller. After citing the facts of the organization and the survey, the report is as follows : "On February 4, 1835, the first instalment of stock. $50,000, was deposited with the New York Lite Insurance and Trust Company, at interest of -t'j per cent, per annum. On April 15. [835, the company opened books for subscriptions, and received subscriptions until September 1. during which time 23,621 shares were subscribed, and 5 per cent., amounting to |;i I \\ I I N 1 111 0( EAN AND THK LAKHS \ further instalment of 5 pel enjamin V. • Ins chiel in the Mir- ■ it Chii-i 1 . . . ;. i. nine pan ineers put in the field the previous surveys, making the time f«.>r actual work .■ been busy fitting j . etc. In nnsylvania ami Jon- athan Knight of Maryland wen to consult with Chief igineers, upon the surveys of the route maenses incident of title 5,05169 For salary of the late Treasurer and present Sec- retary, clerk hire. rent, furniture, fuel, etc $3,853 72 The President, the Treasurer, and the Comptroller serve without salary. For nd expenses of agents employed in the business of the company 2,776 87 For Stationery and blanks, making and engraving maps, printing notices, reports, and other docu- ment [,928 18 For traveling expenses of committees and officers npan) while engaged in its business, in- cluding sundry petty expenses 812 4-' For amount of box rent, and postage paid 186 42 $38,621 38 Leaving a balance of $187,742 62 Which is deposited as folli Phoenix Bank of New York $130,572 59 New York Life Insurance ami Trust Company.. 50,000 00 Steuben County Bank 3.275 00 Chautauqua County Bank 2,61500 Broome County Bank 655 00 Orange County Bank 335 00 In hands of Secretary 290 03 $187. Sworn as true in every particular by P. G. STUYVESANT, Treasurer. Talman J. Waters, Secretary. January 5, 1836. President King kept the promise made in his re- port that the Company would advertise for proposals for grading contracts on other sections of the road early in the spring of 1836, but the advertisements were withdrawn before the dates set for the opening of bids; the reason alleged being that the Company had been unable to " prepare in time the portion of the line to be let." II. TRYING TO KEEP GOINC. Early in the session of 1836, consideration of the renewed petition of the Company for aid came up in the New York Assembly, and encountered fierce opposition. The scheme of the road was not only assailed as a wild and visionary one — " the greatest humbug of the age," the Hon. Francis Gra called it — and one from which wise business men stood aloof, but the officers and Directors of the Company were attacked on personal grounds, and their motives impugned. President King and the •irs had to defend themselves against the THE STORY OF ERIE 39 charges of using their connection with the Company ability of the Company to complete the whole road for stock-jobbing purposes, and of having purchased from the tidewater to the lake, with all requisite lands along the lines of the proposed road as a vehicles, for the amount stated in the report of the speculation which their plan of constructing the engineer, and that the sum will certainly not exceed, road would make a most profitable one for them, and probably will fall considerably short of, six mil- In 1S35 President King, Samuel B. Ruggles, the lions of dollars." It asked the loan of the State's Comptroller of the Company, and Peter G. Stuy- credit to an amount not to exceed three millions of vesant, the Treasurer, had made a tour of the route dollars, to be advanced in instalments. The docu- from New York to Lake Erie, and it was charged ments accompanying the communication were engi- that on that trip they had arranged the land specu- neers' reports and estimates. lation, a charge which they indignantly denied, and Acting on these petitions and memorials, a bill which no facts were ever put on record to substan- was introduced in the Assembly providing that cer- tiate. It was also charged in the Senate by Senator tificates of stock be issued when a section of railroad Young that the rumor was current that agents of from the Delaware and Hudson Canal to the Che- the Company had offered large holdings in land to nango Canal, near Binghamton, 146 miles, was corn- certain Members of Assembly as a bribe to secure pleted. The cost of this section was estimated to be their votes for the Erie aid bill. Assemblyman $1,646,826. Another block of §700,000 of State Campbell offered a resolution in that body calling stock was to be issued when the railroad was ready upon Senator Young to give the names of the for operation from Binghamton to the Alleghany Assemblymen thus alleged to have been approached River, 184 miles. This would have compelled an corruptly, but it was laid on the table, and the additional outlay by the Company of $1, 322,989. matter was probed no further. Senator Young was When the road should be completed from the Alle- arrested on a criminal charge of libel made by citi- ghany River to Lake Erie, seventy-nine miles, the zens of Tioga County for language used in the de- Company was to receive another instalment of stock bates on this bill, but nothing came of it. to the amount of §300,000, the cost of that section Every county through which the railroad was to being estimated at §640,547; and when the railroad pass, with the exception of Orange and Rockland, should be built from the Hudson River, in Rockland sent petitions to the Legislature asking for the pas- Count}-, to the Delaware and Hudson Canal, seventy- sage of a State-aid bill. The municipal authorities seven miles, the cost of which would be §1,664,156, of the cities of New York and Brooklyn also memo- stock to the amount of §400,000 would be issued to rialized the Legislature in favor of such a bill. A the Company. This called for the expenditure by remonstrance against the bill was forwarded from the Company of §4,674,518 to receive §2,000,000 Orange Count}'. This was the result of political in State stock. The remaining §1,000,000 of the feeling in that county and had no real bearing on State-aid stock was not to be issued until the rail- the sentiment of the people toward the railroad. road was completed, with a double track its entire Governor William L. Marcy, in his annual mes- length, from the Hudson to Lake Erie. This second sage to the Legislature in 1836, called attention to track, the cost of roadbed having been provided for the affairs of the New York and Erie Railroad, and in the above calculation, the engineers estimated submitted a communication from President King, would cost $1,857,000. accompanied by documents, and advised the serious The certificates of stock thus to be issued to the consideration of the questions involved, " uninflu- Company were to bear interest at the rate of 4^ per enced by any other views than such as are inspired cent, per annum, payable quarterly, and were re- by a comprehensive regard for the public good." deemable at an} - time within twenty years, the tolls The communication from President King was a and income of the railroad to be pledged for the pay- resume- of the work in hand, and assured the Gov- ment of the principal and interest. In default of ernor that "no reasonable doubt exists as to the the payment of principal or interest, the Comptroller BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES d by auc- : the use and ben- riu- bill met with strong irhich was the fact that it did : ad at the it a point in the interior. pted by the Lord follow- But the bill passed the I in the Senate was referred to the Rail- mittee, which, having figured out that the with a single track and equipment, could be built for $6,ooo,COO, and that it would, on a low - J.OOO a year, net, reported it favor- w ith a strong recommendation for its passage. The report (Senate Document No. 62, 1836) was :ed, and the bill became a law April 23d. Al- gh the Company and the friends of the rail- over this recognition of the importance and necessity of the railroad through the Southern Tier, and the quick completion of the undertaking was hailed as a certainty by means of the generous helping hand extended by the State (a belief that .tTected by the management of the Company in it- report to the stockholders as late as September, . it in reality must have been soon apparent to those at the head of the Company's affairs that this bill would be of but little use to them. To receive the first $600,000, first instalment of State stock, the Company would be obliged to expend nearly a million and three-quarters of dollars — more than double the amount to be received. To a corpora- tion that had not a dollar in its treasury, nor any mean ing a dollar, and which was deeplv in this was generosity indeed ! The so- called State aid could not be utilized, and the Com- pany was soon in sore straits. In December, 1836, a call was made for an instalment of §2. 50 on each share of stock that had been subscribed for. The inted to settle overdue claims of con- tractors, who were becoming clamorous. Less than one-half of the subscribers paid the instalment, and active operations on the work ceased with the close of th The extrenv nesss of the Company's situa- tion spur' ,rt to extricate it from its peril. He brought all his great personal influence in the business affairs "I New York t<. bear in behalf of the lagging enterprise, with the result that a call for a public meeting to be held at Clinton Hall. Friday evening, January 20, 1- at half-past six o'clock, was signed by all of the leading New York business men of that day. The object of the meeting, as stated in the call, was " to receive from the Hoard of Directors important state- ments representing the progress of their undertaking and its improved financial condition, and to adopt measures for an energetic prosecution and early com- pletion of the work." The meeting was called to order by James N. Wells. Mayor Aaron Clark was chosen President; James N. Wells and Nathaniel Weed, Vice-Presi- dents; and Thomas R. Merceir and William Samuel Johnson, Secretaries. The meeting was addressed by President King, who placed the situation, pros- pects, and needs of the Railroad Company before it. One tempting scheme he laid stress upon. This was the large provisional donations of land west of the Genesee River along the line of the proposed rail- road, which he said were of such value that their sales would permit the payment of 6 per cent, per annum to the stockholders of the Company, among whom, also, the land remaining unsold would be "rateably divided among the then holders of the three millions of stock." He said the Company had received an offer from Goold Hoyt, Nicholas Dever- eaux, and Nevius & Thompson, of $400,000 for these lands, to be paid in such sums, on July first of each year, until 1841, as should suffice for the inter- est at 6 per cent., accruing at those periods on the instalments of stock paid up. This offer had been declined, however, as the Company preferred to reserve for its stockholders the rise in the value of these lands which the progress of the road could not fail to occasion, selling only from time to time what night be needful to meet the payment of dividends. The road, he said, could be completed for $6,000,000. There had been subscribed si,Soo,ooo. The State stood pledged for $2,000,000, on the completion of a single track for the whole route. New York City was asked to raise enough to make the subscription - < 00,000. No subscription thus made would be THE STORY OF ERIE 41 called in exceeding instalments of 25 per cent, per annum, and the first payment might be made in notes at three or four months. President King insisted on the declaration that he and his associates had no interest in the work beyond that of every stock- holder in the value of the stock. They owned no land along the route, and had no separate pecuniary inter- est. He warned the New York business men against the efforts other cities were making to secure the trade of the great West at the expense of New York. John A. Stevens addressed the meeting in favor of going to the aid of the Company. What was of the greatest importance to the city of New York, he declared, was to be secured by the building of this railroad to the Alleghany Valley — connection in the early spring between this part of New York and the populous valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi — the head of navigation of which rivers, he called the particular attention of the meeting, lay within the limits of this State, in the County of Cattaraugus. " When the railroad shall be completed from the Hudson to the Alleghany, the merchandise of this city can be sent down into the valley of the Ohio before the 10th of March, earlier even than the open- ing of the Pennsylvania Canal, and nearly six weeks before the opening of the Erie Canal." Speeches were made by George Griswold, Robert Cheese- brough, General Tallmadge, and others, and resolu- tions favorable to the increasing of the available sub- scriptions of the stock of the Railroad Company to $3,000,000 were unanimously adopted, and recom- mending that books for that purpose be opened at the Merchants' Exchange and other places. A committee of thirty-nine was appointed by the chair to obtain subscriptions, as follows: John Hag- gerty, John A. Stevens, Robert Cheesebrough, Moses H. Grinnell, S. S. Howland, James N. Wells, Charles N. Talbott, Moses Taylor, Benjamin Bird- sail, Nathaniel Weed, Frederick Sheldon, E. J. Gould, Stephen Allen, Simeon Draper, Jr., Charles Kelsey, A. G. Thompson, T. R. Merceir David Austin, Daniel Jackson, D. W. Wetmore, Sheppard Knapp, Samuel Jones, Robert Ray, George W. Bruen, James B. Murray, Thomas E. Davis, Charles Hoyt, J. A. Perry, Ogden E. Edwards, Charles Wolfe, Henry H. Elliott, David Lee, E. G. Vaile, Charles Dennison, Alfred R. Mount, Jacob Loril- lard, Martin E. Thompson, Philip H. Woodruff, Andrew Lockwood. It would seem that it would have needed no more aid than what the members of this committee could themselves alone have offered, then and there, to have not only tided the Company over its pressing difficulties but insured the completion of its rail- road without further delay or hindrance, if their faith in its future and fears for its failure were as strong as their professions ; but there is no record that they did anything more than " open books," and wait for the public to come and take shares in the Company, which the public did not do. The official report for 1836, and of the condition of the Company's affairs, was as follows : The work of grading the forty and a half miles in the Delaware Valley has been actively prosecuted during the year. The amount of work done amounted to $165,010.78, on which the company paid the contractors in cash $121,939.49. Except in ten instances, the people owning the land on that section ceded right of way. and the land the company needed, gratu- itously. Legal proceedings before the Vice-Chancellor to condemn the lands were taken by the company, and the valu- ation as confirmed by them amounted to $3,105. The com- pany has located a section of the road near the west side of the Hudson River, and extending into the same at or near Tappan Landing, in the town of Orange, in Rockland County, and commenced graduation of it. The company has paid on the account of the same during the year $4,000. Engineers have been revising the line, and particularly in surveying and examining with great care the several harbors on Lake Erie in the County of Chautauqua. These examina- tions have enabled the material shortening and straightening of the line and improvement of the grades of the road which will first approach the Lake at Dunkirk. James G. King, President. S. B. Ruggles, Comptroller. January 31, 1837. Report of tin- Receipts and Expenditures of the New York and Erie Railroad Company during the Year iSj6. RECEIPTS. Balance on hand January I, 1836 $187,742 62 From instalments on stock $22,122 50 Interest on instalments and Minis on deposit 6.968 91 Rent of offices in buildings Xo. 12 and 46 Wall Street, relet by the company to May 1 , 1836 740 14 From payment of money advanced for purchase of instruments for the junior members of the engineer corps 360 00— $30,191 55 $217,934 17 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES $2 17.934 '7 EXPENDITURES. m- $125,939 49 in- 65.713 96 rk. rent, furniture, fuel, and 5.3'6 70 iward to - in ac- •ij 4.734 73 incurred .2.660 93 ub- Ivertisements, printing documents 1.194 62 ■ for <.'ii gi- ti) assist the junior members 1,079 87 rs of the mpany while engaged in its busi- 718 07 rent anil postage I25 04— $207,484 31 ilance, December 31, 1836 $10,449 86 T. J. Waters, Secretary. January 31, 1837. Thus the Company had received but §22,000 on stock payments during the year. The total receipts were little more than §30,000, and the expenditures over §207, 000. A more discouraging situation could ell be imagined. President King made strenu- •forts to extricate the Company from its depth of trouble, but without success, and, in the spring of all work in the Delaware Valley and elsewhere ordered discontinued. The Company's debt then only $13,000, but there was much less than that actually in the treasury. The prospects for a railroad from the Hudson to Lake Erie were dark indei The King administration steadily became unpopu- lar at large, and there was not entire and perfect among its own 1 Work Mr. King's man- he had at last beconi' ert to the litude of the one the Company had in hand could not be successfully con- structed by .1 private corporation, and that the work should I, by the State. The lolders ^e" ' and the financial depression in the country was becoming greater. A number of leading officers of the Company had resigned. At the annual election for the Directors in October, 1S37, the votes of stockholders who had not paid the instalments called for were refused. A memo- rial from President King and the Directors asking an amendment to the relief act of 183'' was presented to the Senate during the session of 1837. The memorial asked for further aid for the railroad be- cause of the pecunian- disaster that had overtaken many of its large stockholders, preventing them from paying the amounts of their subscriptions to the stock. The report of the Railroad Committee on it declared its sympathy with the situation the Com- pany found itself in, but claimed that " the same causes which now embarrass the progress of the work, and, in fact, agitate the whole commercial world, have so greatly discouraged the financial affairs of the country as to render it inexpedient, if not impracticable, for the State to afford the imme- diate aid requested by the memorialists." And none was granted. The official report of 1837, made January 8, 1838, was signed by P. G. Stuyvesant and William Beach Lawrence, as " Directors and Members of the Lrie Company." President King was in England using his influence as a financier to stay the title of the commercial panic in this country, which he succeeded in doing by inducing the Bank of England to advance a luge- amount of specie to New York banks to enable the resumption of specie payments and restore confidence here. Officially, following was the status of the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany at the close of 1837: During 1837, and especially in the month of February, 2.200 additional shares of stock were subscribed, 1.355 of which instalments wen paid in cash to the amount of $20.- 137.50. On previous subscriptions $50,887.50 were paid dur- ing 1837. The total number of shares subscribed for since the organization of the company was 25,832. On these, calls for 15 per cent, of the face had been made up to 1837, and cash to the amount of $325,907.50 had been paid on 24,987 Shares, leaving due cm the calls "ii these shares $48.81)7.50. On the remaining 845 shares nothing had been paid. No other contract been made on the line; on the contrary, the found ni li difficulty during the commercial embarrassments of the year in collecting instalments on stock that they had deemed it their duty in. and shortly before, the month of May, 1837, to discharge the contractors and sus- THE STORY OF ERIE 43 pend all further operations in the Delaware Valley, and also to discharge their engineers and surveyors throughout the whole line of the road. The grading on the Delaware Valley, forty and one-half miles, had cost $192,837.63, and on the sec- tion at Tappan Landing, $5,889.40. All of this cost has been paid to the contractors except about $13,000, which is being liquidated and settled. The total amount of money raised by the company since its organization to December 31, 1837, was $338,637.15. The total amount expended during the same period was $337,630.43 as follows: Construction, $186,116.62: engineering and surveys, $112,147.84; lands for roadbeds and stations, $10,282.26; salaries, rent, etc., $29,083.71. Receipts and Expenditures of the New York and Eric Rail- road Company during the ] 'ear iSjy. RECEITTS. Balance on hand, January 1, 1837 $10,449 86 From instalments on stock $80,025 °° Interest on same and sums on deposit. 1.387 08 From rent of rooms relet by company. 214 04 From rent of property purchased for roadbed and station at Binghamton. 157 2^ From repayment of advances to junior members engineer corps 298 25 — $82,081 60 Total $9ear or more, and up to the time of the adoption of the plan by which the railroad was being built through Rockland County and into Orange County, the Southern Tier had advocated and insisted on the surrender of the Erie charter to the State, and opposed all further efforts to obtain relief from the ilature. The reports of the success with which the Rockland and Orange method was meeting changed the drift of opinion in the Susquehanna and Chemung valleys, and in February, 1840, confidence in the work was so much restored that the same plan tccepted by the Southern Tier counties, and subscriptions sufficient having been made, 117 miles of road, from Binidiamton to Hornellsville, were put under contract, and the work of construction was immediately begun. In the work on the Susquehanna and Chemung sections of the railroad, Eleazar Lord, who had d himself so potent in his direction of the affairs of the Company in many emergencies, com- mitted himself to an act of folly which went far to strengthen the ch his enemies that he was not a practical man, but one of wild and visionary This the substitution of rows of roadbed on which to lay the r.tiU. Upward of one h miles ..f this piling were driven along the route, at acostvarii estim • 000 to si.cjoo.ooo. It was a I loss. No track er laid upon it. I or many years after the railroad was completed long rows of these piles could be seen, and even to this day, in the Canisteo Valley, near Hornellsville, many of them are visible, mournful monuments to misdi- rected effort in furthering a worth)- cause. Their interesting story is told elsewhere in this volume. February 26, 1840, on the petition of the citizens of the Southern Tier counties, and of sundry stock- holders of the Company, Senator Furman, of the Railroad Committee of the Senate, presented from that committee a strong report in favor of the State assuming charge of the New York and Erie Railroad and completing it as a public work. The Company itself was charged by opponents of such a course with conspiring to arouse the people to efforts to induce the State to take the work off the Company's hands. At this session of the Legislature the President of the Company, under date of January 24th, presented a memorial asking for a further amendment of the act of April 16, 1838. The memorial was accom- panied by a letter from President Lord to the Chair- man of the Assembly Railroad Committee, the Hon. Demas Hubbard, Jr., in which he answered the que- ries which had been made by Mr. Hubbard in regard to the Company, in view of action on the proposed new legislation. In this letter Mr. Lord said : "It is proposed nay for a single track of rails, with the nece sar) turnouts; to ereel sub tantial bridges with timber in placi ol torn 1 trucl the road with piles wherevei thai method hall 1"- Found mosl economical, and to laj lion- and well secured superstructures and a ll.it iron rail •.! re than ordinary thickness, About two hundred mile- of the track can. it is believed, 1" laid on piles, ill a manner far more satisfactory, and at far less CO t, than by THE STORY OF ERIE 49 the ordinary method of grading; and in hope that the desired change in the law may be granted, and in order to be pre- pared to proceed with the work without delay, contracts for about one hundred miles of pile road, on the margin of the Susquehanna and its tributaries, between Binghamton and Hornellsville, are in preparation and may be consummated within two or three weeks. The cost of the road, as repeat- edly estimated and revised, graded for a double track, with a single track of rails, the ordinary flat iron, and the necessary engines and vehicles, will fall within $6,000,000. Upon the plan now proposed, with the economy induced by the circum- stances of the company and the use of piles on large portions of the road, the utmost confidence is felt that the cost of the work complete will not exceed, and may fall considerably short of, the sum mentioned. The company, without any hesitation or doubt, will be able to complete the road without any additional amount of aid beyond the $3,000,000 contem- plated in the act, which calls for an issue of the loan in the ratio of $100,000 to every sum of $50,000 collected on the stock of the company and expended in the construction of the road, that rate to be applicable to the past as well as the future collections on the stock, the stock to bear interest at 6 per cent, per annum, or such rate not exceeding 6 per cent., at the option of the Comptroller, as will be saleable at par, and to exchange the four and a half per cent, stock heretofore issued, for stock bearing six, or not exceeding 6 per cent., that the former, which on account of its low rate of interest is not saleable without loss, may be taken out of market. Then more than half the road may be put in use within two years. " The company has not expressed the desire or taken any measures or authorized any one to bring about the comple- tion of the work by the State. With the aid asked, they will proceed with the work rapidly and successfully complete it." The petition which President Lord's letter accom- panied stated that work was progressing under the contracts made in August, 1838, according to the act of April 16 of that year, for graduation and ma- sonry on ten miles of the Eastern end and ten miles on the Western end of the railroad. Seven miles of the Western end were graded ; the remain- der nearly. Half the Eastern end was graded. Arched stone culverts had been built over the Pas- cac and other streams, and one over the Hackensack was building. A pier constructed on piles, with an embankment of earth and stone, had been extended to the navigable channel of the Hudson River, 4,000 feet from shore, with transverse wharf at the end, 120 feet in length. A single track of rails used in carrying the materials of the embankment was laid from the end of the pier, a distance of nearly two miles. This work was in such a state that it would permit laying of the superstructure the ensuing sea- son. Legal titles had been acquired for lands for roadway and, July, 1839, contracts were made for grading single track from the western end of the ten- mile section to Goshen, thirty-five miles, with the exception of two miles of piles. Proposals at the same time were received for grading a further dis- tance of seven miles to Middletown, and contract for one mile was let. These contracts amounted to $330,000, or $8,250 per mile. A portion of the tim- ber for superstructure had been purchased; it being deemed practicable to finish it within the ensuing year. New surveys were begun in the latter part of 1839, and new examinations of the Shawangunk ridge began January 30, 1840. Resurvey of the Sul- livan route was making ; also from Binghamton west to the Genesee River, and from the western boun- dary of Allegany County through Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. There had been finally lo- cated 103 miles — fifty-three miles on the Eastern Division, forty in the Delaware Valley, and ten in Chautauqua County. Between fifty and sixty miles were graded ready for superstructure. This petition was an elaboration of the official report for 1839, which also thus stated the condition of the Company's affairs: Report of the Receipts ami Expenditures of the New York and Erie Railroad Company during the Year lSj<). RECEIPTS. Balance on hand. January I, 1839 $1,180 26 From collections on stock and interest thereon $54.15' °2 Rents 650 00 Temporary loan 11,000 00 Proceeds of sale of $300,000 of 4J/2 per cent. State stock 245,225 00— 311,026 02 Total $312,206 28 EXPENSES. For grading, timber for pier and superstructure, and laying of a por- tion of latter, compensation of com- missioners and agents in getting land for roadway and stations, fences, etc $229,423 18 Costs of said lands and fences, legal proceedings in acquiring title, etc.. 42,899 19 Salaries, rent. fuel, stationery, print- ing, postage, and incidental office expenses 4,229 67 Interest on temporary loan, auction- eer's charges for selling State stock, county clerk's fees for searches 5.937 75 Amount temporary loans stated in an- nual report for 1838 24.500 00— $306,989 79 Leaving balance, December 31, 1839 $S,zi6 49 February 19, 1840. William M. Gould, Secretary. 5° BETWEEN 1 111! OCEAN AND THE LAKES ng fight against a " political reform" iture, the amended legislation I, and in a short time the tcept forty miles between I Bing imti n, was under contract and the •• tively progressing. The ten-mile iding from Dunkirk eastward was com- nd the forty-seven miles between Piermont and Goshen were nearly ready for operation. "All this,' nl at the time, " without the aid of <>ne dollar from a New York City stockholder, or the sympathy of its citizens." Although the New York and Erie Railroad was built greatly for the benefit of New York City, the political influence of the Erie Canal was so great that the people of the city, the power of Wall Street, ami many of the metropolitan newspapers opposed the work and discredited the Company and its efforts at even' turn. Thus it was that, in the face of the the work was making, and in spite of the fact that in twelve months the Company had risen from a condition of weakness and distrust to strength and confidence, damaging charges were set in circu- lation against its management. Eleazar Lord and •adjutors were charged with sinister and selfish motives in locating the road ; with favoritism in - paid to contractors and in compensation of officers ; with corrupt agreements with stockholders in Rockland and Orange counties, by which amounts of money subscribed were represented to the State t to be much larger than they actually were, to secure the payment of the State instalments ; and with other corrupt and criminal practices and willful extravagance. In recognition of this situation, Pres- ident Lord sent the following letter to the Speaker of th< HE N'l w ': D El II l: ill. ROAD •v York, December 30, 1840. To the Honorable th r of the House of Assembly of tin- State of A SIR : This company having expended in the construction of nd dollars of money col- on their ,nri likewise the proi eeds of eight hundred I • of the thru- millio ianed b of this State; and no special 1 ination of such expenditure having been instituted on the part of the State, other than that made during the past year by the inspector appointed pursuant to the act of 29th of April, 1&40. 1 beg, through you, to express the unanimous wish of the directors that such investigation of the affairs and pro- lings of the company may be ordered a H irable the Assembly shall appear expedient. With the further request that you would take the earliest -inn alter the commencement of the session to submit this communication to the Honorable the Assembly, I have the honor to remain, Respectfully, your obedient servant. Eleazar Lord, President. The investigation was referred to the Committee on Railroads, February 4, 1841. The result of its labors was a report vindicating the management. This was not satisfactory to the enemies of the Rail- road Company and its management, and the fight against them was kept up with increased bitterness, the old charges being reiterated and new ones made. Another and more thorough investigation by the Legislature was demanded and, May 24, a special investigating committee was appointed. The report of this committee not only exonerated President Lord and his management, but incorporated in its report the following : The result of this investigation not only exonerati s tli<- company, its officers, and its agents from everything like a charge of fraud or mismanagement or attempt to evade the law. but it proves on the contrary that they are justly entitled to the confidence which the Legislature has heretofore re- posed in them. Instead of being liable to censure, the com- pany is entitled to approbation." In spite of this official indorsement of the Erie management, the political enemies of the project continued their fight against it, charging that the legislative reports were influenced by the behests of Whig politics. President Lord resigned May 28, 1841, but before resigning he took up the interests of original stockholders in the Company who had suffered great financial loss by the disastrous fire in New York City in 1X35, but who had made payments on their stock previous to that time. lie proposed to the Board of Directors that those stockholders, by paying $5 per share on the stock they held, be permitted to relinquish to the Company such original scrip and receive full certificates of stock for the amount of payments they had made, with a release from liability for all outstanding contracts. This was agreed to by a resolution of the Hoard, and the THE STORY OF ERIE 51 contractors assented to the exempting of such orig- Company, or $1,100,000 in all. The Eastern Divi- inal stockholders from liability. By this arrangement sion of the railroad, as the section between Piermont a large sum of money was turned into the Company and Goshen was called, was rapidly approaching treasury. Mr. Lord left the Company with its affairs completion, and the work was progressing on other in apparently sound condition, and its prospects parts of the line, so far as outward indication was, seemed promising. The State had paid eleven of the with an activity that augured well for an early open- $100,000 instalments of the $3,000,000 loan to the ing of the entire road. CHAPTER VII. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BOWEN— 1841 TO 1S43. Opportunity Thrown Away: The Fatal Mistake that Mad-.- Possible All of Erie's Subsequent Woes — But for that Mistake there would be no Vanderbilt Kingdom, and the History of Wall Street and of Railroads in this Country would have been Entirely rcn t — All of the Present Great Terminal 1'ossessions of the Vanderbilt System at Forty-second Street in New York City might N'od of the Head and the Outlay of Less than $90,000! — The Offer not Accepted. II. GETTING Rl Rosy Prognostications on the Threshold of Disaster — The Company's Treasury again Empty — And • •.000 to the Mate — Politics, the Press, and the Erie Question — Futile Aid Meetings in New York — The State Turns its and the Company Assigns — The Railroad Advertised for Sale, but the Sale Postponed by Action of a Special Session of the Legislature. I. A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY THROWN AWAY. road put in operation. In fact, a month after Bowen became President, a train was run between l'iermont who was then Vice-President and and Ramapo, a distance of twenty miles. Already Treasurer, was elected to succeed Eleazar Lord as the fact that, even with the railroad in operation on ident of the Company, and he had the honor and the Eastern Division, its Eastern terminus would glory of presiding on the historic occasion when the still be nearly twenty-five miles from New York first portion of the New York and Erie Railroad was City, which distance was to be overcome by steam- opened for traffic, although it was through no direct boat between the city and Piermont, began to excite effort of his that the work had progressed thus far. much discussion, and the advantage that would Others who had been striving and hoping for years for even this consummation of the long-laid plans had no active part in the event. Upon many such .en the courtesy of being an invited guest was red. Mr. Bowen was a native of New York City, a man of wealth, a member of the Union Club, and of the Kent Club, famous in that day, in which - Watson Webb, Moses H. Grinnell, Richard M. lilatchford, and similar spirits, were conspicuous. dent Bowen was a leader in that coterie, and [ally an intimate of General Webb. The latter had supported the New York and Erie project in his paper, The New York Courier and Inquirer, from the beginning, and it was as a friend of his that accrue to the Company if it might have the terminus at or near New York became apparent to observant people who gave the matter thought. " A railroad that begins twenty-five miles away from the place it was chartered to bring into communication with some other place," the Hon. Francis Granger remarked in opposing an effort of the Company to obtain public aid, " does not seem to be warranted in supposing that it is entitled to a confidence in its purposes that it would have if it could show that it would deposit its traffic where it protested it intended to deposit it." The charter of the Company gave it the privi- lege of constructing its railroad from New York, or from a point near New York. The uniting of the Jan 1 entered the Directory of the Company, seaboard with the lakes by a railroad which would and through his influence that Bowen was advanced to the Pre idency. So far as the public knew, the affairs of Erie were Work was actively progressing all along the line. On th n Division it had reached a attract traffic of the great West to New York was the one idea the projectors of this railroad dwelt upon in seeking the charter. So the fact that the road was to come no nearer the great center of the country's trade than twenty-five miles grew to be a stage so near , that it was only a matter of question of much comment. a few weeks whe: track would be laid the entire April 25, 1S31, almost a year to a day before the distance between Pi ont and Goshen and the rail- corporation that became the New York and Erie £» GENERAL JAMES BOWEN. THE STORY OF ERIE 53 Railroad Company was chartered, the New York and Harlem Railroad Company was granted letters of incorporation, with authority to construct a single or double track railway " from any point on the north bounds of Twenty-third Street to any point on the Harlem River, between the east bounds of the Third Avenue and the west bounds of Eighth Avenue, with a branch to Hudson River, between 124th Street and the north bounds of 129th Street." April 6, 1832, the charter was amended to authorize the company, with permission of the authorities of New York City, to extend its railroad " along the Fourth Avenue to Fourteenth Street." May 12, 1836, the company was authorized to unite with any railroad or canal company organized under the laws of New York State, for the purpose of constructing a rail- road, at any point which the directors of the two companies might agree upon. Subsequent legisla- tion empowered the company to extend its railroad to the City Hall. May 7, 1840, the company was authorized to extend its railroad from the Harlem River through the County of Westchester to a point of intersection with the proposed New York and Albany Railroad. The company was also authorized to build a drawbridge across the Harlem River. At the session of the New York Legislature for 1 841, the New York and Harlem Railroad Company was a petitioner for the aid of the State to the amount of $350,000, by the issue of State stock at six per cent, interest, payable in five years, to enable the company to continue its work; the railroad being then in operation from the City Hall in New York to Fordham, a distance of thirteen miles. To influence feeling in its favor the company laid particular stress on the fact that by this concession a communication by rail between New York and Albany would be greatly hastened. This petition was presented to the Legislature, January 26, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Railroads. The applica- tion was refused. At this time work on the Erie was at the height of its activity. Eleazar Lord was President of the Company. The President of the New York and Harlem Railroad was Samuel R. Brooks. He seems to have been a far-seeing man and a practical one. The New York and Albans- Railroad scheme was languishing, as were most of the railroad enterprises then, and President Brooks, failing to obtain aid from the State for his company, and seeing no imme- diate future for the New York and Albany Railroad that would benefit him, turned his attention to the Erie, a brief study of the scope of which project convinced him that not only its future greatness, but the salvation and enhancement of his own rail- road, lay in a union of the two. There is no record to show how his idea was re- ceived by the Erie management. Eleazar Lord, in his scathing review of the Erie, published in 1855, makes no reference to the Erie-Harlem incident. That President Brooks did submit it to the Erie authorities would seem to be established by the fact that, March 18, 1841, Mr. Furman, of the Commit- tee on Railroads, presented the petition of the New York and Harlem Railroad Company for an act au- thorizing it to connect its railroad with that of the Erie by branch railroad, and March 27 brought in a report from his committee, of which the following is a part : The New York and Harlem River Railroad Company hav- ing been authorized by an act of the Legislature of this State, passed May 7. 1840, to construct their railroad through the County of Westchester, and the New York and Erie Railroad having on the same authority built their road from its termi- nation at Piermont opposite the said County of Westchester on the Hudson River, and arc now engaged in vigorously prosecuting the same through the Southern Tier of the coun- ties of this State to Lake Erie, it has been deemed very desir- able that these two roads should be connected by a branch railway, extending from the Harlem road in Westchester to a point opposite, or nearly so. to the termination of the great Southern railroad at Piermont, and that this union should be further effected by a steamboat ferry across that river, being a distance (if two miles, for transporting the cars. etc.. from the one road to the other, thus opening a direct com- munication through those Southern counties with the citj ol New York. The point at which this branch road should begin, it was thought, should be located near Kane's quarrj . which now affords the marble for the construction of the new Custom House in the city of New York, the General Post Office in the city of Washington, D. C, and for other public buildings, and which quarry will of itself afford a very large amount of business for that branch road, in transporting the stone to the Hudson River, in order that it may be shipped to its destination. Another important consideration in the construction of the proposed road is that it will enable the various descriptions of produce which are brought from those Southern counties for the consumption of that great city to be distributed at the various depots through it. from the Har- lem River to the City Hall, where the same may be required, in place of being drawn up from the wharves at the rate of 54 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES dollar 1 1. ,.r the center iminution which the construction of tln> ■ •rt.iti. 'ti to the consumer, ly, it is believed will And during the winter, when it work of the New ml freight and Harlem Railroad by means of this branch road, it - t li;i t this on will not ilders of both companies, but will aft- nd accommodation to the pub- lic In this view of the subject it is hardly possible to the value and importance of this connection <>t' the Harlei the New York and Erie Railroad I te Piermont, a distance oi hteen miles and a quarter from the Harlem River. n though it might have been that President Brooks had not consulted with the Erie management upon this proposed connecting of the Harlem with the Erie, it does not seem possible that the Erie Directors, representative men of affairs that they were, should not have at once become inspired with the greatness of the idea suggested by the Harlem proposition. It does not alone seem impossible. In the light of present events it stands forth as in- credible, startling. But greater stupidity, or what- ever it might have been that impelled the Erie man- agement to its criminal supineness, was to come. The petition for authority to make the connection with Erie and the report in favor of a bill were un- necessary, for the charter of the Harlem Company it that power, a fact which both President Brooks and the legislators had overlooked. This oversight was evidently discovered, for no further legislative action was taken in the matter. But although the Harlem Company had the power to build the branch railroad to make connection with the Erie, it did not have the means, and this pre- I the way for the golden opportunity which the Erie deliberately, and, so far as there is anything to show tn tli': contrary, contemptuously, threw away. What this opportunity was the following correspond- ence vividly reveals ; PR] I BROOKS TO PI DENT BOWEN. w York \m> Hai t i ident of the N. )'. and Erie R.R. Co. Dear Sir: I beg i branch railroad from the exten ion of I lilroad in the valley of the Bronx, in Westchester County, to a point on the Hudson River opposite I the Railroad at I'lermont. 1 have had a survey made oi the proposed branch, and have t! transmit herewith a i opy of u i",.r \ our information You will learn from this report of a survey by Allen A. i. Hill. I -| . ili.it the distance from the Harlem Railroad, in the valley of the Bronx, to the Hudson River, opposite Piermont, is eight ami a third miles. railroad between these points, including erstructure, as carefully estimated from minute data, is $131,618.82, equal to $15,796.09 per mile, and with a grade not • tceeding Fortj four feet per mile. No allow ame for the right of way is included in the above estimate. The distance from the City Hall to the point of commencement of the present survey of this branch is eigh- teen miles — adding thereto the branch of eight and one-third miles gives the distance from the City Hall to the Hudson River opposite Piermont, twenty-six and one-third miles; and with two miles of ferry across the Hudson at Tappan Baj m kes twenty-eight and one-third miles from the City Mall to the present terminus of the Erie Railroad, at the pier on tb. Hudson River, which, with the fifty miles of railroad already completed from that point to Goshen, would afford to the public a continuous line of railroad from the Citj Hall of seventy-eight and one-third miles toward Albany — being more than half the distance between that city and the city of New York. I beg to inquire whether your company are willing to undertake to construct this branch of eight and one- third miles and rent it to this company for a term of ten or twenty years at 7 per cent, interest per annum on the cost, we to keep it in perfect repair — the track to be the same width as our present road? On these conditions we will undertake to furnish you a sub- scription to the New York and Erie Railroad Co.'s stock for one-third of the cost of the road. If your Board of Directors are pleased to entertain the con- sideration of this subject you are hereby authorized to state that this company are prepared to furnish you at once with the subscriptions for one-third of the cost of the road, and to offer to you the benefit of such business as our road can furnish to your road, which will present to the public a direct railroad route from the City Hall to Goshen, a distance of seventy-eight and one-third miles, on or before tin first day of January next, provided you decide upon the adoption of this proposal within a few days. Your early reply is respect- fully solicited With great respect, your most obedient servant, Samuel R. Brooks. I 'resident. PRESIDENT BROoks TO THE ERIE INVESTIGAT- ING COMMITTEE. Office of thf. N'i w York and II \ri 1 M Rail- road Co., New Yurk, September 6, 1841. To the Committee of Investigation appointed by the Legislature on /lie Affairs of the New York an,/ Erie Railroad Co. GENTLEMEN: I beg leave to enclose herein copies of the report of Allen A. Goodliff, Esq., of a survey of a line of rail- road from Hi' extension of the Harlem Railroad, ill the valley of the Bronx, in Westchester County, to tin Hudson River, opposite the terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad at Piermont. The contractors of tin extension of the Harlem THE STORY OF ERIE 55 Railroad have engaged to have the road complete about one mile beyond the proposed point of connection on or before the first day of January next; the road is already complete, and in daily use, twelve and one-half miles from the City Hall 1 also enclose a copy of the letter I have addressed in behalf of this company to the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Co., proposing to them the immediate con- struction of the eight and one-third miles which would connect these two important works, to the great accommoda- tion of the public, and the certain benefit of both companies. Permit me to inform you that the Board of Directors of this company will esteem it a favor if you would express to the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Co. your views on this subject. With great respect, I have the honor to be Your most obedient servant, Samuel R. Brooks, President. ERIE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE TO THE ERIE. New York, September 14, 1S41. To the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. The President of the New York and Harlem Railroad Com- pany has made an official communication to this committee, under date of the sixth of September, instant, transmitting a copy of a letter addressed to the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, dated August 17, 1841, in which the New York and Harlem Railroad Company invited the New York and Erie Railroad Company to extend their railroad eight and one-third miles into the County of Westchester, for the purpose of intersecting and joining the New York and Harlem Railroad in the valley of the Bronx at a point eighteen miles distant from the City Hall. In the communication referred to, the committee have been requested to express to the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company the views suggested to their minds from a consideration of the subject. Although desiring to confine themselves strictly within the sphere of their duties, yet the committee, feeling deeply im- pressed with the importance and usefulness to the public of a continuous railroad from our vast interior to the very center of the city of New York, have most willingly given to this subject their deliberate consideration. They have carefully examined the matter in the various aspects it has been presented, not only as regards the present, but in reference to the future, to the full period of the dura- tion of the respective charters of both companies. From this examination they have been led to the conclusion that the proposed connection between these two important public works would result in mutual benefit to both, and most espe- cially to the public at large. The undersigned have personally passed over the New York and Harlem Railroad from the City Hall to Fordham — a dis- tance of twelve and one-half miles. They were conveyed at the rate of thirty miles per hour over the four and one-half miles of road now constructed in the County of Westchester, with an edge rail of the same weight as that used in the con- struction of the New York and Erie Railroad. The undersigned were gratified to find, in their visit to the line of the proposed extension of the road, that the company were actively engaged in extending this road, not only to the point proposed as a junction with the New York and Erie Railroad, but to the town of White Plains, and thence through the County of Westchester. They ascertained from the con- tractors whom they met with on the line that they had actu- ally contracted to have that portion of the road completed which extends to the proposed point of intersection with the New York and Erie Railroad Company, on or before the first of January next, notwithstanding the pecuniary embarrass- ments of the period and the obstacles interposed by clashing interests. As the control and management of the different lines lead- ing into the city have been placed under one direction, they could arrive or depart without collision or conflict and afford the greatest convenience to the public. Several depots may be provided for passengers, merchandise, and produce, so that the one may not embarrass the other, and the greatest degree of punctuality, despatch, and economy be obtained in the management of the vast inland trade destined, at no distant day. to pour into the city of New York through the channel of communication. The Xew York and Harlem Railroad has been completed to Fordham by individual enterprise, unaided by the bonds of the State, and the causes heretofore operative in creating opposition or difficulty have leased to exert any material influ- ence. It will not be denied at this day that the advantages of a speedy conveyance are often of greater value than the whole charges of transportation. Experience testifies that increased facilities of intercourse between distant places and, more especially, seaports and the interior of a country are among the most effective means of extending individual ami general prosperity. The proofs and instances which sustain this assertion are not confined to the case of any one country or district, although they are more observable in communities where the resources of wealth and commerce already pos- sessed by the inhabitants enable them to turn every advantage, as it arises, to immediate account. In England, whenever new channels of communication have been opened, either between different parts of the interior, or the interior and the coast, or between different seaports, one with another, or with other countries, whose opportunities have invariably been embraced without delay, the degree to which intercourse is not merely promoted, but actually created by the facility of accomplishing it. could scarcely be credited but for the numerous and authentic examples which establish the fact. This committee have been officially informed that the entire investment made by the New York and Harlem Railroad rt this day amounts to $1,358,302, including cost of road, real estate, appendages, and appurtenances of every kind. That the establishment, as now constituted, actually performed and traveled in their cars, in the year ending the first of September. 1840, no less than two hundred and ninety-seven thousand five hundred and sixty-four miles and conveyed, during the same period, upwards of one million of passengers. The committee conceive that a road of the peculiar location and usefulness of this: extending from a great and growing city through an island of length without breadth, to the only bridge communication that, in all probability, can ever be made; with roads extending to every section of the East and North, presents strong claims upon the New York and Eric Railroad Company to unite them to the immense continuity of railroads from the South and West: especially as it can be 13 the construction of only eight and one-third miles of railroad and an expenditun eeding $150,000. With these facts before the committee, they feel themselves safe in saying that tiny conceive Mich a connection cannot fWEEN 111!. OCEAN AND THE LAKES to thi ! '"tii com- ndividual and general A G Chatfield. G. G. Graham. W'm. B. M.Ci.av. There is no record of any reply from President any of the Erie Directors to either the com- munication from President Brooks or that of the In- immittee (the committee appointed in ■ the Erie management). If such made, it must have been a refusal on the rie management to consider the propo- made by President Brooks, for the project 1 no further. Why a matter so important and vital to Erie should have been ignored it is difficult at this late day, without any recorded mo- tive for it to guide one, to conceive. The Erie, to be sure, was approaching a crisis in its affairs which only those in the secrets of the management knew the seriousness of, but, in the hands of a directory competent to grasp the consequences of such a co- alition as was offered, the presentation of them to public consideration would have at once established a confidence in the result that would not only have averted the impending crisis but would have placed the Erie for the first time on a substantial footing. It would no longer have been derisively termed " a railroad starting from nowhere and bound for no place." To accomplish the work this union of intcr- dled for, the Company could well have afforded -pend all operations on the Western portions of ■ ute to save money thus being used and use it to build the Harlem branch. Politics played a lead- oralizing part in the affairs of Erie in rlydaysof it s struggles, and were responsible for many of the ills that befell the Company. It might have been that their hand was in this greatest of all Erie misfortunes. Individual interests largely controlled the direction of Erie's initial policy, as have largely controlled the policy of her later and always to her undoing. Perhaps they might have h did clutch upon her and held way from this, the opportunity of her life. Whal • have been that stood in the way of hi r disenthralment made Erie vulner- able to the assaults that have brought her low many a time since then, and bowed her shoulders to the bunions that have grown and grown with the passing years until they became heavier than she could bear. With the consummation of President Brooks's pro- ject Erie would have borne up even under the bur- den of the broad gauge, that costly heritage of folly, whose evil consequences are entailed on Erie for all her days. True, the proposed Harlem branch was to have been paid for by the Erie, with the exception of one- third of its cost, and leased to the Harlem ; but, if there had been a genius, or even a man competent to look a year ahead of his time, at the head of Erie, how easily a union of interests, especially in the situation the Harlem Railroad Company was then, could have been cemented between the great Erie and the little Harlem for all time, such as would have made the Erie the master of Harlem and all that such a mastery implies. What would a Jay Gould or a Thomas A. Scott have done with such an opportunity ? But the incomparable prize was declined by the then controllers of Erie. The Harlem, with all its great privileges in the heart of the metropolis of the Union, languished and grew slowly, a companion football with Erie in Wall Street. Then Cornelius Vanderbilt dreamed his dream of railroad empire and budded it on this very despised little Harlem Rail- road. The great Vanderbilt system of to-day is centered where the Erie might have been and should have been. It is idle to speculate on how different the country's commercial affairs and individual power and fortune would have been if shortsighted- ness, incompetence, or what you will, had not reigned in Erie management two generations ago. It is reasonable to say, however, that there would have been no Vanderbilt kingdom, no Gould dukedom to- day. Who might now be the King of Erie it is im- possible to know; but he would be the greatest rail- road monarch of the age. And an outlay of less than $90,000 in 1841 would have made him such ! II. GETTING RES1 I I S, GOOD AM' BAD. Although that within a month after James Bowcn became President of the New York and Eric Rail- J « \ $$ i m m <4 3 - a M T s & <1 K m 1 « ft, > I, ill l •5 a H if W tf « I - - M y O a o C -. 1 1 T ■!J cl > c - a u '< !fl - c — * J -i — ."_- C u __• ^ - c bo > - z A E _ C y. E r. O a JZ t/1 u >. 4 - ~ - THE STORY OF ERIE 57 road Company the road had been put in operation half-hearted fashion; for the Company was much in for more than twenty miles, and that this was fol- arrears to them for labor and materials furnished, lowed, in a few weeks (September 23, 1841), by the Finally, at a meeting of the Directors, held at the opening of it to traffic between New York and Company's office, 35 Wall Street, November 15, Goshen ; and in spite of the enthusiasm shown by 1S41, the fact was brought forward by the President the distinguished and influential men from all walks that the State loan was nearly exhausted and that, in life who witnessed and participated in the ecle- in consequence of that emergency, it would be well bration of that opening, and of the sanguine elo- to notify contractors, through the Commissioners quence and cheerful tone of confidence that marked of the Divisions, that the Company could pay no fur- the sentiments expressed when the future prospects ther drafts on their own responsibility until the of the Company and the railroad were discussed on requisite assistance was secured. The suggestion that eventful day, the Company was even then on was accepted by the Board, and notification to that the threshold of disaster, and none knew it better effect was sent to the contractors, who were engaged than its President, who still had the heart to face chiefly on the Susquehanna Division. The circular the unwelcome fact with glowing and assuring words. The unfortunate situation had been brought about, according to the protestations of the management, by delay in getting iron rails for laying the track on the Eastern Division, thus postponing the opening of that section weeks beyond the announced time ; announcing this to the contractors stated that the balance of the State loan, after paying the drafts then accepted, was about $200,000, but that liabili- ties for cars, engines, etc., for the Eastern Division, and the interest soon to be due on the State stock, would absorb all that amount. Some of the con- the failure of contractors on other parts of the work tractors on the Eastern Division decided to continue to keep their terms with the Company, and the rumors that parties interested in the road were taking advantage of their places to serve individual ends at the expense of the enterprise itself — all these things and more, the Company declared, were made use of by the increasing enemies of the road, who, by skillful methods of keeping them continually before the public in an unfavorable light, destroyed confidence in the management. Moreover, the New- York Legislature of 1841 had been dominated by influences that were set with determination against the giving of any further State aid to public improve- ments, and private capital became more reluctant and cautious than ever. There were evidences, too, of an impending revulsion in commercial and finan- cial affairs. So suspicious, in fact, were investors that, in June, 1841, an offering at public sale at $100,000 of Erie certificates, with the State's guar- antee, and under direction of the Comptroller of the State, had been withdrawn without a sale, the bids, work, on condition that a portion of the money for work done in November be paid them in cash or acceptances of the Company. The exact financial condition of the Company was ascertained from the Treasurer, and it showed that, after paying its out- standing liabilities, the Company would have a sur- plus of §163,549. It was resolved, therefore, to accept six months' drafts of the contractors to the amount of $100,000. This left enough money in the treasury to pay the interest on the State stock that would fall due the following April, and other contingent expenses; but, in the latter part of No- vember, the State 6 per cent, stock declined on the market from ninety-three to seventy-eight, and money was scarce. The Company was forced to hypothecate for temporary loans, at the depreciated price, the stock it had been reckoning on, and the embarrassment that prevailed compelled it, as we shall see, to announce to the Legislature that default would be made on the interest due April 1, 1842. owing to the weakness of the money market, being Contractors continued to work and advance money far below the value of the security. to their help, relying on the expected State aid to relieve them in good time. Time dragged on ominously. The contractors kept at work on the road, but the most of them in a As early as 1836, E. F. Johnson, who was cngi- BE fWEEN 1 HI i M EAN AND THE I.AKI S the new survey of the route be- i the Hudson River and Painted Post, in Steu- . N. Y.. discovered the difficulties of the theintei illivan County mpared with a route up the Delaware \ \ versink Valley, and so reported. This mtinued I ;itated until the people of centra irmed, and in 1839 agreed iy for the services of a surveyor to resurvey for ite through the interior of the county, the pay- ment to be made good to them by a transfer of $ t k of the Company to the contributors, provided the report of the engineer on such a route not accepted. The report was not accepted, and the $20,000 in stock was transferred according to agreement. The people concerned were not con- tent to abide by the decision, however. They had contributed largely toward the construction fund of the Company, and John P. Jones, one of their num- id been of invaluable service to the undertak- ing in the Legislature. The talk in favor of the proposed change of route to the Delaware Valley led to an emphatic protest against it by the people of the interior of the count}-, which protest was voiced 111 P. Jones, William E. Cady, and Daniel B. St. John, who, as a committee, met President Elea- zar Lord at Goshen in the summer of 1S40, and he assured them then, and by subsequent correspond- ence, that the change should never be made in Sulli- van Count\- with his consent, and that all his influ- ence should be used against it. A change of route between Deposit and Binghamton was also suggested l>y Engineer Johnson in 1836, and it, too, began to he talked about, with such result that those in favor of a different course for the railroad between the and the Susquehanna valleys secured the :' an act by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1841, authorizing the Company to enter that State with the railroad and pass through Susquehanna County. At the time the resurvey was made in central Sullivan, the engineers of the Company made surveys for t route up the Delaware and for the chan D -.sit and Binghamton, completing then, in 1841 : and in 1X42, under I dent Bowen, th tny's attitude became so favorable to the new routes that, at the session of the New York Legislature for that year, citizens .if Sulli- van, Ulster, and Orange counties presented petitions protesting against the movement, and the Committee on Railroads of the Senate- made a report adversely to it, and asked leave to bring in a bill to prevent it. The bill was reported, but rejected. It was seen early in the session that both branches of the Legislature of 1S42 were opposed to the fur- ther loaning of the credit of the State to the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and that no hope of direct pecuniary aid from that source could be entertained. It was therefore necessary to rely on individual subscriptions to the capital stock of the Company. As an inducement to capitalists to make- large investments, it was important to obtain the passage of a law tending to secure the completion of the railroad and relieve the Company from the large annual payments of interest on the State loan. A bill of that character was introduced in the Senate by Mr. Faulkner. This bill provided that the Com- pany should be authorized to borrow money to the amount of $3, 000,000, ami pledge the road for the payment of the same, and that the debt thus created would be a prior claim to that of the State for the $3,000,000 already lent to the Company. In ex- pectation that the bill would become a law, the Company obtained subscriptions in the city of New- York amounting to nearly §400,000, the subscriptions to be valid only on the condition that § 1,000,000 in all should be subscribed. The Company's manage- ment of that day has put it on record that " there is abundant evidence to believe that, from the interest manifested by every class of citizens in the construc- tion of the road, a much larger sum than §1,000,000 would have been obtained if Mr. Faulkner's bill had passed. On the line of the road, assurances were given by leading citizens that large additional sub- scriptions would be made. Contracts on highly favor- able terms could have been concluded, and the road from Binghamton to Lake Erie would have been put in use during the present year " 1 [842). The advo- cates of the measure for further State aid for the Company were content to assume that the refusal of the Legislature to grant that aid was due to the critical condition of the financial ami commercial interests of the country, but that there was some THE STORY OF ERIE 59 deeper cause than this was broadly charged by the press and by public speakers, not only at large, but by those in towns directly interested in the comple- tion of the railroad. " It is the misfortune of this great project," wrote a leading Southern Tier editor of that day, " that it fell into the hands of men who had neither the means nor the will to carry it steadily and economi- cally to its termination, but of those thinking to spec- ulate and enrich themselves upon the bounty of the State and the few thousands of the hard earnings of the farmers and others residing along the line, who were interested in its completion. The $2,000,000, honestly applied, would have done all that the $3,000,000 loaned by the State and all that has been paid by stockholders have done. It is downright effrontery for them to ask for more, with the threat that unless they got it, the State would lose its three millions." The situation was put still more pointedly by a communication read in the Legislature during the discussion on the Faulkner Bill, in 1842, as follows : In 1836 an act was passed for loaning three millions of dol- lars to the New York and Erie Railroad Company, coupled with conditions that the Company should construct a track from the Delaware and Hudson Canal to the Chenango Canal, a distance of about 145 miles, before any stock should be is- sued by the State, and when so much of the road was com- pleted out of the funds raised from the stockholders, the State was to advance $600,000. and to continue its loan from time to time as the work progressed, until the sum amounted to $2,000,000, and the last million was to be paid not until the road was completed from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. If the restrictions of the law had not been relaxed the people would have saved the $3,000,000 loaned to the said Company by subsequent laws, and not thrown upon the treasury. In 1838 a law was passed providing that one dollar of State stock should be issued for each dollar expended by the Company, the expenditure to be proved by the affidavits of the Treasurer and two of the Directors of the Company. By the aid of this law the Company obtained $100,000 of stock in December, 1838, and $200,000 in June and August. 1839. In 1840 an act was passed authorizing two dollars of stock to be issued for each one dollar raised and expended by the Company, and also authorizing stock to be issued equal to the amount loaned to the Company in 1838 and 1839, so as to give the Company two dollars for every dollar it had expended since the com- mencement of the work. Under this law $500,000 were is- sued to the Company in 1840: s~2.000.000 in 1841; $200,000 in January, 1842. From November, 1841. to the 29th of January, 1842, less than ninety days, the officers of the Company re- ceived from the Comptroller $800,000 of 6 per cent, stock ; within sixty days after the last $100,000 was received, the President of the Company announced its insolvency and in- ability to pay the interest on the first of April on the three millions of stock loaned to the Company. A generation or so later the affairs of Erie came to be largely talked about in connection with manage- ments that, with apparent case, raised millions of dollars on account of this same Company, the expen- diture of which was then a deep mystery, and is a deep mystery still, so far as it showed results in the betterment or extension of the road and its prop- erty ; but here, perhaps, those later managements found a precedent. The condition of the Company's affairs had been made officially known January 20, 1842, by a peti- tion presented to the Legislature praying for aid. According to this, the railroad was in operation between Piermont and Goshen, forty-six miles, with necessary depots and cars and engine houses ; sub- stantial edge rail, fifty-six pounds to the yard, laid on longitudinal timbers framed together and covered by cross-ties at short intervals ; a pier 4,120 feet long ; steam and tow boats to carry passengers and freight ; five locomotives ; numerous passenger and freight cars, and four trains conveying daily 250 pas- sengers and 200 tons of merchandise, " withdrawing from Philadelphia the trade of West New Jersey, and the border Pennsylvania counties." The work, besides that between Piermont and Goshen, was under contract as follows : Goshen to Middletown, seven miles ; Middletown to the Shawangunk ridge, nine miles ; Shawangunk ridge to Callicoon Creek, fifty-nine miles ; Callicoon Creek to Deposit, forty miles ; Deposit to Binghamton, thirty-nine miles ; Binghamton to Hornellsville, 117^ miles ; Hornells- ville to Dunkirk, 132,'.: miles — total 229 miles, of which 117 miles were graded in 1841. Iron rails were laid six miles east of Dunkirk to stone quar- ries, where stone was obtained for the breakwaters in Dunkirk Harbor. Three cargoes of iron had been purchased, one sent to Dunkirk, to be laid during the winter of 1842, to extend the road to the wes- terly line of Cattaraugus County. Locomotives were to be placed on that part of the road at an early day. The work between Binghamton and Dunkirk was so far advanced that it would be completed and in operation by October 1, 1842, if adequate pecu- BETWEEN fHE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ming. The petition laid stress on t. the railroad would be a military in army of 25,000 men munition and camp equipments from New York to thi I ike Erie in forty-eight hours, and in sixteen hours. n the present dis- turb., 'iis with Great Britain," the petition d, " it is conceived that these considerations are of the serious attention of your honorable bodi Here are further arguments used by the petition- er-, which are interesting as showing the peculiar commercial relations of the metropolis with the country at large in those days, and the lack of means of transportation it possessed to collect the internal commerce of even a nearby tributary region to itself : "The New York and Erie Railroad traverses eleven coun- mtaining a population of 341.296 inhabitants; and adja- be benefited by it there are, in this State and New Jersey and Pennsylvania, twenty-four coun- ting 496,000 inhabitants, making the aggregate numtn 296. The number of taxable acres of land in this area is 10,600.000, and the taxed value of real estate is $80,000,000. " The population on the line and in the vicinity of the Erie Canal is 680.000, and the number of acre* taxed is 9.500.000. It will thus be seen that tile section of country to be benefited by the completion of this road is greater in extent than that which enjoys the advantages of the Erie Canal, while the ■ •n the line of the road exceeds that on the canal by 150.000. portion of the trade of this vast region now flows to the cities 01' Philadelphia. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cin- cinnati, by the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Alleghany Rivers. ■■ii of our State, less than three hun- dred miles from the commercial capita! of the Union, is yet drawn from our borders to distant marts, and our own citi- mpelled to pay higher for their purchases and to submit • their products than the citizens of innecticut. Were the Erie Railroad com valuable trade would center in the city of New •ion of products would be rapid and in- ed foi them, and a general and certain prosperity diffused throughout the country, where now there is but a bare remuneration for "The Mill. .11 of freight to the largely to the commerce of thi of New York by diverting from its present channels the trade I Westeri ed almost Philadelphia and Haltin During thi Spring I of thi- important trade seeks nr Southern n< the inability of New Y'.rl the first of May. while t' February and March. Were this 1 | to the All' River, alwa iii March, tin independent of the rapidity 01' transportation, would be suf- ficient to secure this lucrative and increasing trade "The alarming increase of business on the Canada canals, derived chiefly from the Western State-, clearly -how- the nee. constructing new avenue- between the lake- and the seaboard, and multiplying the facilities of communication with the West, if we would preserve the relations with that ■ion of the ' onttnue to reap the annual hai of that rich and 1 1 iuntry. It 1- estimated that 200,000 emigrants annually arrive in the ports of the United States. Were the New York and Erie Rail ed it cannot be doubted that, from the facility it would afford for cheap and rapid traveling to the West, a large proportion of this cla-s would prefer vessels bound to Xew York, and thus give a powerful impetus to the increase of our shipping; while, from the fact that the road could be traversed at all seasons of the year, this city would be relieved from a serious and increasing evil, caused by 1 bodies of emigrants arriving in the winter and spring, and sojourning here until the canal is navigable. Many of these people are thrown on our shores early in the year, with limited means of subsistence, ignorant of the language and friendless. The pittance they possess 1- soon expended, and long before the canal is open ii e an onerous tax upon the charities of our citizens, or residing in the abodes of squalid poverty and of crime, they learn the ways of infamy while they are acquiring the language of their adopted country. " In another respect the completion of the road is of high importance to the city of Xew York. There are in the city of New York and its immediate vicinity near 400,000 inhabi- tants. A large portion of this vast population is dependent, from day to day, upon manual labor for the means of sub- sistence. Owing to the high prices of provisions nothing more than sufficient to sustain life is obtained under the most prosperous circumstances, and when, from commercial em- barrassments, or from other causes, there is no demand for labor, they are reduced to extreme distress, ami compelled to solicit the assistance of their more fortunate fellow-citizens or depend upon the public charities for relief. In either case the result is the same; the spirit of self-dependence is broken. their energies are destroyed and they are no longer valuable citizens. By the reduction of the prices of provisions this distress and its consequent evils would be greatly diminished. There is no mode that will so effectually accomplish this de-irable object as the completion of this road. It i- resp fully submitted that the welfare of 50 large a portion of the body politic as is embraced in the class referred to is well deserving of your consideration "Your petitioners have expended, in the construction of the road, the proceeds of the loan of three million- granted by the Legislature in 1836; and, in adition, one ami one-half millions derived from subscriptions to the capital stock of the npany, making an expenditure of four and a half millions of dollars. In the original estimate of the cost of the road it wa- supposed that -is millions of dollar- would be abund- antly sufficient t mplete it; but it was -ecu that to render the road effective as a mean- for the Conveyance of the vast amount of freight that •■■ ill on it a mi n ub I intial and expensive structure w.i iv than was originally contemplated. The plan of construction wa- therefore •■ii. by substituting shorter bridges, more substantial masonry, widening the track, and laying a heavy edge rail instead of the ll.it bar in general use in this State. With THE STORY OF ERIE 61 these modifications of the original plan it is estimated the road will cost $9,000,000, or $20,000 per mile. "The means of your petitioners are exhausted; contractors and men employed on the road, numbering between 4.500 and 5,000, wait with solicitude to learn if they may be continued in employment; citizens on the line of the road, relying on the pledge of your petitioners to prosecute the work with un- abated diligence, demand its fulfillment." This remarkable document was signed by James Bowen, as President of the New York and Erie The following exhaustive showing of the business of the road is of still more interest as a part of the original operations on the railroad, but it was not made until it was called for by the Legislature dur- ing the session of 1842; the making of reports having been, apparently, something to which early managers of the railroad attached but small importance, al- though the charter particularly demanded them : A PROFILE EXHIBITING THE GRADUAL INCREASE OF REVENUE UPON THE EASTERN DIVISION OF THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD, BETWEEN NEW YORK AND GOSHEN, FROM THE OPENING OF THE ROAD, ON THE 23D OF SEPTEMBER, TO 30TH OF OCTOBER, 184I — 33 WORKING DAYS. Oct. 30. d 1 1 (J ^ U ,_ 0' u -* T3 d _<(1 Tt in T3 , *>> 1— < ON 73 d nj ts N is. T3 "o s& 00 M u n VO ■* €© 1— t v.- pi vo 4© >' 'Si CO rt id as O ft VO ~0 W cc vo 2 d O > _u VO VO _ — ^~~^L \J 1_« "^ Z zt. ^ 2 c 1^ OSS'" C q _ u-, ro 1) _ IN 1) U fl O -DO st week of days, rev. $476 40. cj rt ri u oT > is. ,vcek ys, t even ,178 & 0^ 4-» 5-3 ^ 1) tn > ro 4-1 •M T3 "O «© ' B l< M VO LO rf m -a "3 ^ Horizontal scale, ^% days to 1 inch — vertical, $200 to an inch. NOTE. — The receipts upon the 28th, 29th. and 30th of October average $409.06 per diem. Sept. 23. Railroad Company, and was read in the Senate at Albany January 20, 1842. It was eloquent and persuasive, but availed the Company nothing. Particularly interesting in the literature of Erie at this crisis in its affairs was the exhibit made public by A. C. Morton, Resident Engineer of the Company at Goshen, N. Y., early in 1842, showing how the earnings of the railroad were increasing. This ex- hibit accompanied a long presentation of argument designed to induce investors and the State to come to the aid of the Company, and the show of earnings of the road was put forward as indubitable proof of all he claimed. It is interesting now, and historically valuable, as being the very first report of Erie earn- ings ever made, and is reproduced above. Schedule of the Receipts and Business of the Eastern Division on the New York and Erie Railroad, from September 23, 1841, to December 31, 1841, both in- clusive. The Fin. [,i pwing Gener vl Summary is liven from the Abstracts: FREIGHTS FOB THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER. Pounds. Revenue. Passing Westward 268,620 $341 38 Passing Eastward 53.49^ 6331 322,112 $404 69 FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER. Passing Westward 1,006,246 $1,51061 Passing Eastward 1,394,704 2,044 03 2,400.950 $3,554 64 FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER. Passing Westward 2.120.830 $2.55° 61 Passing Eastward 2.693.815 3446 01 4,814.645 $5,996 62 BETWEEN 11IH OCEAN AND 1I1H l.AKI S Revenue. $--'4- 44 ' --'-5 60 u-itclat: • ird 5.683.43 1 $°- 6 45 °4 rd 5^4.088 7.878 95 «,557,5I9 ?I4.523 99 Of this amount the Steamboat portion is $2,{ Of this amount the Railroad portion for toll is 10,112 93 ag -60 08 iding 836 99 $14.5^3 99 The Number of Passengers and Amount Collected Therefrom : FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER Passengers. Revenue. Fir-: 566^2 $67159 2~ 20 51 Add Steamboat revenue. Total $203 26 $895 36 FOR THE MONTII OF OCTOBER. First-class Passengers 3,501 $3,394 33 tigers 20g'/i 113 57 Steamboat 1 .236 40 Total for October. $4,744 20 NTH OF NOVEMBER. First-class 4.106 $3,822 83 Second-class 67^ 52 33 Add Steamboat revenue 1.37438 Total for November. $5.24'* 54 FOR Tin: MONTH OF DECEMBER. First-class 3.I49J4 $3,032 62 Add Steamboat revenue 1,24372 Total for December. $4276 34 HAL SUMMARY. 1 $10,921 37 314 l86 31 Add Steamboat revenue 4.05776 Grand Total. $15.1 The number of miles traveled by the first-i ngers ami the charge is 2.8 cents per mile. charge upon ■ us, or about one 1 enl p. r mile. The wholi teamboat for weight and passengers is (29,689.43. \kl> MlLLER, Chief Engineer. For the first time in the history of the Company citizens of New York awoke to a lively interest in the New York and Erie Railroad, but the fact that most of the movers in it-- behalf were leading Whigs, while those who charged that the Company's affairs had been brought to their critical situation by gross mismanagement of those in charge of them and dis- couraged efforts toward aiding the undertaking were Democrats, made it palpable that it was politics that had aroused this sudden interest. An important State election was to be held in the fall of 1842, and the sympathies of the large constituency that was anxious for the completion of the railroad might nat- urally be supposed to lean toward that party which championed the cause of the enterprise, and Demo- cratic organs charged that this was the secret of the Whig leaders of New York City coming so unani- mously and earl_\- in the field as enthusiastic friends of the Company. Early in January public meetings began to be held in various parts of the city, the following call for one being a fair sample of the calls for all : RAILROAD MEETING. NEW YORKERS. AROUSE! The citizens of the First Ward are invited to attend a pub- lic meeting at the Broad St. House, on Thursday Evening, the 6th instant, at 7J4 o'clock, for the purpose of adopting the m. .st effectual plan for the completion of the New York and Erie Railroad. Those citizens who are unwilling to be robbed of the trade of tin great Wesl bj the Bostonians will manifest it by at- tending this meeting. The meeting will be addressed by several able speakers who will point out the importance of this Great Road to New York and tlie absolute necessity .«i its early completion. J. Phillips Phoenix. W. Waln Drinker. 1 1). C. M \usii. W. I'.. WlLMERDING. J. I). Van Buren. J. L. Gilbert. si 1 ■nil N Win 1 my. IAS G AL1 January 6, 1842. Andrew h. M icicle. John HlLLYER. W. A. V. Pentz. Gi 0. V, Talman. a.m. Cozzens. S 1 1 PHI \ R. Harris. Committee. Calls for similar meetings were signed by such names as William 11. Aspinwall, Ogden Haggerty, T. and A. S. Hope, S. T. Caswell, James Van Nos- trand, Peter Cooper, Don Alonzo Cushman, Anson G. Phelps, Zophar Mills, D. K. Doremus, Jo 1 ph Karnochan, Alexander Hamilton. (. ■ • ■ Hruce, and scores of other representative men of the day. THE STORY OF ERIE 63 The feeling that the Erie question engendered was expressed hotly in the columns of the opposition press, chiefly by communications, but frequently edi- torially. The following is from the New York Even- ing Post of January 13, 1842 : It was my intention to have subscribed to some few shares of the New York and Erie Railroad stock; but since discover- ing it is managed by Bowen. Draper, and Blatchford, J am fearful that " the times have been so itching that 110 account has or will be kept of the expenditures," so that, at some future day, it may turn out to be another Glenworth affair, and become a road to nowhere. Before that road can suc- ceed you must pay one man for his services no more than $2,000 per annum, in lieu of $6,000, and turn out all boys employed at $1,500 to $3,000 per annum. The road should be made, but let those wanting it pa\ for it. The contractors, agents, office holders are now at work like beavers — now, when they know the last dollar is nearly gone, and no chance of getting more out of a Democratic Legislature. The value of the lands on the route, and the value of the produce, will be greatly enhanced, while we will get a more abundant supply of country produce; but will not the name of any pipe-layer injure the cause of anything in which it appears? It does with me. \ Yorker. The Draper referred to by the Post was Simeon Draper, the famous New York auctioneer, and Blatchford was Richard M. Blatchford — both social cronies of James Bowen, and close in his counsels. The "Glenworth affair" was a reference to the notorious election frauds of 1838-9. The reference in the call for the railroad meeting, reproduced above, to the " robbing of the trade of the great West by the Bostonians," was prompted by the rapid progress of the Western Railroad, which was to connect Boston with Albany and the Erie Canal, and the chain of railroads then nearly completed be- tween Albany and Buffalo. This threatened Boston connection undoubtedly induced many New York- ers to an interest in furthering the fortunes of the New York and Erie Railroad that nothing else could have done. State Comptroller Azariah C. Flagg addressed the following letter to President Bowen at this interest- ing crisis in Erie affairs : Comptroller's Office, Albany, March 8. 1842. Sir: I have been assured from a source entitled to con- sideration, that means must be provided by the Comptroller to meet the interest due in April on the State stock loaned to the New York and Erie Railroad Company. Such a call would add essentially to the embarrassment of the treasury; hut. 11 it must come, it is desirable that the worst should be known immediately. Although the law provides for a notice of five days only to the Comptroller, in case of non-payment, yet in these times a longer notice is indispensable; and if you cannot assure me that the interest will he paid, 1 trust that you will give me notice at once, that provision may be made by the State. Respect fully yours, A. C. Flagg. James Bowen, Esq. There was no equivocation or hesitancy in Presi- dent Bowen 's reply to the Comptroller : Officj 01 mi-; X. Y. & E. R. R. Co., New York, 12th March. 1842. Sir: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 8th inst. stating that you had learned from a source entitled to consideration that means must be provided by the Comp- troller to meet the interest due on the 1st of April on the Stale stock loaned to the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany, ami, as the requisition would add to the embarrassment of the treasury if made only at the time designated by law, you desire to know at as early a period as possible if this information be corn, i It has been regarded by the Company as the settled policy of the State to continue the same rates of aid in the construc- tion of the road that has hitherto been afforded. The r< of the railroad committee of the Assembly of 1841 (Doc. No. 297), narrated the several acts of the Legislature in regard to this road, and shows it to have been the intention of the State to continue its aid till the road be completed. The report sets forth that "by repeated acts of the Legislature, passed on variou occa ions, the State has undertaken to ensure the speedy and economical construction of this road. It has to all intents and purposes made it a State work except in name. The Stati executed the first survey of the route; the State pays as tin- work advances nearly two-thirds of its cost: the State issues for this purpose a stock which is sold under the direction of the Comptroller; before the stock is issued the certificate of the Attorney-General, another State officer, is required: the money when realized from the State stocks is then expended under the immediate inspection of a State officer who is responsible to the people for the manner in which he discharges his duty, as much so as a Canal Com- iicr or any member of the Canal Board; the State has a lien upon the road lor the money expended and to be ex- pended, and out of the revenues the interest and the principal of the debt created is to be paid like debts created for the Canals." Relying upon the continuance of this policy, the Company has made contracts for the construction of various sections of the road within given periods of time; large bodies of men have been and are employed; materials have been purchased, lands obtained, and every arrangement made for the speedy construction of the work, and it is upon the continuance of State aid in some form that the Company relies for the pay- ment of its liabilities, including the interest on the State loan I have the honor to I.e. sir. Very respectfully, your obedient servant. James Bowen. President. Hon. A. C. FLAGG, Comptroller. o 4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES une date, President Bowen addr< . who was a close • the 1": i ent : id Krik Railri jot's Office, New York. 12th March, 1842. 1 deem it my dutj u that the mea the w York and Erie Rail- re exhaust Then 1 derived irom individual subscriptions to the near two millions of dollars. A large ire citizens living along the lint ho have been induced, From considerations the public welfare, to contribute to the construction of the road, and in the confident belief that the Legislature will id that it has hitherto done. the work and the discharge of the large if men now 1 upon it will produce great indi- vidual .'. ss to the Company and the public, from the temporary abandonment of it while in te of partial completion. Under the supposition that the Legislature would continue the .id that it has hitherto afforded, the Co par.; n for the interest on the State loan due on the first of April, but extended all their means in the con- str': 1 They have so far progressed that with the Iready finished more than three hundred - may be put in use during the present year. I respectfully pray you. therefore, if you deem it not im- • at you will bring the subject again before the Legis- lature, and represent the serious evils that must be created by the su of the work, while, if aid be granted, a new vie extending through more than one-half the State will be i.d. affording facilities for the 1 products to market from which the citizens of that section are now debarred. I find a sufficient justification for this application in the Miliary interest the State has in this great work; in itude of a million of inhabitants for its comple- I in your own expressed opinions concerning the importance of the enterprise. With sentiments of the highest re 1 have the honor f 1 Sir. your obedient servant, James BOWEN, President „f the New York & Erie R. R. Co. To H Wm. II. Seward. The result of this letter was a message from the Governor to the Legislature as follows : ExFxi-TivE Chamber, Albany, March \\. 1842. To t! ire: The letter of ti, ,,. w York and Erie Rail- transmitti that if legislative aid withheld .,11 it must d( from pro 1; tin- 1111- State '. will remain unpaid; the contil I will fall immediately upon the low- citizens will be lost; the New York and Erie Railroad, in its ■ ly half - . a t the suit of the State; and the just expectation of immeasur- able benefits to result from the enterprise will be suddenly and popularly disappointed. This information cannot excite surprise. No one could have expected that the road in its unfinished state could pro- duce capital or even revenues; and the association acted wisely in devoting all their means to its prosecution, relying upon the justice of the State and the liberality of their fellow-citizens uch additional resources as would be necessary to secure impletion. Ri spectfully referring to the suggestion mule in my annual message in view of this crisis. I will only add that no measure less favorable to the enterprise than the past policy of the State could now be effectual, while none, in my judgment, that would involve any sacrifice on the part of the State is neces- sary. Nevertheless, the responsibility of conducting the enter- prise to an early consummation seems to me to rest not with the New York and Erie Railroad Company but upon this State. The association can only be regarded by the people as an agent of the Legislature; and while, like all other agents. it ought to be held to a just accountability, the State cannot discharge itself from responsibility by pleading the failure of its agent, whether with or without excuse, to perform its duties, or meet the expectations of the Legislature. William II. Seward. Comptroller Flagg placed before the Legislature, March 21st, the correspondence between himself and Bowen, and in his letter accompanying it said : " This large amount of stock, for the payment of which the faith of the State is pledged, has been disposed of in market in a manner to the great injury to the credit of the State, and yet the Direc- tors of the Company have so utterly disregarded the obligation they have entered into to protect the faith of the State as not to reserve out of the $900,- 000 paid to them within the past five months a sum sufficient to pay the interest on the stock which becomes due the first of April." Besides this correspondence with the Governor and the Comptroller, President Bowen, at about the same date, sent a petition to the Legislature, (which was read in the Senate March 16th,) submitting the report of Engineer Morton on the survey of the new route for the railroad in tin- I lelaware Valley and between Deposit and Binghamton, in which he said that " if the road were to be regarded only as a means of revenue to the stockholders, the considera- tion of these lines would nut In- pressed upon your honorable bodies ; for it is believed that even if the ; expensive be adopted, the road will be largely productive. But your petitioners are not permitted to regard it as a private enterprise, or as a simple THE STORY OF ERIE investment of capital for the purpose of revenue, but as a great public work, in the proper construction of which the interests of a million citizens are deeply- interested. Your petitioners are therefore unwilling to assume the high responsibility of determining on questions of so much importance ; and they respect- fully pray your honorable bodies to consider and decide in regard to them " — and yet the Company had determined on the question more than a year before by letting contracts for building the railroad through the Delaware Valley, further progress being checked by legal process, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company having appealed to the courts. The petition did not refer to the straits the Company was in. It set forth that " by the act of incorporation, passed April 23, 1832, your petitioners are required to construct one-fourth of their road with in ten years from that date. Owing to the pecuniary embarrass- ments of a large number of stockholders, it has been only within the past two years that your petitioners have been able to proceed with vigor in its construc- tion. During that period 200 miles have been graded, and twenty-five miles completed. The sum estimated as sufficient to complete the whole road is therefore more than one half expended ; and it is believed that if aid will be afforded, that portion be- tween Dunkirk and Binghamton, a distance of 250 miles, and between Goshen and Middletown, seven miles, may be completed during the present year ; making, of completed road, 303 miles, or nearly three-fourths of the whole road ; whereupon your petitioners pray that an extension of one year may be granted, to fulfill the requirements of their charter." Saturday, April 9, 1842, at a meeting of the Board, at the office of the Company, No. 35 Wall Street, New York, the Company took measures to place itself in the hands of assignees by perhaps the most extraordinary method of procedure ever adopted before or since. President Bowen stated that the Faulkner bill having been rejected, the only thing to do was for the Company to make an assignment, which, by resolution, was done. In fact, it made two assignments. One was to cover all the property and effects of the Company in the city of New York and on the Eastern Division of the railroad, the other to cover all the remaining effects and property of the Company. President Bowen, Directors Charles A. Davis and E. H. Blatchford. and Engi- neers Edward Miller and Thompson S. Brown were appointed assignees. April 12th, Hezekiah C. Sey- mour was added to the list of assignees. On the 15th, Davis and Blatchford declined to serve. Major Brown was not in the country. Freeman Campbell was named in place of Brown, and the assignees set- tled upon were Bowen, Miller, Seymour, and Camp- bell. Under authority given by the documents in the case, James Bowen, as President of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, of the first part, sold, assigned, conveyed, and set over to James Bowen and his associate assignees all the property of the Railroad Company, to sell and dispose of it at such time or times, and in such manner, and to such person or persons, or body or bodies corporate, as the assignees deemed best for the interest of all con- cerned, for cash, and settle the claims against the Com- pany according to priority and character. There is no record of any authority of court for any of these pro- ceedings, and the fact that under the act granting aid to the Company in 1838 the Comptroller was to take charge of the property in case of default in the interest on the State stock, and advertise the same for sale, did not seem to cut any figure in the matter at all. The news of this assignment seems to have been slow in getting about, for there is no mention of it in any of the newspapers until April 22d. The Whig Commercial Advertiser of that date simply refers to it thus : " The New York and Erie Railroad Company have, as a prudential measure, made an assignment of their property to James Bowen, Alderman Cooper (?) and Alderman Campbell, and Messrs. Miller and Seymour, engineers of the Company." The Even- ing Post, a Democratic organ, discussed it as follows : The New York and Erie Railroad Company has. it scorns, made an assignment. In other words, it has failed to pay its debts, and gone into liquidation. So much for the advantages of putting this work under the care <>!' pipe layers. Tiny have had their "railroad parlors" at the Astor House— their splen- did suite of rooms in the most expensive part of Wall S and have allowed the very moderate salaries of $4,000. $5,000, or $6,000 to themselves. They have taken $3,000,000 of our stock, and have left the State to pay the interest on it. and have run in debt to every one on the line of the road who could be induced to trust them, and now, in the final winding 66 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND I UK LAKES that the same blighting influence shall I inanl with the It is mel- such great interest to this nd in which the State has so large an investment, so 1 and ruined. It is not too late yet to • rrors but the first step must be entire purifica- rt of that can restore confidence. des the default in interest due the State, the Company owed $600,000 for work done and materials furnished on the road west of Goshen, chiefly on the Susquehanna Division, and for which there was no provision. The Eastern Division (the only part of the road completed 1 was kept in operation, but work •here on the line ceased. By the act of 1836, granting the New York and Erie Railroad State aid, the Comptroller was directed to advertise the road and its franchise for sale on default in principal or interest of the loan, and to sell the same to the highest bidder, or buy them in for the State. Acting on this provision, the Comp- troller advertised the New York and Erie Railroad for sale, the sale to take place on December 31, 1842. The Company was in default to the amount of the §3,000,000 loan, and interest to the amount of $41,000, yet the Comptroller ordered the foreclosure on the $41,000 defaulted interest alone. Political purpose had many times used the New York and Erie Railroad as a means to an end, but the project and its affairs had never taken on the dignity of a political issue until they came forward as such in the State campaign of 1842. The ques- tion of internal improvements was uppermost that year, and the Whigs took high ground for State aid for their construction, enlargement, or improvement. A Governor was to be elected, and the Whig plat- form came out squarely in favor of the State giving more aid to the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad. The Democratic party was opposed to increasing the taxes in the interest of the Erie Canal, or any other public work, but met the New York and Erie Railroad question by dcclarit of the State 1 inasmuch as it had already in- vested and lost $3,000,000 of the people's money in the enter] ing possession of the railroad and completing it. Any further appropriation of public funds to a private corporation, however, the Demo- crats emphatically opposed on constitutional grounds. So the Erie question became the vital one in the campaign in all the counties where the railroad was located. The Whigs bid for votes therein by advo- cating the lending of more State money to the New York ami Erie Railroad Company to save it and its undertaking to the people they were designed to benefit. The Democrats risked their chances in the election by demanding the purchase of the railroad and its completion by the State. Many and enthu- siastic political meetings were held all through the Southern Tier, and they became no longer Whig and Democratic meetings, but Railroad and Anti-rail- road. There had never been so exciting a State campaign in that portion of the State. William II. Seward had been elected Governor in 1840 on the Whig ticket, and was supported to that result by the vote of the Southern Tier, although the Democrats had made the issue there against him the fact that he had always opposed in the State Senate all State aid for the New York and Erie Railroad Company, even to speaking and voting against the small appro- priation of $15,000 for making the survey, in 1834. Seward defended his anti-Erie course on constitu- tional grounds, believing, as he said, that the State had no right to risk the people's money by loaning it to private corporations. He believed in State con- trol of all internal improvements, and declared that he would have voted for an appropriation for build- ing the New York and Erie Railroad by the State. In the campaign of 1842 the Democrats used Sew- ard's argument on the Erie question to influence the Southern Tier against the Whigs, and Seward, then Governor, in his special message to the Legislature, quoted above, illustrated how one in politics must trim his sail to every wind, in certain exigencies, for the ground he took in that message was directly opposed to all his past argument and action on the Erie question. But the vote in 1S42 demonstrated emphatically that the Whigs did not have the popular side of the Erie question that year, for the Demo- crats carried every Southern Tier and Western count)', except Chautauqua and Cattaraugus. The special session of the Legislature in August, however, had come to the temporary rescue of the Company by postponing the sale of the railroad six months. WILLIAM MAXWELL. CHAPTER VIII. ADMINISTRATIONS OF WILLIAM MAXWELL AND HORATIO ALLEN— 1842 TO 1844. The Southern Tier and Western Counties, Disheartened over the Situation, Demand the Company's Release from Alleged Wall Street Influ- ences — A Strictly Rural Management is Chosen — William Maxwell of Elmira Succeeds James Bowen as President — The New- York Legislature Passes a Law for the Relief of Erie, and the First Foreshadowing of Erie's Fatal Bonded Debt is Seen— The Railroad Completed to Middletown — Maxwell and the Rural Directors Retire and Horatio Allen takes Charge as President — His Struggles with Many Plans to Help the Work Along End in Failure — In the Emergency, Eleazar Lord is Chosen a Third Time to Conduct Erie's Affairs. THE people of the Southern Tier and Western counties became indignant over the condition of the Company's affairs and disheartened over the pros- pects of the railroad, toward the building of which they had so generously contributed of their means and influence. They believed that this situation was due to reckless management of the Company's affairs, and charged that the management had been for years controlled by influences of Wall Street and by New York business men — men who had done little and contributed less toward any measure that had in view the welfare and interest of the undertak- ing. These counties, therefore, demanded a change in the management, and the cutting loose of New York City control from it. The demand was heeded at the annual election in October, 1842. A new Board of Directors was chosen. A majority of the members was from the rural counties. The new Board was made up as follows : Samuel Barrett, Chautauqua County ; Benjamin Chamberlain, Cat- taraugus County ; Jesse Angel, Allegany County ; Reuben Robie, Steuben County ; William Maxwell, Chemung County ; Jonathan Piatt, Tioga County ; Thomas G. Waterman, Broome County ; John B. Booth, Orange County ; Thomas E. Blanch, Rock- land County ; George Griswold, Henry L. Pierson, Samuel Allen, Charles Augustus Davis, Shepherd Knapp, Stephen Allen, James Brown, New York. The first meeting of the new Board was held at Elmira December 6, 1842, with no quorum present. Another meeting was held on December 26th, when James Brown was elected President. He declined the office, and William Maxwell of Elmira was elected to the place. Brown was elected Vice-Presi- dent in the place of Henry L. Pierson. The Maxwell administration distinguished itself by securing the passage of an act by the New York Legislature in April, 1843, which postponed the sale of the railroad under the State's foreclosure until July 1, 1S50, on condition that the Company should actually resume work within two years from April 18, 1843. This act also purported to release the Company from the State lien, and to authorize it to issue bonds to the amount of $3,000,000, which would be a first lien on the Company's property. The railroad was finished to Middletown by funds raised by private citizens organized under the name of the Middletown Association, and was opened for traffic June 1, 1843. Prominent among the constructing engineers and practical railroad men of that day was Horatio Allen. He had been the assistant of John B. Jervis in the construction of that great work, the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which was finished in 1829. He was one of the earliest of America's railroad construc- tors, and through his uncle, James Brown, then a member of the Erie Directory, became deeply inter- ested in the prospects and success of the project that Company had in hand. His previous experience in practical railroad construction had been attended with such satisfactory results that, in the critical emer- gency to which Erie affairs were brought in 1843, the friends of the Company appealed to Horatio Allen as one perhaps most capable of saving the work from the fate that confronted it. Mr. Allen consented to undertake the task, and at the annual election in BETWEEN HIE OCEAN AND THE LAKES tnt Maxwell and the rural B ffice, and a new Board was Allen, Janus Brown, Cushman, Charles M. Leupp, Frank W. Edmonds, Silas Brown, David Austin. Theodore Dehon, Paul £ Griswold, Ans< Phelps. Matthew Morgan, John C. Green, A. S. Diven, William Maxwell, Elijah Risley, Daniel S. Dickinson. Horatio Allen was chosen President and lames Brown Vice-President. On taking control the new management issued a statement as follows : TO THE PUBLIC. The undersigned, at the earnest solicitation of a portion of their fellow citizens, having consented to be elected Directors oi the New York and Erie Railroad Company, feel it to be their duty to the public distinctly to state the condition upon which they have undertaken the tru^t. They have been informed that the affairs of the Company are in an embarrassed state, and unless a very great change takes place its existence will in all probability terminate with the present year. The new Board of Directors intend immediately to examine into its condition and report the result of their labors. Should they find it impracticable to continue the work, they will make i their views and retire from the direction. On the other hand, should they find its embarrassments not so for- midable but that with proper assistance they can be sur- mounted, they will call upon the public to aid them in its completion. If this call is responded to, the undersigned will continue their connection with the Company. If not. the lity will not rest with them. David Austin, James Brown, 1). A. Cushman, Charles M. F. W. Edmonds, Silas Brown, Anson G. Phelps. lien, Matt Morgan, Paul Spofford, William Max- ■ ral other members of the Board being absent from the city their names could not be affixed to this document.) New York, October y, 1&43. This was not by any means an over-confident spirit in which to start to the rescue of the Company and the railroad from their precarious situation, but the new management had good cause to be doubtful. The property of the Company was in the hands of . and so entirely without resources did the Directors find the Company, that the funds required to meet the ordinary office expenses, and to carry into effect the measures proposed to remove the embarrassment under which it was lying prostrate, were only obtained through gratuitous subscriptions of a few friends of the road. Alexander S. Diven, who was a Director at that time, in recounting, years afterward, the trials that beset them in Erie affairs at that crisis, said : " We were building a railroad that was to cost mil- lions, and we h.uln't money enough to buy candles. There was positively not one cent in the treasury. Every Director in the Board had endorsed for the Company up to the last dollar he was worth. There- was no gas in those days, and we used to pass a hat around among us to get money to pay for the can- dles which lighted us at our work." Mr. Diven, then a lawyer at Angelica, Allegany Countv, X. Y., became actively interested in the Erie project in 1S43. In response to the solicitation of James Brown he had gone to New York and exam- ined the Company's condition and prospects. The Directors had lost all hope. Frank Edmonds, a member of the Board, and cashier of Shepherd Knapp's bank, had made an investigation of the Company's affairs and reported that the enterprise was ruined, and that it was useless to try and sustain it any longer. General Diven looked over the papers and books and took a different view of it. He sug- gested the obtaining of legislation authorizing the Company to issue bonds that would take precedence as a lien on its property over that held by the State against the Company, a plan which he believed would soon provide funds sufficient to construct the railroad, at any rate, as far as Binghamton. The legislation was secured, as has been stated, but did not have the immediate effect it was intended to have, for reasons the details of which will appear in the course of this narrative of the Allen adminis- tration. Notwithstanding the unpromising outlook that met the new management, it went to work with a will, and in February, 1844, made a report to the Legislature. In November, 1841, the report stated, contracts on 270 miles of work were suspended. They were still in force when the new management came in, with large claims for damages likely to be made. These contracts, however, it had succeeded in having unconditionally surrendered to the Com- pany, and all the possible damage claims relin- quished. It had also lifted the assignment. The THE STORY OF ERIE 69 railroad had cost $4,734,872.66. There were in oper- ation fifty-three miles of road between Piermont and Middletown, four miles west from Corning, and seven miles east from Dunkirk, in all sixty-four miles. The rest of the road was in different stages of construction, but nothing had been done on the work since the close of 1841, or more than two years. There were scattered along the line nearly $600,000 worth of timber the Company had pur- chased, nearly half of which was worthless from long exposure. According to the estimate of Major T. S. Brown, who had succeeded H. C. Seymour as Chief Engineer of the Company, to complete the work would require a further outlay, in round num,- bers, of $7,000,000. President Allen issued a strong appeal to the public, showing how important it was to the commercial interests of New York City that the New York and Erie Railroad should be completed without delay, owing to the activity of rival cities in adopting means to secure the growing trade of the great West. On April 2, 1844, the Board of Directors adopted a resolution calling for an instalment to be paid, on or before May 20, of five dollars a share on all stock of the Company whereon payment already made did not exceed fifteen dollars per share, under the penalty of forfeiture of said stock and of all previous pay- ments thereon, as provided in the charter of the Company. In default of compliance with such call, 4,290 shares were forfeited, upon which payments had been made of $48,296.90. April 18, 1843, William Baker had been appointed Railroad Commissioner under the act of the Legisla- ture in relation to the New York and Erie Railroad, with various powers and duties, and to report to the Canal Board on the first Tuesday of January of each year. No attention was paid to Mr. Baker by the Company until May, 1843, when the Board of Directors instructed the President to invite him to examine all the books, vouchers, and papers in the office of the Company, to enable him to ascertain all the material transactions of the Company since its first organization, and all its present condition and prospects, so far as to enable him to report to the Directors at their next meeting whether any funds of the Company had been misapplied ; whether any officer of the Company had abused his trust ; whether any one was getting too much salary : what the amount of the indebtedness of the Company was ; whether there were any unwarrantable claims against it ; to examine the assignment and its terms ; how the Eastern Division was being conducted, and whether its officers and agents were receiving too high salaries, and whether any could be dispensed with ; and to make any and every investigation into all the affairs of the Company and report fully and impartially thereon, so that the public confidence might be reassured. Baker made a brief and cursory examination of the Company's books, and then went over the route in company with Chief Engineer Brown. In October, 1843, he wrote a report, which he sent to the Direc- tors. He also submitted it to the Legislature of 1844, something that was entirely voluntary on his part, and not required of him, the Canal Board being the head to which he was to report under the law cre- ating his office. His report critcised the management for certain transactions that had occurred in 1841-42, they being matters entirely out of his province, and with which the existing management had had nothing to do. As the Allen management was to be an applicant before the Legislature of 1844 for favors for the Company, this uncalled-for and untimelv deliverance of Commissioner Baker added largely to the already heavy load of trouble, and called forth a strong official protest and disclaimer from President Allen and the Board of Directors, addressed to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the As- sembly, early in the session. (Assembly Document No. 31, 1844.) In behalf of a favorite plan of his, President Allen had a bill drafted to present to the Legislature of 1844, authorizing the city of New York to submit to popular vote the question of the appropriating by that city of $3,000,000 toward the amount still needed for the completion of the railroad. The Common Council of the city declined to approve of the plan, or to join with the Company in applica- tion to the Legislature for the passage of the bill, and the scheme was reluctantly abandoned. The bill never came before the Legislature. It is a part of the odd and curious in Erie history, and i; rcpro- BETWEEN 1 HI-: OCEAN AND THE LAKES tire, from the only copy of it known to Authorize the City of New York i .hi Capital Stock of rni Niw Y.'kk and Erie Railroad Company. The I the Stat..- of Ne« ¥ork, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact : i. The city of New York (if the electors thereof shall assent thereto in the manner hereinafter provided) may subscribe to the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany I Three Millions of Dollars, to be exclusively expended in the work hereafter done upon, and materials ter furnished to. the said Railroad. 2. I: rtain the wishes of the said electors, in i subscription, the ' Council of said city shall, at the next annual election therein of charter offices, I, in each of the election districts of the said city, a ballot box. in which each elector, entitled to vote in that district, may deposit one ballot having either the word or the word " No" thereon written or printed. .V The ballots so deposited shall be canvassed by the in- lection, and returned to the county canvassers 1 City, and the result by them declared, in the same manner as is prescribed by law in regard to the canvass and renin For charter offices. 4. If upon such canvass it shall appear that a majority of tig shall have deposited ballots containing the word " Yes.'' then the corporation of said City shall pro- ceed to borrow Three Millions oi Dollars, in twelve suc- iwo hundred and fifty thousand each, and lor that purpose shall issue a public stock to be called the " Erie Railroad Loan of the City of New York." bearing an interest ling six per cent, per annum, payable half yearly, ><1 not exceeding twenty years from the date of its issue. ' sold, for not less than its par value. , and manner, and at such times, as the said il shall prescribe; and all tin provisions of I entitled " An act to regulate the Finances of the City of N\w York." passed June 8. 1812, which are not inconsis- tent with t' lis of this act. arc hereby applied to the ty shall subscribe tin said sum of Three Mil the said capital Mock, win never, and as Company shall have furnished evidenci omptrollei i 'A be by the said Common I ouncil in that behalf ap- t a like ai llions of I (ollars, has ah. by private individual-, or bodies ilitic. ". Thi il pay the amount of such subscription two hundred and I. nstal nent of two hundred and fifty whenever, and as often as, tin tid Company shall fi r in that behalf appoint d, that the iint of subscription made idividuals and bodies corpoi 'i tin- -aid road, a like ar of t«o I fifty thousand dollars; until the whole lid amount of Three Millions of Dollars shall have been paid 8. Each of said instalments of two hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars, shall, in the lirst instance, be deposited m the city treasury; and shall remain there until drawn out in order to pay for work done. or materials furnished for the said Railroad; and before the same shall be drawn out. the said Company shall fnrni-h evidence satisfactory to the said Comptroller or other officers in that behalf appointed as aforesaid, that such work has been done, and such materials furnished subse- < uently to the passage of this ait. o. After the said City shall have made the said subscription, the Mayor, Recorder, and Comptroller, ami the President of the Boards of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen of the said City lor the time being shall In- ex officio directors of the said Company in addition to those elected by the stockholders (other than the said City I as provided for in the act incor- porating the said Company, and He. vote shall be given to any election of directors upon the stock so subscribed by the said City. 10. In order to provide for the payment of the interest of the said Erie Railroad Loan, and the redemption of the prin- cipal thereof, the said Common Council shall levy by tax upon the estates, real and personal, of the said City, liable to taxation, one twelfth of one mill upon every dollar of the ssed value of such estates, for every successive amount of two hundred anil fifty thousand dollars, so to be issued, and alter the interest on such loan shall have been paid out of the proceeds of Such 't ax. the commissioners of the sinking fund of said City shall invest the residue in the purchase of soi in- portion of the stock so issii, rj 01 il i nough of the same cannot lie obtained to absorb such residue then in the purchase of any public stock issued by the said City, and shall keep the same sacred and irrevocably appropriated to the payment of the principal of the said Erie Railroad Loan. I I. \\ henever any dividend shall be received by the said City from the said Company, on the stock so to be subscribed for, the said dividend shall be appropriated t" the payment so far as it will go, of the interest falling due in the ensuing year, on the public stock, so to he issued by the said City, and the to I'e levied in that year, in order to provide for the paj ment of such interest, shall be diminished by an amount equal to such dividend and no more. And there shall he annually provided for by the said City, and irrevocabl) appropriated to the payment first of the interest, and ultimately of the principal, of the said Erie Railroad Loan, either from divi- dends received from the said Company or by taxation, for every two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of such public stock which shall be issued by the iid I ity, an amount equal to one-twelfth Il mill on the wholi property, real and i'.il. in the said Citj liable to taxation. [2, Such annual tax shall be continued until either the said Railroad Loan shall have been paid in full; or the annual divi- dend d bj the -'id < lit) . From thi laid I i impany on the stock so to be subscribed For, shall be equal to ten per cent, per annum on its par value; or the State shall elect to purchase the said Railroad, under the provisions of thi tcl Med: An act in relation to the construction o the New YotV and Erie Railroad, passed \pril [8, 1843 I.?. All dividends which the said City shall receive from pany, and all proceeds received by the said City, for its stock so to be subscribed for, should the said Railroad bi purchased by the Pcopli of this State, under thi provisions of the act above referred to, are hereby specifically pledged THE STORY OF ERIE 7i and irrevocably appropriated to the payment of the interest and redemption on the principal of the said Erie Railroad Loan, until the same shall have been paid in full. 14. The said City shall have no power to alienate or part with any portion of the stock so to be subscribed for, unless the said Railroad shall be sold to the people of this State, under the provisions of the act above referred to, and then said stock may be surrendered to the said Company, on the receipt of a corresponding portion of the proceeds of such sale, and after the said Erie Railroad Loan shall have been paid, in full with all interest, that shall accrue thereon, then all dividends which the said City shall receive from the said Company, shall be appropriated to such purpose as the Com- mon Council of said City shall from time to time direct. 15. This act shall take effect immediately. The plan to have the city of New York take $3,000,000 of the stock by popular loan thus having failed, President Allen, in a long address made public April 11, 1844, and signed by the entire Board, sub- mitted another plan for raising the required capital. The subscription books were to be opened and sub- scriptions received to the amount of $6,000,000, ten per cent, to be paid within twenty days after the books were closed, and subsequent instalments as they might be called for. The conditions of the plan were that the entire amount should be sub- scribed between the first day of March and the first day of August, 1844 ; that the instalments should not exceed 33^ per cent, per annum ; that when dividends should be declared, payments of them should be deferred on 75 per cent, of the stock held prior to March 1, 1844, until a dividend of 6 per cent, had been declared on the stock subscribed for subsequent to that date, and previous to August 1 ; that when the net earnings should exceed the amount necessary to pay such dividends on the new stock, the excess should be appropriated to dividends on the old stock ; and that when dividends on old stock should amount to six per cent., the old and new stock should be put on a par, and all distinction between them thereafter to cease. To awaken interest in this new effort to put Erie on its feet, a call, signed by a hundred or more of the representative business men of New York City of that day, was issued for a meeting of citizens to be held at that city, in the Tabernacle, on the evening of October 18, 1844. The meeting is reported to have been large and enthusiastic. George Griswold presided, and there was a long list of distinguished vice-presidents and secretaries, the former being James Harper, John A. King, Thomas Suffern, C. \V. Lawrence, James Donaldson, William Tucker, James Boorman, Robert Smith, Gardner G. How- land, Samuel Allen, Moses Taylor, John H. Hicks, J. De Peyster Ogden, P. S. Van Renssalaer, Jacob Little, R. J. Carman, and William Burns, and the latter being Charles McVean, James Kelley, Charles Dennison, Isaac Townsend, and Charles P. Brown. Thus was the best of the business and financial in- terests of the metropolis represented at this meet- ing. Addresses that seemed absolutely convincing were made by Joseph Blunt, M. C. Patterson, and others, among them William B. Ogden of Chicago, and from the enthusiasm manifested the Erie man- agers, if present, must have felt that the completion of the railroad was certainly assured. A committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions under the Allen plan, but investors declined to respond to the appeals of the committee, if any such appeals were made. It having thus become apparent that popular sub- scription would not provide the funds for complet- ing the railroad, the Allen management formulated a plan, the main features of which were that 200 persons should undertake to furnish the required capital of $6,000,000, on condition that priority of dividend at 7 per cent, per annum be secured to the holders of the new stock, and that fourteen per cent, per annum should be the interest to be paid by the State of New York in case it should elect to purchase the railroad when it was completed. This failed, also, although, on the authority of a state- ment made by the Allen management on retiring from the direction of Erie affairs, a larger amount had been subscribed on that basis than on any other. Disappointed in the result of their measures for obtaining capital by private subscription to the stock of the Company, the attention of the Board was next directed to the resources supposed to be placed at their command by the act of 1S43. By that act the right to issue bonds to the amount of $3,000,000 was granted, and the State lien against the Company was to be waived for that object. By means of the bonds so authorized it was proposed to raise $500,000 for the purpose of extending the i=oad to BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES -vis. a di 'lit twenty miles beyond its termination then was. It lined that the money could probably be d in the manner p I, if the act would ma] the security offered. That the character security might be I iblished the ibmitted to legal counsel, from whom the opinion was received that the waiver of the State lien was made dependent on the completion of the :n years from the date of the act. and that so far as that event was uncertain, there would . corresponding risk to the bondholders. In view of this opinion, it was evident to the management that the bonds could not be sold, and the measure therefore abandoned. Thus, all its efforts to raise money for the renewal of the work having come to naught, it was evident that the Allen management was powerless to lift the Company out of its pressing difficulties, and at the annual meeting of the stockholders at New York, ober 23, 1H44. Allen and his Board resigned, a new Board was elected, and Eleazar Lord was unan- imously chosen to take the direction of Erie affairs for the third time. The members of the new Board were George Griswold, Jacob Little, John C. Green, James Harper, Eleazar Lord, Paul Spofford, Stewart i_. Marsh, Henry L. Pierson, Henry Sheldon, C. M. Leupp, J. \V. Alsop, Silas Brown, Robert L. Crooke (and Sidney Brooks, who declined), of New York City, and Daniel S. Dickinson of Broome County, A. S. Diven of Allegany County, and Elijah Risley of Chautauqua County. The retiring Board, in a pessimistic address to the stockholders, said that it was aware that views were entertained by some of the earnest friends of the road that were entirely opposed to the position taken by the Board, that the work should not be resumed on private subscription, unless the means of its completion were fully provided. " It may be contended," the address declared, " that with a sub- scription of one or two millions the road could have forward, that its completion would have been secured almost as soon as by a full subscription at this time. The Board believes that a sum sufficiently large to make it judicious to com- mence the work at all 1 ould not have been obtained on the principle alluded t.>." The confidence that the Hoard expressed, when it took charge of the Company, that remunerating dividends would be ons subscribing to the stock (so this ad- dress explained 1, rested solely on the completion of the railroad to Lake Erie, and that therefore it could nut, consistently with its view of responsibility to subscribers to the stock, ask for their subscriptions on a principle that left that event in great uncer- tainty. " The contingency may not be very great," the address declared, " and by some may even be considered small, but it has been deemed by the Board of sufficient magnitude to involve a responsi- bility which they do not feel themselves called on to assume." Referring to the lien which the State had on the entire property of the Company, the address said that there was no resource which could be relied upon as a means of insuring the construction of the road, and comply with the stipulations of the act to the completion of certain portions in assigned periods. " Attention is called to this position, so that if it be found to be correct, those who are here- after intrusted with the management of the interests of the Company may at an early day take the meas- ures which it renders necessary. The Board are of opinion that unless the State will agree so to amend the act as to allow the property of the Company to be pledged as security for the expenditure of new capital on the extension of the road from place to place as circumstances permit, there is little reason to believe that any efficient measures can be taken at present for the extension and ultimate completion of the road." The net earnings of the railroad for the three years it had been in operation were reported as follows, with the remark that they " presented a very en- couraging rate of increase." For the year ending September 30, 1S42, $31,224; same period, 1S43, $43,815; same period, 1844, §58,673. The following curious report was submitted dur- ing the Maxwell administration. It is interesting as showing that the Company was carrying the United States mail at that early day, and was being paid for it — how much the report does not show. The "Mid- dletown Association " referred to was the associa- THE STORY OF ERIE 73 tion of citizens of Middletown, N. Y., that had completed the railroad between Goshen and that place, for which they were being reimbursed from the earnings of the railroad between the two places: Total Receipts and Disbursements from April 16, 1842, Date of Assignment, to August 31, 1843. receipts. From freight $82,886 09 From passengers, including mail 64,446 52 $147,332 6 1 Transportation abstract complete $94,734 58 Construction abstract complete 19.360 45 Charged to assignees 16,898 00 Paid I. Newton, for steamboat line (in accruing abstracts) „ 6,591 40 Paid sundry vouchers, incomplete.... 1,026 66 Paid on July abstracts 5,853 92 Middletown Association : On acct. labor pay roll.. $743 96 On acct. passenger earn- ings 829 46— 1,573 42 Balance per cash book 1,294 3§ Total amount receipts as above $147,33261 Amount on hand $1,294 38 In addition, stage money 109 13 Cash items, and cash received, not entered until September 318 46 Account, Dr., balance cash $1,72197 Cash advanced account of services $78069 Assets available on cash 26584 Assets not available on cash 27083 Due from Middletown, cash 100 31 Specie and copper 97 30 Banknotes 20700— $1,72197 A. Main, Cashier. Piermont, Sept. I, 1843. With the year 1844 the Company began the mak- ing of regular annual reports. Following was the condition of the Company and its railroad according to the report for that year, filed January 27, 1 845 : REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1844. Length of road in operation, 53 miles. Expenditures upon the whole road, omitting loss on State Stock, and including present indebt- edness to contractors not fully settled $4,750,000 00 Income from passengers 46,178 84 Income from freight and other sources 79,841 60 No. of through passengers n,976j^ No. of way passengers 68,044 Receipts from through passengers IS. 572 43 Receipts from way passengers 30,60641 Expenses for repairing and running the road.. 66,945 °° Expenses for construction 12.434 77 E. Pierson, Secretary. (The equipment of the railroad, and full statistics of its physical condition, for this year and all subse- quent years of the Company's history, will be found in a tabulated exhibit on page 483). CHAPTER IX. THIRD ADMINISTRATION OF ELEAZAR LORD— iS 44 AND 1S45. Optimism Succeeds Pessimism — Mr. Lord Sees Nothing Discouraging in the Situation — He Tells the Public that it is only Necessary to ;ich will be Easy — Thinks the Act of : not Offer Doubtful Security for Erie Bonds, but is Rather an Eli- gible Reliance — Probable Reason why New York bad Always 1 (isregarded Appeals for Aid to the Erie Project — The Public Share the Late Management's Opinion of the Act of iS 4 3, and I lecline to Invest — Mr. Lord becomes of the Same Opinion, Resumes Work, and Asks the Legislature to Modify the Ponding Act — Story of how the Needed Legislation was held up until the Company Agreed J a Railroad to N'ewburgh — Trouble over the Change of Route through Sullivan County, and Eleazar Lord Retires, to Interest Himself no more in the Building of the Railroad. The cheerful, confident, assuring words with which Eleazar Lord greeted the situation were in marked contrast to the hopeless, melancholy strain that dominated the farewell address of the Allen man- agement. Lord prepared an address intended par- ticularly to appeal to the interests of New York City in the Company's prospects, and it was made public immediately on his taking charge of Erie affairs again, and while people were still discussing the pes- simistic deliverance of the late management. He declared, in strong language, that it was the influ- ence of those concerned in "the northern route" that had defeated all the efforts the New York and Erie Railroad Company had made toward complet- ing its railroad — the "northern route" being the chain of railroads then being constructed between Albany and Buffalo, in conjunction with the pro- posed railroad on the east side of the Hudson River, all now included in the New York Central Railroad system. The American Railroad Journal, which had been a stanch supporter of the Erie project from the start, took President Lord and tin- Directors severely to task for this assertion. " What is the use," wrote editor, "of declaring war against 'the more northern route to the lakes,' and exciting the hos- tility of the Central counties from Albany to Bu and of the counties on the eastern bank of the I [ud- son? We have never heard it hinted that the appeal of tlie late Board to the public last spring failed from any opposition created by the friends of ' the more northern route to the lakes,' and we doubt whether any such influence will be exerted against the pres- ent address, notwithstanding its — as we believe — unfair, and certainly unfortunate, insinuations. It is less wounding to our self-love to ascribe our failures to the machinations of rivals, real or supposed, than to our own incapacity. The present Board, that is, the acting portion of the Directors, have long con- trolled the management of the New York and Erie Railroad, and we would venture to suggest the bare possibility that some part of their present difficulties may be owing to the circumstance that their past course has not been quite as satisfactory to the pub- lic, and especially to the stockholders, as it appears to have been to themselves." It is difficult for one at this day, contemplating the situation of the Erie project at the period of its existence now under review, to comprehend the con- duct of its New York City sponsors toward it. The railroad had been projected with the avowed purpose of making it a means to the establishing of that city for all time as the center of the trade of the entire country, by giving it such communication with the growing West and such superior means of transpor- tation to and from the marts contiguous to and be- yond the ";reat lakes, and to and from the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, as neither Boston, Phila- delphia, or Baltimore, the active and progressive rivals of New York in the struggle for commercial supremacy, could hope to secure; yet there is no record, in all of the reports of the ostensibly earnest endeavors of the conspicuous citizens of the metro- polis who had charge of the affairs of Erie from the '/&7-c^£y THE STORY OF ERIE 75 start, of any effort or expressed desire on their part to have the railroad begin at, or even near, New York, so that the proposed chief object of the un- dertaking could have some chance of being attained. We have seen how this great point was overlooked and unheeded when the magnificent opportunity of the proposed Erie-Harlem alliance was presented to the arbiters of Erie affairs in 1841, and no successor of those men, while the opportunity still might have been grasped, or some other starting place for the railroad in better keeping with its avowed object might have been secured, appeared to be capable of discovering what the trouble was with the Erie that it had not obtained the confidence and support of the people of New York City. It would seem, considered from the standpoint of the present, that those people, judging of its im- portance by the proceedings of the men at its head, were unable to regard the undertaking seriously — hence their indifference to appeals to them for aid toward the work of building the railroad. In this address of Mr. Lord, therefore, there was something new for the New York public to consider. For the first time reference was made to the railroad as eventually to terminate at New York City. " It is known and felt by the friends of this work in every successive Legislature," said Mr. Lord in his ad- dress, " that its benefits are to center and be real- ized chiefly in this metropolis, the interests of which in that behalf were so carefully guarded in the char- ter, by the provisions which confine it within the limits of the State, and contemplate its approaching on the east side of the Hudson, and traversing the whole length of the city." And yet, at that very time, the projectors of a rival railroad, which Presi- dent Lord so vigorously denounced, were preempt- ing " the east side of the Hudson " for their rail- road, and slowly but surely destroying the only remaining opportunity the Erie had of getting into New York City, where " its benefits were to center and be chiefly realized." We may, therefore, undoubtedly be permitted to assume that to this strange indisposition to the estab- lishing of its terminus "at or near New York " was due the fact that the people of that city had not been enthusiastic in the support of the New York and Erie Railroad. We have the authority of this address of Mr. Lord that up to November I, 1844, New York City had contributed less than $400,000 in aid of the construction of the road, while the people of the interior counties had paid §1,200,000 toward it. President Lord, therefore, made a special and strong appeal to the citizens of the metropolis to come forward and help the Company out of its difficulties. He presented a statement of the con- dition of its affairs and of the road as an inducement for people to seek the Company's securities as an investment of rare value. To complete the entire line of road six millions of dollars was deemed necessary and sufficient. Mr. Lord took a view entirely opposite to that of his immediate predecessor, and held that " toward this sum the bonds legally authorized are an eligible and safe reliance for three millions." He believed it to be quite safe to rely upon the interior counties for further aid to the amount of one million, so that to insure the immediate progress and early accomplish- ment of the entire work a subscription of two mil- lions of dollars only was required. With such a subscription, the address declared that the Board would have no hesitation in proceeding with the work, in the confidence that no further call upon the citizens of the city would be necessary. Believing this to be the smallest amount that would give to the stockholders confidence of success to render their subscriptions safe as an investment, and that subscriptions to that amount would not be deemed impracticable or out of proportion for New York City, Mr. Lord proposed to " give notice in due form within a few days comprising substantially the following conditions: 1. That books of sub- scription to the capital stock will be opened for two millions of dollars; the option being reserved by the Board of accepting such further subscriptions as may be made prior to the first day of April. 1S45. 2. That if two millions and no further sums should be subscribed by that date, the Board will rely on subscriptions for one million in the interior counties, so as to make an aggregate of three millions, which, with the like amount of bonds, as authorized by the Legislature, is deemed sufficient to complete the road from the Hudson to the lake in such time and fWEEN TliK OCHAX AND Till- LAKHS man: ire all the benefits of the law of April. 1843. 3. That .111 instalment of $5 per share tiled at the pleasure of the Board after the first day of January, 1845, ;uul t ' iat subsequent instal- ments be restricted to $20 per share in 1845 ; $30 in and $45 in 1847. 4. That as an equitable, and, under existing circumstances, an expedient measure, interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum be allowed on all the instalments on the . which shall be subscribed from the date- of the respective payments until the whole line of the road from the Hudson to Lake Erie shall be put in operation ; and that the same be liquidated and paid yearly on the first day of January." Mr. Lord dwelt on the earning capacity of the railroad that would follow its extension beyond Middletown, bas- ing his calculation on what it was then earning — $58,000 a year; called attention to the fact that the two years which the bonding act of 1843 gave the Company to resume work in order to save the road from sale under the State lien would expire with the coming April, then less than six months off; and re- ferred to the advantages of the act of 1843, provided the Company should not fail to avail itself of them by obtaining funds and resuming work. This appeal for funds, however, and the plan offered by President Lord, did not have the desired effect. In spite of his positive assurance that bonds issued un- der the act of 1843 would be " an eligible ami safe reliance," investors chose to take the doubtful view of the value of such a security that the .Mien man- agement had expressed, and declined to risk their 3 led Mr. Lord, if not to change his opinion about the sufficiency of the law, to adopt the popular view of it and act accordingly. He raised enough money among his personal friends to protect certain of the old contracts made for work on the railroad beyond Middletown, and in December, 1844, contracted for the grading and masonry of fifteen miles of the railroad between Middletown and Port Jervis. This work was begun in time to save the and tin irs more of tenure, at any rate, were insured to the New York and Erie Railroad Company. Mr. Lord notified the Legislature for 1845 of this resumption of work, and asked that the relief act of 1843 be modified so that the Company might make it available. Such a law was passed. That it was passed, however, and impending disaster to the New York and Erie Railroad averted, was due to collateral issues entirely, which thus become an important and interesting part of the Story of Erie. Up to the time of the completion of the Erie Canal, in 1825, Newburgh, X. Y., by reason of her boating facilities on the Hudson River, and through a system of turnpike roads which brought her in direct comnnmic tion with New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, and New York State, and as far west as the " Lake Country," was the most important commer- cial center between New York and Albany, and had been such for many years. The canal diverted much of Newburgh's western trade, but the place still re- tained its ascendancy as the distributing point of the commerce of Northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Southern New York until the Delaware and Hudson (anal was opened in 1829. Although this canal was constructed by a private corporation, pri- marily for the purpose of transporting that corpora- tion's own coal to market, its facilities made it to such a great extent a common carrier that the trade of a wide area of country that had long been con- trolled by Newburgh soon discovered the advan- tages of this canal as a means of transportation, and its outlet to market and the inlet of its commercial exchanges was removed from Newburgh to Ron- dout. Although Newburgh still commanded tin- trade of a community large enough to provide ample business for several lines of sloops, that class of craft being employed almost exclusively in transportation on the Hudson River at that time, she was far from content to occupy a place of importance secondary to that of the tide-water terminus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which the increasing favor with which anthracite coal was being received in the market was destined to carry to a position of great prominence in the commercial world. To regain the prestige she had lost, and to rise to new ami greater business eminence, Newburgh decided that there could be no better means than the connecting of herself with the Pennsylvania coal fields by a rail- road. Acting on this decision, which was reached THE STORY OF ERIE 77 at a public meeting of citizens held in the fall of 1829, the Legislature was applied to for a charter incorporating the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company. The charter was granted on April 30, 1830. Thomas Powell, whose son-in-law, Homer Ramsdell, subsequently became a power in New York and Erie affairs; Christopher Reeve, David Crawford, Joshua Conger, John P. DeWint, Charles Borland, John Forsyth, and William Walsh were named as the incorporators of the company. The capital of the company was placed at §500,000, with power to increase it to $1,000,000, and it had authority to construct a railroad from any point in the village of Newburgh through the county of Orange to the Delaware River, with three years in which to begin work upon it. Just how a railroad from Newburgh to the Delaware River was to con- nect the former place with the coal regions does not appear, for from the nearest point where it might have reached the Delaware River in Orange County the coal regions were sixty miles distant, with any number of high and forbidding ranges of hills inter- vening. But whatever might have been the supple- mental intentions of the projectors of this railroad, they were never made known, for, although sub- scription books were opened to give Newburgh and other Orange County citizens an opportunity to con- tribute money toward building the Hudson and Dela- ware Railroad, the three years' life of the charter passed away before a beginning was made, and Ron- dout remained the tide-water terminus of the anthra- cite coal trade. It was not until 1835, after the New York and Erie Railroad project had been nearly four years in getting any kind of a start, that Newburgh awoke to the fact that the time was probably ripe for her to become a railroad terminus. Differences had come among the men who had been instrumental in carry- ing the New York and Erie scheme to public notice. Some of these were not in favor of having the East- ern terminus of the railroad at Tappan Slote, among them the President of the Company, James G. King, and his friends in the Board of Directors. The New- burgh people had received a hint from King or his friends in the Board, it was alleged, that the situa- tion was such that it might avail them much if they should make an effort to have their village selected as the Eastern terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad. It was also alleged that to give New- burgh a chance to obtain legislation that would secure that end, contracts were let and work was begun on the New York and Erie Railroad in the Delaware Valley, in November, 1835, instead of at some point on the Eastern section of the proposed route. Soon after work was begun on the Erie between Deposit and Callicoon, the people of Newburgh, moving, it was alleged, on the hint they had received. took decisive action. At a public meeting held at the Orange Hotel on the evening of November 30, 1835, to discuss the course Newburgh ought properly to take on the question of the proposed appeal of the New York and Erie Railroad Company to the State for aid, that course was clearly seen, and the meeting unanimously resolved that the people of Newburgh would unite in the petition that the State should become a subscriber to the Company's stock. They also united in a petition for a charter for a railroad from Newburgh to the Delaware River, pledging their liberal support to the building of such a road. This railroad, according to a resolution under which a committee was appointed to confer with the Direct- ors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, was designed to be a portion of the railroad of that Company, and was to be the means through which the efforts of the people of that vicinity were " to be united with that (the Erie) Company in the suc- cessful prosecution of the project for constructing a railroad from Lake Erie to the Hudson River." The struggle for the Eastern terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad that followed was not long, but it was a fierce one. New York City opposed the Newburgh terminus because it left the railroad too far from the metropolis. The Newburgh route would also have left Middletown, Goshen, and all of Southern Orange County, and Rockland County, without a railroad. The claims of Newburgh were not sufficient to overcome the great opposition the proposed change aroused, and Tappan Slote was officially selected by the Board of Directors of the Company as the Eastern terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad. But the men who had taken up BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES in the matter of securing a r her did not surrender when defeated in their effort Erie terminus on her docks. If the New York and Erie Railroad would not come to them, they would go to the New York and Erie Railroad, and trust to future circumstances to adjust mattei ously. Consequently, on April 21. 1836, the charter of the Hudson and Delaware Railm.id Company was renewed by the Legislature, with David Crawford, Thomas Powell, Christopher Reeve. Oliver Davis, John Forsyth. Joshua Conger, David R ind Benjamin Carpenter as incor- porators of the company, which was organized June by the election of the following Hoard of Directors: Thomas Powell, John Forsyth, David Crawford, Benjamin Carpenter, John 1'. DeWint, John Ledyard, Christopher Reeve. Gilbert O. Fow- ler, James G. Clinton. Nathaniel Dubois, Samuel G. Sweden, David W. Bate, and Oliver Davis. Thomas Powell was made President ; David W. Bate, Vice- President ; John Ledyard, Treasurer; and James G. Clinton, Secretary. A route for the proposed rail- road was surveyed by John M. Sargeant. It ex- tended from the Newburgh water front southwest thirty-eight miles to the New Jersey State line. Money sufficient being raised, a section of the road- bed between Newburgh and Washingtonville was put under contract, and ground was broken Novem- ber 3, 1836. amid great public rejoicing. Newburgh village, through its trustees, subscribed to $150,000 worth of the company's stock in 1838, and paid in $10,000 of the amount. This amount and all the rest of the funds the company had raised were ex- hausted before the grading on the first contract was completed, and work was discontinued. In 1840, what might be called the anti-Newburgh influence in the New York and Erie Railroad project having come into entire control of that Company, through the miscarriage of the efforts of those previ- ously at the head of its affairs to make any material progress with the work, the people of Newburgh came forward again with an effort to save their chance- for connection with that railroad. Con- tracts i, n let and work begun on the Eastern section of the roail between Piermont and Goshen, but the financial management of the Company had not served to inspire the investing public with a degree of confidence sufficient to command further contributions from it, and the State was to be again asked to extend a helping hand. In this crisis New- burgh thought she saw her opportunity. A public meeting of her citizens was held on March 4, 1840, and significant resolutions, to be presented to the consideration of the Legislature, were adopted. In substance, these resolutions declared that if any further aid was to be extended to the New York and Erie Railroad Company, the expenditure of the money should be made under the more immediate supervision of the State, and upon the Middle and Western sections of the road, where connection could be made with existing internal improvements and yield immediate profit, which could not be effected by constructing the Eastern end of the road first, as was then being done; and, further, that no more aid be given the Company by the State unless it be accompanied by the legislative requirement that a branch of the railroad, to terminate at Newburgh, should be constructed as part of the work then in hand. But this effort also failed of its purpose, and Newburgh was obliged to see additional large and profitable sources of her trade turned into another direction by the opening of the railroad between Piermont and Goshen in September, 1841. Circumstances did not again offer opportunity for Newburgh to move with any show of success toward securing her coveted railroad connection until 1845, when the New York and Erie Railroad Company came forward again as a supplicant for State aid in the Legislature, as we have seen. The Erie ques- tion was complicated by the fact that, besides the relief applied for, the matter of a change of the route of the railroad in Sullivan County and between De- posit and Binghamton was one to be considered and acted upon by the Legislature at the same time. The opposition to this in the localities to be affected by the proposed change was led by influential men in the politics of the State, and the manner and methods of the representatives of the Company at Albany in efforts to bring about favorable action thereon by the Legislature had not popularized the measure in that body. Then, again, a United States Senator was to be chosen, and a leading candidate t/> cu c 4J i •- s -2 "* aj O w rt lroad dividi the r pende e valu g -g .£ 3 a c to o j! * s «, a tlS <= £ C n O 3 ~ l. U O ~ •- t- - ft> 'hat te .11 that w whe ontract compl f ™ o o « 2 2-S t » „, C i/i -o rt ' c c — u ° 3 u ." day com port een in r ji W ft, <_ J3 u — .e *T~1 L c v •- H > 3 p. P "- up i- ~ - "J J= = = o > " 4) C rt rt >- i E u = S o £ ^ ™ o >. 1~ (fl - - - -„ o -a - 2 h u ~ i- ^3 z M Sis1 V- V V r- — .e c e ~ — u " O *T 3 u. }J o ° o O J) sj g H - * « o J= n v .2 = "3 M 3 ■= fe "2 o o O ■C 1_ "D — " ng t as i n re mar he r 4J ^ show from, ions lines Tl Of ~z c - c/> v u V .2 o c/l c = v „, "> .5 o — *" B •- k. £_, — ^ "7. 2 „ u o c c ~ - c — • .a c u ap i dra> the npla sma - " o ■£ v « ri .2 ~ '% c £ > -C E o ' ■— u ; » o ■^ r: -3 oj — o THE STORY OF ERIE 79 for the office was from a part of the State particu- larly interested in the affairs of Erie then under dis- cussion. This was Daniel S. Dickinson of Bingham- ton. The interests of those demanding a change of the Erie route were in the hands of Alexander S. Diven and Maj. Thompson S. Brown, the latter the Chief Engineer of the Company. The President of the Company, Eleazar Lord, and his friends in the Board, were not in favor of the change in route, but were eager for some measure that would rescue Erie from the difficulties that threatened to overwhelm it. Taken all in all, the situation in the New York Legislature for the session of 1845 was peculiarly one for log-rolling and the making of combinations dear to the heart of the legislator and the politician. Robert Denniston of Salisbury Mills, Orange Count)', on the line of the long-sought-for railroad from New- burgh toward the Pennsylvania coal fields, repre- sented that district in the State Senate. Thorn- ton M. Niven of Newburgh was a member of the Assembly. They were Democrats, and the Legis- lature was Democratic. They were not only astute and influential politicians, but they were alert, and watchful of the interests of Newburgh. They were not committed in favor of or against a change of the Erie route, for or against measures for the Com- pany's relief, nor to any particular candidate for United States Senator. But they were solid and determined in the matter of enhancing Newburgh's welfare, and no opportunity escaped them. The situation in the Legislature was their great oppor- tunity. Assemblyman Niven was one of the ablest and most popular men in the lower house, and he wielded great influence there. He was able to either hinder or forward the plans of the Erie in the matter of a bill giving it its desired relief, for the feeling in the Legislature toward the Erie was far from friendly. The Company was not asking at Albany authority to construct a branch railroad from its main line to Newburgh, as it had more on its hands then than it could see its way entirely clear to accomplish, even if reenforced by the legislation it was seeking, but the Newburgh legislators were resolved that the Company should have such authority and agree to build such a railroad or fail in its appeal for relief. The result was that the Company was obliged to enter into an agreement with them, or rather with the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company (the Newburgh corporation whose charter had been so often revived), by which the New York and Erie Railroad Company bound itself to take a transfer of all the rights, franchises, and possessions of the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company, to pay " not less than $40,000" for the same, and to build a branch railroad, " the condition of the building of the branch road being the passage in the Legislature of the Erie relief bill and a bill incorporating the Newburgh Branch Railroad, and the subscribing by the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company of $140,000 to the capital stock of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, the work on the branch to progress as rapidly as, and simultaneously with, the work on the main line, until §300,000 had been ex- pended on the branch. If that sum was not suffi- cient to complete it, the Hudson and Delaware Com- pany should provide the balance necessary to finish the work." This agreement was prepared at the in- stigation of Thomas Powell, Homer Ramsdell, and others of Newburgh, and was signed March 19, 1845. An act authorizing the Erie to construct the New- burgh Branch became a law April 8, 1845, and an act granting relief to the Erie, so that work on the main line might be carried forward, became a law May 14th. The Erie was reorganized, and the Newburgh Branch was the first work put under contract under the new order of things. But before this new order of things came to pass, the Company was to experi- ence much more of trial and tribulation. This relief bill released the Company from all liability to the State, provided it should construct a railroad with a single track from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, within six years from the date of the act. It authorized the issue of $3,000,000 of bonds in liquidation of the State lien, on condition that a subscription to the Company's capital stock of $3,000,000 should be obtained within a year and a half, and twenty-five per cent, be collected thereon and expended in construction of the railroad, and the real estate of the Company be discharged from all incumbrances, the bonds to have priority over all other liens, and the annual interest upon them from the date of their issue to the time fixed for the com- So BETWEEN Mil: OCEAN AND THE LAKES of the i sited with the State r. The :<]<:d for an agent tube by the Railroad Company, with the Governor, and to give a bond of ,000, and whose duty it would be to assure faith- ful ition of the bonds. The State reserved the privilege of purchasing the railroad within one r after completion, on repayment of its cost and fourteen per cent, additional. The existing stock- holders were not to be subject to the law unless they should within six months from its passage ex- change two shares of old for one of new stock. The mpany was required to pay to the State dividends that might accrue on any unexchanged stock, until i dividends should be sufficient to pay off a pro- portionate amount of the State lien, or the whole amount of outstanding stock on that lien, which lien was equal to about double the stock. The act also provided for the examination into the merits of the case regarding a change of route. This was really the most consistent and business-like provision that had been devised for the advancement of the New York and Erie Railroad since the Company was formed more than ten years before. Hun. Ausburn Birdsall, in his" Reminiscences of Binghamton," published in the Binghamton Demo- crat, contributes an interesting chapter on the inside history of the Erie Relief Bill: " On the first day of March, I S45 , " he writes, " I received a letter from Alexander S. Diven, from Albany, requesting me to come to Albany, at once, to aid in securing favor- able legislation in behalf of the Erie Railroad. Mr. Diven, as the agent of the Company, and Major iwn, its Chief Engineer, had been in Albany dur- ing the session thus far, but had been unable to make any progress in their efforts to secure the leg- islation they desired. They knew I had spent the earlier part of the session at Albany as the confiden- tial friend of Mr. Dickinson, who had been elected United St.i* tor, fur the full term of six years from the 4th of March, and they hoped that my acquaintance and influence with members, obtained during the Senatorial contest, would enable me to render important aid in securing favorable legisla- tion. * * The State had loaned the Company three million.-- of dollars, and taken a first mortgage on the whole property of the Company, The relief sought to be obtained, was the release and dischai of this first mortgage, * * * and although the loan was obtained on the report and assurance of the Com- pany and its engineers, after a full and careful sur- vey, th.it a practicable route was found through the Southern Tier of counties, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, the Company now asked, not only .1 release and cancelment of the three million mortgage, but that it should be allowed to construct a portion of the road in the State of Pennsylvania. As the road and the loan of the three million was intended to benefit the Southern Tier and the adjacent terri- tory in New York, Mr. Diven and Major Brown found their efforts blocked by those opposed to allowing any portion of the road being taken out of the State. " When I reached Albany I soon ascertained the exact situation. George Noble of Unadilla, a man of uncommon intelligence and a wonderfully per- suasive tongue and manner, with his wife, a daugh- ter of the Hon. Sherman Page, had taken quarters at the Bement Hotel on State Street, for the winter, to fight against any legislation that should authorize the road to leave the State. All the other counties interested, besides their members of the Legislature, were represented in force at Albany to oppose Diven and Brown. This opposition extended from Orange County to Binghamton. After a canvass of these opposing forces I told Mr. Diven and Major Brown that unless this local opposition along the line of the road could be conciliated, there could be no hope of obtaining the legislation they desired. They insisted that the Company must have not only a release and discharge of the three million mortgage, but also the right to cross into Pennsylvania on certain portions of the line, or the Company would not undertake the further construction of the road. The great question was, whether such legislation as they de- sired could be obtained under such discouraging cir- cumstances. All this local opposition to Diven and Brown wanted the road built and they wanted it des- perately, but they wanted it built within the State, where it had been surveyed and declared feasible, for the benefit of our own people for whom it was THE STORY OF ERIE 81 intended. They would have to be taxed to pay the three million mortgage, if released, and they wanted the pledge of the Company fulfilled. " Diven and Brown were thoroughly aware of the insurmountable difficulties that seemed to lay in the way of obtaining the legislation they desired. Their wheels had been completely blocked thus far, and they asked me if I could not devise some plan that would secure what they wanted. I told them I would try, and they placed the matter entirely in my hands. " My first move was to see the members of the Legislature from Orange County, for although a single track of the road had been opened to Middle- town, in that county, they were all, the members and Senator, in open hostility to Diven and Brown. Thornton N. Niven of Newburgh, one of the three members, was one of the most prominent and influ- ential members of the Assembly. He had been among the most earnest supporters of Mr. Dickinson for Senator, and in that fight I had won his devoted friendship. In casting about in my mind by what means I could quiet the hostility of Orange County, I suggested to Mr. Niven a branch of the road to Newburgh. He accepted the suggestion without a moment's hesitation, and that was agreed upon as a part of the programme of conciliation. A branch to Newburgh would not only help Newburgh, but would help the Erie as well. To this Diven and Brown agreeed at once. And this not only more than satisfied the delegation in both branches from Orange County, but it gained their active support in the effort to conciliate the other hostile locali- ties. All these hostile localities wanted the road built. " This opposition to the plan of Diven and Brown of allowing the road to leave the State extended from Middletown to Binghamton, and was resolute and determined. Diven and Brown for the Company, insisted that the Company must not only have a release of the three million loan, but the right to cross over into Pennsylvania on certain portions of the line. The great point was to provide a solution of this difficulty. This required careful labor, and much friendly intercourse with these hostile ele- ments. In my conference with them I suggested the plan of a commission of eminent railroad engineers, acquainted with the location and construction of rail- roads, to be agreed upon and named in the bill, who should examine the line as surveyed within the State, and if upon such careful examination they should decide that the line as already surveyed and located was practicable, that the road should be kept within the State — but if upon such careful examina- tion the commissioners should decide, under oath, that the location within the State at certain points was not practicable, then the road might be laid in Pennsylvania, where the line within the State was decided to be impracticable. This proposal, after full discussion and consideration by the hostile forces, was finally accepted and agreed upon, and met with no opposition from Diven and Brown, as with them it was this or nothing. The names of the commissioners were agreed upon to be inserted in the bill, and the bill was to include a provision for the release and discharge of the three million mort- gage held by the State. " By these arrangements all local opposition was changed to active support, and the hope was re- newed that the Erie road, which had lain dead for years with a single track to Middletown, would be brought to life and finally sent forward to completion to Lake Erie. A programme of united effort had been reached in which all the forces of the opposition now united to make it successful in the Legislature, if possible. I prepared a bill to carry out these pro- visions, which met the approval of all the interests involved, which was introduced in the Senate and was there to be under my special care. A bill in- volving such important interests could not be rushed through the Legislature in a hurry. * * * A feeling of indifference if not of hostility would be encountered. A release of a three million obliga- tion would involve an increase of the State debt to that extent, which the tax-payers of the whole State would have to meet. And there was a general feel- ing that the affairs of the Company had not been well managed. It was thought that the three millions loaned by the State had not been altogether carefully and judiciously expended. The wooden piles driven to build the road on stilts in certain sections were rotten in the ground. But this did not lessen the BE 1 WEEN Till I Hi. .\\ AND THE LAKES in the Southern Tier of State of the road, which now depended ■i favorable legislation. The road lay dead at Middletown, and the only hope of its resurrection i in the issue tny. lur bill was introduced in the Senate, that being the less numerous body, as a thorough canvass of the Senate could be more easily and quickly made than in the Assembly. Its progress in the Senate a. It took a long while to get it acted on favorably in committee and reported to the Senate, and a long while as it seemed to advance it so as to be ; :i the calendar for final passage. Hut this delay gave me time to thoroughly canvass the Sen- ate. Mr. Diven and Major Brown became impatient at this delay, but I assured them that the prospects were good, and they found consolation and rest in playing whist at their elegant quarters at the grand old Eagle Hotel. " I had thoroughly canvassed the Senate before the bill was ready for its third and final reading. I had received positive assurance that nineteen Sena- tors would vote for the bill. It was a ' two-thirds' bill, requiring twenty-two votes for its passage. The Senate consisted of thirty-two members. To make the requisite number of twenty-two I looked to Sen- ators John A. Lott of Brooklyn, Erastus Coining of Albany, and Thomas B. Mitchell of Montgomery County. From their location they were not favor- ably inclined toward the legislation we desired. They had actively supported Mr. Dickinson in the Senatorial < and were his warm friends, ami I appealed to them to support our bill on personal consideration. The}- would not promise positively to vote for the bill. The most they would say that they might vote for it if their votes were necessary for its passage, out of personal considera- tions. ' Winn the bill came up on its final passage I took care that even- Senator upon whose vote I had depended was in his seat. I placed myself behind Judge Lott and Mr. Mitchell, as they occupied ad- joining ' I where I could whisper in their cars. I thought perhaps my presence might have a favorable influence when the crisis came. They could not help seeing my great anxiety and they indulged in some pleasant bad' my ex- pense, which gave no assurance a> to how they would VI " ( >n the first call of the roll, Mr. Corning, whose name stood near the head of the list, did not vote. This alarmed me, as his omission to vote would be fatal. But I noticed that after his name was called and he did not answer, that he left his scat and walked up to the clerk's desk, and stood by the side of the clerk who was calling the roll. When the names of Judge Lott and Mr. Mitchell were called, each looked smilingly at me, and voted ' Aye.' When the roll call was finished, which Mr. Corning had been watching by the side of the clerk, and before the result of the vote was announced, Mr. Corning stepped back toward his seat and requested that his name be called. The clerk called ' Erastus Corn- ing,' and Mr. Corning responded 'Aye!' That settled the question, and the clerk announced the vote, ' Ayes, twenty-two.' The ' Noes' I did not listen to hear. Diven and Brown were so well pleased with the passage of the bill through the Senate that they offered me the enormous sunn of one hundred dol- lars if I would secure its passage by the Assembly within a certain number of days — I do not remember now how manj- days. I told them I thought they ought to be quite satisfied if the bill became a law at any time before the close of the session. So they returned to their whist and euchre, at their easy quarters at the Eagle Hotel, and I turned my attention to the Assembly. " The field of labor was largely extended when the bill reached the Assembly. Instead of thirty- two members as in the Senate, the Assembly con- sisted of one hundred and twenty-eight members. In this branch I had active and earnest co-laborers. Thornton X. Niven, my friend from Newburgh, took special charge of the bill in the Assembly. George Noble of Unadilla became as earnest in his support of the bill agreed upon as he had been in opposition to tin- plans of Diven and Brown. Col- onel Fellows, one of the three members of the Assembly from Otsego County, the neighbor of Mr. Noble, was active in support of the bill. Gen. Frederick Mather, a member of the Assembly from THE STORY OF ERIE 83 New York, was also an efficient worker in our fully pay my expenses — eleven weeks at Albany and behalf. one in New York — besides travel. I took the " Mr. Niven brought with him from Newburgh money, with a feeling, ' What a poor, mean concern Homer Ramsdell, a son-in-law and partner of John you must represent ! ' From subsequent events, I Powell. Powell and Ramsdell were the great freight- reached the conclusion, that Diven and Brown, who ers from Newburgh, owning many vessels. Mr. had spent the entire session at Albany and returned Ramsdell's influence was felt at Albany, for he was to the Company in New York with the bill as passed, widely known, had a fine address, and was a good took the entire credit of its passage to themselves, talker. His presence was an inspiration. A New and failed to disclose the fact that they were indebted York merchant by the name of Loder — Benjamin to me for any material service. I did not go to the Loder — was then President of the Erie Company. Company at all. I found further on my return I think he came to Albany once, but he could do home that they had been trying to steal into the us no good. He was so conscious of being Presi- bill, without my knowledge, an amendment allow- dent of the Erie Company that his manners did not ing the Company to go through New Jersey to New attract country members. We did not care to have York. Judge Vincent Whitney afterward told me him remain. that in a conversation with Diven, Diven complained " The detail of the work in the Assembly I shall that Birdsall prevented their getting an amendment not attempt to describe. It is enough to say that it to the bill allowing the Company to go to New York was thorough and exhaustive. No stone was left through New Jersey. The truth was, that I was unturned to secure success. The progress of the not aware that Diven and Brown were proposing bill was slow, as that gave us time to work, and it any such amendment. If I had known of any such was not ready for final passage until the very close purpose, I should have denounced it, not only as a of the session. By that time we were quite ready breach of faith with Orange and Rockland counties, for the final vote. It required eighty-eight responses but as fatal to the passage of the bill." in the affirmative to pass the bill. It received nearly It does not detract from the entertaining charac- one hundred votes, the exact number I do not ter of Mr. Birdsall's narrative that his recollection remember. And in all this work, not a dollar was is at fault somewhat, but historical accuracy is spent to influence legislation. It was persistent marred thereby. For instance, Homer Ramsdell's argument in behalf of the ' Southern Tier.' And in father-in-law and partner was not John Powell, but this work, neither the Erie Railroad Company nor Thomas Powell. Eleazar Lord was President of any of its agents or employees, gave any assistance. Erie while the relief bill was being discussed by the " The session closed on the 14th day of May, and New York Legislature, not Benjamin Loder, who I think our bill passed on the very last day. I had was not chosen to the office until midsummer, 1845. made only one visit to my home in Binghamton Mr. Birdsall says that he was in ignorance of the fact during this time from the 1st of March to the 14th of that Diven and Brown had attempted to secure an May. I had paid my own expenses. Not a dollar amendment to the relief bill giving the Erie author- had been furnished me by Diven and Brown, or by ity to enter New Jersey. It is evident that he was the Company. They said I would have to go to also ignorant of the agreement forced from Erie in New York, and I would be paid for my services, the matter of the Newburgh Branch by Messrs. So I followed them to New York. I did not stop Niven, Ramsdell, Dennison, and Powell, before any at the same hotel. They went to the Stephens vote was taken on the bill in cither the Senate or House, at lower Broadway. I put up at the City Assembly, and without which all of Mr. Birdsall's Hotel. I waited patiently about a week, and Diven efforts in behalf of the bill would have been lost finally appeared, bringing to me the enormous sum on his Newburgh friends and those they might have of one hundred and forty dollars ! He claimed that influenced. As will have been seen on preceding that was all he could raise for me. This did not pages, the matter, also, of a Newburgh branch rail- BETWEEN H1K OCEAN AND THE LAKES f a change of the route of the nnsylvania were things years old in discussion before this legislation came up. this bill did not settle the disturbing question change of the railroad route through ountyand elsewhere. It provided for a resurvey and examination of those parts of the orig- inal route, which was opposed to the policy of Pres- ident Lord. Agitation of the subject increased, and the differences of opinion upon it in the Board led to serious disturbance of relations in that body, with the result that no advantage could be taken of the relief legislation until the question could be dis- posed of. The first suggestion of this change of the route that attracted serious public attention, although Engineer Johnson had referred to it that same year, was made by Dr. John Conkling of Port Jervis, N. Y. This was in September, 1836. The proposed build- ing of a railroad from the Hudson to the lakes had opened the eyes of the Eastern people in various localities to the possibilities of such an undertaking; and, although in those infant days of railroad build- in,;, ideas and plans as to such work were vague and crude, there were projected not a few schemes that had in view, if not a consummation similar to the X v. York and Erie Railroad in its entirety, at least the showing of a collateral importance of such weight as to attract attention to them as factors worth)' of consideration as economic forces to quicken the life and insure the better success of the original grand enterprise. One of these was a railroad chartered by the New Jersey Legislature at the session of 1836. It was to extend from Morristown by the way of Lake Ilopatcong to Sparta, thence by the way of Branchville, Sussex County, up the valley of the Paulinskill, through Culver's Gap in the Blue Moun- taii Delaware River, and up the valley of the Dela vare to Carpenter's Point, at the mouth of the Neversink River, now a suburb of Port Jervis, on tin: bonier lines of New York, New Jersey, and P( nnsylvania. It is not likely that another railroad was ever chartered to be built having as one of its termina rope ferry. There wis then, and for many yeai - afterward, a primitive ferry of this kind that carried an equally primitive scow to and fro 5s the Delaware River between Carpenter's Point and the Pennsylvania side of the river; a ferry that was in itself insignificant, but which was a most important link in a chain of stage-coach transportation between the Hudson River and the West. Until the New York and Erie Railroad was completed to Goshen in 1841, the main artery of travel from New York to that then indefinite portion of the State known as "the Lake Country" was the coach road from Hoboken, by way of Paterson ami Pompton Plains, northwest through New Jersey to the Delaware River, a mile below Milford, Pa., thence by the Milford and Owego Turnpike, over the hills and through the forests of Northeastern Pennsylvania, to New York State again. Prom Newburgh a great feeder of this route, (upon which in those days it was no uncommon sight to see six-horse coaches closely following one another, laden with passengers, and immense cavalcades of heavily-burdened freight wagons passing to and fro) ran by the way of Montgomery on through Orange County to Carpenter's Point, where the rope ferry carried the coaches across the river, the road leading thence to Milford, seven miles, where connection was made with the through coaches on the Milford and Owego Turnpike. And that was why the proposed railroad was directed toward that rope ferry as its northern ter- minus. Independent of the regular commercial travel on these coach' roads, the tide of emigration west- ward was then running strong, and this New Jersey railroad was designed to divert it from a great por- tion of the coach route and hasten it toward its des- tination, the belief being that a road thus local in its character could and would be completed long before a section of similar length in a continuous trunk line could be put in operation. This belief was shared by many friends of the Erie project, and Dr. Conk- ling, at that early day a leading man in the 1 >ela- ware Valley, a position he held for more than half a century afterward, wrote as follows to a friend, after his return from an extended trip through the West: Tlic New York and Erie Railroad Company i-- looked to with ;i lively interest by all wesl of the lakes as the great thoroughfare by which they are to gel to New York City. THE STORY OF ERIE 85 The people of that vast region 01" country prefer doing busi- ness in New York to any other city on the Atlantic co and it is by means of this road that they expect to be enabled to consummate their wishes. How very important it is. then, that the best possible route be fixed on, that these just expec- tations may be realized. I would say. therefore, that no time should be lost in hastening it to its final completion, and that instead of running over the mountains of Sullivan. Orange, and Rockland, and landing at last on the Hudson River, which is frequently obstructed by ice. I would suggest the considera- tion of a change in the termination of the road by following the Delaware River from the mouth of the Callicoon to Car- penter's Point, in Orange county, and there connect with the Xew Jersey railroad, from this point to Jersey City, opposite New York City. When at Carpenter's Point we are nearer New York City than the route the road now takes to the Hudson River, and I am told that by the recent survey of the New Jersey road there is no grade that will exceed twenty feet to the mile, so that from Deposit to the city of Xew York a locomotive could run the whole distance. But the Xew Jersey railroad never got any further on in its existence than the survey, and even if it had been built, the New York and Erie Railroad could not have made connection with it, because of the provisions of its charter preventing junction with any railroad out of New York State. It will be remembered that when Dr. Conkling wrote as above, work was progressing on the Xew York and Erie Railroad in the Delaware Valley, eastward and westward between the mouth of the Callicoon Creek and Deposit, X. Y., under President King's admin- istration. Whether or not serious thought was engendered in the mind of the public interested by Dr. Conkling's suggestion, such a change in route began to be agitated four years later, and the ulti- mate result of it was another deplorable upheaval in Erie affairs, with sequences that agitated for a year the Legislatures of Xew York and Pennsylvania, and kept the people of a considerable portion of the latter Commonwealth in a condition of long and painful suspense. Eleazar Lord, who had made pledges in 1840 to Sullivan County citizens that the route of the road should not be changed, stood up for his word. Mem- bers of the Board published a statement that the change was necessary, and the Legislature appointed a Commission to examine the original route and the one proposed, and report its views. The labors of the Commission also included an examination of a proposed change in the route from Deposit to the Susquehanna Valley. The members of the Com- mission as finally decided upon were Horatio Allen, Chairman ; John B. Jervis, Orville W. Childs, Jared Wilson, William Dewey, and Job Pierson. The course President Lord took in the matter of the proposed change of route, although it was the only one, so he held, that he could honorably take, made him exceedingly unpopular, in and out of the management. The Treasurer of the Company refused to pay interest on the Company's debts, or to pa}- out money for any purpose. Capitalists would not subscribe to the new Erie loan, they declared, unless Lord's connection with the Com- pany ceased. Mr. Lord at last said he would resign as soon as S3, 000,000 were subscribed to the Erie fund as required by the act of 1H45. A syndicate of his opponents pledged themselves to raise that amount at once if he would retire. He resigned in July, 1845, and never again took any directing interest in the affairs of the Company, of which it may be truly said he was one of the founders. James Harper, of the publishing house of Harper Brothers, and ex-Mayor of Xew York, was elected to succeed him, but declined to serve. Benjamin Loder was then chosen as President, and a new epoch in Erie history began. CHAPTER X. ADMINISTRATION OF BENJAMIN LODER— 1845 TO 1S53. j, f ited in an Address to the Public — $3,o LIGHT — Again an i cpended, and the Work One-half Done — Park Prospects for the Railroad's Getting any Nearer t Light — Another Idea of Diven — It Works Well, bul Starts the Erie on its Fatal 1 Jareer of Bonded Indebt- — But tin.- K.i ■ 1 to Dunkirk. III. The Triumph: Final Link in the Chain — rhe Last Spike Driven — the Road from Piermont to Dunkirk, May, 1-51 — Celebration of the G ommercial Eventofthe Day — Th< Through Excursion Train and its Distinguished I I ' Fillmore, Daniel Webster, William II. Seward, Stephen A. ivernor Marcy, and many others — Ovations Along the Road — The Historic 15th of May at Dunkirk — The Ocean United with the Lakes. IV. Rising Cloi DS : President Loder Tenders his Resignation, but is Induced to Withdraw it — A New York - Prophecy, made in 1834, Comes True — Insufficiency of the Piermont Terminus Apparent — The ' I the Ramapo and Paterson Railroad into the Kield — The Ultimate Terminus at Jersey City Inevitable — Piermont Opposes it Unsuccessfully — The New lersev Railroads Pass to the Control of the Eri« — Events Immediately Following the Completion of the Km. id to I Dunkirk — The First Dividend — Piling up the Debt — The Railroad Becomes Unpopular. I. THE ADVAN( I . Mr. Loder was a native of Westchester County, N. Y. He had been for twenty years in the dry goods trade in New York, and had accumulated a fortune. It was said of him that lie had never asked for bank accommodation in all his business career. According to a New York newspaper of that day, he now, while yet in the prime of life, comes into the direction of the Erie Road with all the shrewd- ness which characterized the architect of his own fortunes, and the observation gained from his own daily intercourse with all classes of men lead them to believe that he is the Hercules, aided by a most able Hoard, who will, if any man can, drain the pres- ent miry slough." If " all classes of men " held that belief, events proved that they had held it wisely, for even the metaphor of his newspaper friend did not daunt him. The difficulties President Loder overcame during his struggle to complete the work he had engaged to complete were unprecedented in the history of the I, shirking as he did no exercise of physical endurance, shrinking from no encounter with phys- ical hardships, nor leaving untried any effort of his mind that mighl n and hasten to completion the task he had in hand. The Board of Directors that came in with Mr. Loder was composed, besides himself, of the following individuals: James Harper — Harper Brothers; Daniel S. Miller — Dater, Miller & Co. ; Henry L. Pierson — Pierson & Co. ; Stuart C. Marsh — Marsh & Compton ; Jacob Little— J. Little & Co. ; Robt. L. Crooke— Crooke, Fowkes & Co. ; Henry Sheldon — H. Sheldon & Co. ; Henry Suydam, Jr. — Suydam, Reed & Co. ; A. S. Diven, Elmira; John Wood — Wood & Merritt; Wm. E. Dodge — Phelps, Dodge & Co. ; Shepherd Knapp —President Mechanics' Bank ; Samuel Marsh, Homer Ramsdell, Cornelius Smith, Thomas 'Piles- ton. President Loder's first act was to open books for subscriptions to §3,000,000 of the capital stock of the Company, September 2, 1845, at the office of the Company, 50 Wall street. The plan of subscrip- tion was the payment of §5 per share as soon as required by the Company after the entire amount had been subscribed, on condition that interest at six per cent, per annum be paid semi-annually on all the instalments from the date of the respective pay- ments until a single track from the Hudson to Lake Erie and the branch to Newburgh should be com- pleted and in use; no instalment to be called in until 3O,O0O shares at $100 each were subscribed and accepted, nor any instalment to be more than $25 BENJAMIN LODEF THE STORY OF ERIE 87 per share within a year after the $3,000,000 had been subscribed, nor more than §30 per share the second, nor more than $45 the third year; every subscriber to the stock, after paying $25 per share, and pur- chasing any bond or bonds issued under the act of May 14, 1845, t0 De entitled to exchange such bonds into stock of the Company at par, to an amount equal to his subscription. President Loder issued an address to the public to accompany the plan for raising the necessary money. In this he made these interesting statements: To complete a single track to Lake Erie, six millions of dollars are required. The cost of the work to the stockhold- ers will then be $7,350,000; and adding a liberal amount to provide for cars and engines for the commencement of busi- ness, the road, with a heavy (T) rail estimated at $65 per ton, will be brought into use for less than $20,000 per mile. The actual cost of the road will be over $28,000 per mile, but the liberality of the State, and the surrender of half of the stock by the present holders, reduces it to this very low rate. In reference to the estimates, it may be proper to state, that responsible contractors have offered to take the whole work at prices nine per cent, less than those assumed in the calculations on which they were based. If the road can be completed it must pay large dividends. The results obtained in the sections already in use prove this. The great length of the work, the productiveness of the country through which it passes and to which it leads, the absence of all danger of injurious competition from rival routes, the numerous branches already existing or in contemplation, exceeding in the aggregate the length of the main trunk, the immense market which this city (New York) will afford for agricul- tural products of every description, and the boundless country whose inhabitants must be supplied with merchandise to be sent in exchange, appear to leave no reasonable doubt on this most important question. To these considerations must be added the great improvements in motive power which have recently been made, and which have demonstrated fully that railroads can, and do, compete successfully in the transporta- tion of articles of heavy merchandise with any other mode of conveyance. With regard to the indebtedness of the company, the amount of which is about $600,000, the board is happy to be able to state that, owing to the liberality manifested by the principal creditors, the time of payment for most of it has been extended, on satisfactory terms, the sum of $486,839.37, in the shape of six and seven per cent, certificates, payable on the 1st of January, 1849. The holders of about one-half the remainder have agreed to settle by taking certificates of the same character, and the residue, including an amount due for work recently done on the Shawangunk summit, is in course of settlement, as the means of the company will permit. Added to the other inducements are those of the release by the State of the $3,000,000 loan, and the reduction of the old stock from $1,500,000 to $750,000, making altogether a bonus of $3,750,000 to the new stockholders. Thus the whole work, on which about $5,000,000 has been expended, will be rep- resented by stock and debts to the amount of only $1,350,000. It may be proper here to state, that of the $3,000,000 re- quired to be raised by subscription, more than one million of dollars have been pledged in large sums by a very few friends of the road, leaving less than two millions to be raised by additional subscriptions, to secure the full benefit of the recent act of the Legislature. It will be doubtless refreshing to the reader of this history, after he may have perused the record of managements of the Erie that came into existence something like a quarter of a century or more later, to turn back and re-read the above statement : " The whole work, on which about §5,000,000 has been expended, will be represented by stock and debts to the amount only of §1,350,000." In later days of Erie management this could well have been read thus: " The whole work, on which about §1,350,000 has been expended, will be represented by stocks and debts to the amount of §5,000,000." A genuine inclination on the part of capital to take hold in earnest and push the New York and Erie Railroad to completion, now manifested itself. In- dividual members of the Board of Directors made committees of themselves to solicit subscriptions, and one of them, Director Sheldon, raised §100,000 among the grocers of New York in one day. By the beginning of October, 1845, the entire loan of §3,000,000 was subscribed, and Newburgh subscribed §100,000 toward the building of the Newburgh Branch. The Commissioners appointed in 1845 to examine the original route of the railroad, and report on the advisability of changing from the Sullivan highlands to the Delaware Valley, and from the circuitous course from Deposit to Nineveh to one over the Randolph Hills to Lanesboro (Susquehanna), did not complete their work until the latter part of 1846, and made their report to the Legislature in January, 1847. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company having obtained a perpetual injunction against the Railroad Company securing a route along the western border of Sullivan County, on the ground that it would result in great damage to the Canal Company, whose canal extended along the east side of the river, the Commissioners were com- pelled to adopt the only other way to get into the valley, which was by crossing the Delaware River BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES I [ervis into Pennsylvania, and running on the valley until the route could once to New York State. This required enablii »n from both New York State and Pennsylvania. The Commission, or a majority of its members, reported in favor of the change in the . a decision that results proved to be in every wise and proper. While the Commissioners were in control of the locati the road between the summit of the Shawangunk Mountains, near Otisville, to Bingham- liles, there was no work for the Company to proceed with except the eight miles from Middle- town to < Itisville, then under contract. The deci- sion of the Commissioners, therefore, having been so delayed (unavoidably, they averred), the prog- [ the railroad toward completion was necessarily correspondingly suspended. In a call made by the Directors, May 14, 1S41'). for a second instalment on the stock, they made a statement to the stockholders in which the}- said, referring to the delay caused by waiting for the Commissioners to complete their work : Although the Director? have not been able to prosecute the work of construction as rapidly as was desired, the time in very advantageously employed in adjusting the un- settled business of the compatn out of the embarrass- irmer years. All liens upon the property <>i the iny have been discharged, and all liabilities in thi of 6 and 7 per cent, certificates, unsettled claims, etc.. which by the Directors in their address to the public in 10,000, are now less than ?475.- 000. The old stock of the company, which at that time 0,000, has all been surrendered th tin- provision of the Act of May 14. [845, the Comptroller, leaving the I amount, made up from all sources, lc^s than $Kjo,000, which, with the new subscription bearing inti tl'e " : account. The lir-t and second instalments on an amount 1 1 ceeding $3,000,- 000. A large number of stockholders have voluntarily paid ithe/S have paid in full. mont to Middletown, which, in 1 Ompany, was brought .01 unfinished state, with miles of high trestle and - d up with emban ondition \ difficult Middletown to k Mountain will be completci id) for use imn. tcadtly in. ing. at. ,|, w j|| ;„_ in much ■, the income, A acquaintance with its business, and the resources of the country through which it passes and is intended to pass, con- linns the Directors in the belief that the estimate heretofore Ivantages of the work fall of what will he realized when the whole hue is complel It was deemed so certain, however, that the route of the railroad wotdd be changed from the hills of Sullivan County to the Delaware Valley, that con- tracts were let for the building of the road between Port Jervis and Binghamton in October, 1846, the work between Middletown and Port Jervis being then under way. There were twenty-two contract- ors, and each contractor accepted one-third of the amount of his contract in stock of the Company. The report of the Commission on changing the route of the road, made to the Legislature in 1S47, aroused the people along the old route to great opposition, and a bitter fight was made against the adoption of the report. The probability that the Commissioners would adopt a route that would necessitate the tak- ing of the railroad out of the State into Pennsylvania had alarmed certain commercial interests in that State, and the Pennsylvania Legislature, as early as 1S45, was petitioned to refuse entrance or right of way to the railroad. Philadelphia opposed the granting of such permission, on the ground that the railroad would divert the trade of the upper Dela- ware YaHey to New York, and Philadelphia would lose it, although the only trade the valley had at that time was trade in lumber, which could not very well go elsewhere than to or toward Philadelphia, for the reason that it was carried in the shape of rafts on the Delaware River during times of freshet, and the Delaware River ran direct to Philadelphia. Hut strong petitions went to the Pennsylvania Leg- islature from the northern part of the State asking for the permission to be granted, and during the session of [846 an act was passed granting the New York and Erie Railroad right of way into and through Pike Count)-, right of way through Susquehanna County having been granted in 1S41. The act of 1846 w 1 d on condition that the Delaware River should be crossed by the railroad at'acertain point near Port Jervis; that it should not interfere with or obstruct operations on the Delaware and Hudson Canal; that it should permit connection THE STORY OF ERIE 89 with any railroad chartered or to be chartered in Pike County ; and that the Company should pay into the treasury of Pennsylvania forever an annual bonus of $10,000. The act was not to take effect until the New York Legislature should authorize the Company, and the Company consent, to a connec- tion with the Blossburg and Corning Railroad at or near Corning, N. Y., and with the Elmira and Wil- liamsport Railroad at or near the village of Elmira. Another provision of the act was that the Com- pany should so regulate its tolls that the charge on anthracite and bituminous coal transportation should not exceed one and one-half cents per mile. Thus did Pennsylvania look well to the interests of her own citizens and corporations, in granting this right of way through a rocky and barren corner of her domain. The people of the Pennsylvania counties immedi- ately interested were many of them opposed to the insertion of the $10,000 perpetual bonus clause in the bill, because it seemed to them to be an ungenerous requirement on the part of the State, and the impos- ing of an unnecessary hardship on the Company, straitened as it was financially. In after years, when the people woke to the fact that the annual bonus was a provision urged by the Company itself, to get in return exemption from heavy taxation on the road and property of the Company in Pennsylvania, they found that instead of the Company having been treated ungenerously, it had made a very shrewd and most profitable bargain. After a long and bitter fight in the New York Legislature over the proposed change of the rail- road's route, the Commission's report was adopted, and after another contest over agreeing to the pro- visions of the Pennsylvania legislation, authority was at last given the Company to seek the Delaware Valley by crossing the river into Pennsylvania at a point situated near Port Jervis, opposite the village of Matamoras, in Pike County. The railroad was officially opened to Port Jervis January 7, 1848. (Page — , " The Building of It.") The engineers of the Company found that they were confronted by a greater obstacle than the)- had cal- culated on in the construction of the railroad up the Delaware Valley, beyond that place, on the Penn- sylvania side. Rising perpendicularly from the west bank of the Delaware River, a mile north of Port Jervis, was a wall of solid rock, in places nearly one hundred feet high. This precipice was known as the Glass Factory Rocks. It followed the river three miles, and in its face a roadway would have to be hewn before the rails could be put down that dis- tance. This was a task sufficient even to dishearten men hampered by no conditions as to time, and with an unlimited treasury to draw upon ; and the men then in control of the affairs of the Company saw that unless they could obtain a further concession from Pennsylvania, they must fail in their attempt to finish the railroad in time to save the franchises from forfeiture. To do this it was necessary that the work should be completed as far as Binghamton by December 31, 1848. Even if the engineers had not been limited as to time, the cost of cutting a roadbed in the face of that forbidding precipice would have called a halt in the work at once. They estimated that the three miles of roadbed in the wall could not be made ready for the rails for a less sum than $300,000, so that with the time condition removed, the financial resources of the Company would have been utterly inadequate to the undertaking. Four miles above Port Jervis, at what is known as Sawmill Rift, a famous rapid in the Delaware River, the road might be carried across the stream into Pennsylvania, and the obstacle of Glass Factory Rocks avoided. To change the place of entry, further consent and au- thority of the Pennsylvania Legislature must be obtained. This, it would seem, should have been but a simple thing to accomplish, but the Company discovered that there were other things to obstruct its work besides rocky barriers and a scanty treasury. Milford, the county seat of Pike County, Pa., lay in charming seclusion eight miles south of Port Jervis, in the Delaware Valley. When the route of the New York and Erie Railroad was changed to enter that county, certain enterprising citizens of Milford bethought them that they were tired of the seclusion of their village, charming as it was, and that such seclusion should be broken. A connection with the New York and Erie Railroad at Matamoras go BETWEEN I Hi: OCEAN AND THE LAKES ch with the great outside and increase its importance and prosperity pe< pie argued. To this • they had the Milford and Matamoras Railn npany chartered, and preliminary preparations wei onstruction of a railroad from Milford to Matamoras when the application was made he Pennsylvania Legislature by the New York and Erie Railroad Company for permission to change its point of entry- into that State from Matamoras to mill Rift. The news of this came as a shock to the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company. If the New York and Erie Railroad did not enter the te at Matamoras, the Milford and Matamoras Railroad would have no connection with the trunk line, and Milford would still remain in seclusion. The possibility of the change being made, therefore, must be prevented in the interests of Milford, and the influence of that local railroad company was sufficient to defeat the efforts of the great New York and Erie Railroad Company to obtain from the Pennsylvania Legislature permission to change its route, although the life of that Company and of its railroad depended on such legislation. This was during the session of 1848, but before the Legisla- ture adjourned, the New York and Erie Railroad Company, by agreeing to a compromise with the little Pike County railroad company, was granted the privilege it asked. The Milford and Matamoras Railroad required a connection with the Erie. By the change in route that connection could not be obtained except by crossing the Delaware River at Matamoras and tapping the Erie at Port Jervis. That would compel the construction of a costly bridge across the river, and the laying of an addi- tional mile or more of track on the New York State side and across the bridge. These things the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company could not afford to do, but it had the New York and Erie Railroad Company in such a position that the demand could be made of that Company to do that necessary work, as a condition of the withdrawal of opposition to the change in the Erie route. The demand was made, and the New York and Erie Railroad Company agreed to construct a double bridge across the Del- aware at Matamoras, arranged for both the passage of wagons and foi a railroad track, to maintain the bridge forever, and to lava track from the station at Port Jervis to and across the bridge to Matamoras, whenever the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Com- pany might demand it for connection with the rail- road from Milford. The condition was a severe one, but the right of way it assured to the New York and Erie Railroad was of inestimable value to that Company. Without it the railroad could not have been completed in time to save the charter. But even with change in the point of entrance for its railroad into Pennsylvania, the Company would have failed in its obligation to New York State had it not been for a circumstance which the late William E. Dodge declared was an intervention of Providence. The English rails the Company had used as far as Otisville were expensive, and their delivery to the Company was subject to delay and uncertainty. This endangered the rapid progress of the work. In 1 841, George W. Scranton of Oxford, N. J., at- tracted by the presence of coal and iron in the Lack- awanna Valley in Luzerne Count}-, Pa., purchased a tract of land at Slocum Hollow, and established there iron works on a small scale. The surround- ings were then the wilderness. The large and grow- ing city of Scranton now occupies the site, and the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company's great works and possessions are the result of that pioneer iron furnace. Subsequently, Selden T. Scranton, George W.'s brother, joined him in the enterprise. The Scrantons, owing to the isolation of their works and the difficulties encountered in getting to and from a market, had a severe struggle for existence during the first years of their business career in the Lacka- wanna Valley, and in 1846 they were in straits that threatened them with ruin. William E. Dodge was then a Director in the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and greatly interested in its success. He- knew the Scrantons. The Scrantons knew the quan- dary the Railroad Company was in as to the matter of rails. They believed that if they could obtain the necessary machinery the)- could manufacture T rails at their Slocum Hollow works, and deliver them at various points along the line of the New York and Erie Railroad, so that the rails could lie lain as THE STORY OF ERIE 9 1 rapidly as the roadbed was prepared for them, thus advancing the work weeks, if not months. The cost of the rails> moreover, would not be much more than half the cost of the English rails. The Scran- tons placed the matter before the Company, and asked for a loan of $ 100,000, in return for a mortgage on the iron works, and for a contract for rails. The Company was not in shape to make the loan, but Air. Dodge visited Slocum Hollow, with the result that the Company made a contract with the Scrantons for 12,000 tons of rails, at $46 a ton. The money to equip the iron works with the necessary machinery for rolling the rails was advanced to the Scrantons by Mr. Dodge and others, and the rails were ready for delivery in the spring of 1847. The first of these rails were used from Otisville down the Shawangunk Mountains toward Port Jervis, the iron being trans- ported by teams through the then almost unbroken wilderness between the iron works and the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad at Archbald, Pa., whence it was taken to Carbondale, thence by the gravity railroad to the canal at Honesdale, Pa., and thence on canal boats to Cuddebackville, N. V., whence teams hauled it over the Shawangunk Moun- tains to the railroad. For the laying of track west of Lackawaxen, the rails were transported by teams, as the following advertisement will show: NOTICE TO TEAMSTERS. The subscribers have several hundred tons of railroad iron to deliver the present winter on the line of the New York and Erie Railroad at Lanesboro. Stockport, Equinunk, Cochecton, and Big Eddy (Narrowsburg). A part of the iron will be taken from Honesdale and the balance from this place. Mr. J. A. Patmor, at Honesdale, is authorized to contract for what iron goes from Honesdale. Good prices in cash will be paid for the work. Scrantons & Pratt. August 24, 1847. (C. J. C. Pratt had become a member of the firm since the contract was made.) For months scores of four-horse and mule teams were kept busy carrying the iron to the railroad as the work advanced westward, some of it being hauled more than sixty miles. The contract was fulfilled, and the railroad was extended to Binghamton in time. And on that contract the fortunes of the Scranton familv were builded. The prestige and profit of it led to the formation of what is now the gigantic Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company of Scranton, with millions at its beck and call, and which has taken millions of other capital for investment into that part of the Lackawanna Valley, for the building ot railroads ami the establishment of other indus- tries, until the proud city of Scranton has from the insignificant and struggling Slocum Hollow iron works that the Erie saved, and that in turn did so much toward saving Erie. The story of the struggle with the work of build- ing the railroad through the Delaware Valley and to Binghamton, crowded with lively incident, is the story of an epoch in the progress of Erie, and is told in detail elsewhere in this history. II. THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT. The railroad reached Binghamton December 27, 1848. (Page352," The Building of It.' 1 The char- ter of the Company was then sixteen years old. Ac- cording to its provisions there were but three years more left in which to complete the railroad, that it and the Company's franchises might not revert to the State. Since the railroad was opened to Mid- dletown, in 1843, less than 150 miles had been added to the line. With the opening of the road to Bing- hamton not yet half of it was completed between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. The railroad had cost thus far §8,000,000, and the Company's treasury was again empty. That such was the fact is nothing to be wondered at. That it stood the drain success- fully until the railroad was finished from Port Jervis to Binghamton is to the lasting credit and honor of the men who had the management of the Company's affairs. They had accomplished the most stupen- dous undertaking in engineering and construction that up to that time had ever been attempted in this or any other country. They had carved and hewn a place for a railroad in miles of the solidest of rock; bridged many wide and rapid rivers, yawning chasms, and deep defiles; surmounted obstructing and frowning hills, and, in spite of them all, carried the greeting of the Hudson to the Susquehanna within BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES t i, c ne. That the treasury was empty of into stock of the Company at any time before matu- • o.OOO after such an achievement was not rity, the issue to be secured by a mortgage upon the mpty it was. and there seemed no entire property of the Company between Piermont plenishment. There was no ami Lake Erie, and subject only to the lien created that the railroad could get any farther on by the State mortgage bonds of $3,000,000. Out of .iv toward Lake Erie. It was as if the limit of this issue of bonds the contractors were to receive all effort had been reached: as if the end had really their pay for building the road from Binghamton to come at I Corning. der S. Diven, then of Elmira, had been for By this financing the Company's purpose was to - inclose touch with matters pertaining to the not only obtain the money to pay the contractors, but concerns of the Company. In this emergency his to fund the floating debt, which was then $833,833, genius came to the solution of the vexing and seri- and extend the railroad westward to Hornellsville, ous problem that confronted the undertaking. He to connect with the railroad then building between formed a company, which might in these days be that place and Buffalo, " by making as early connee- called a construction syndicate, consisting of John tion as may be with which important branch road," Arnot of Elmira. John Magee and Constant Cook of the Company's address to the public on this subject Bath. X. V.. Charles Cook of Havana, X. V., and said, " the very great advantages of a continuous line himself. He afterward disposed of his interest in the to the lake are secured, and before the main line can company to John H. Cheddell of Auburn. X. Y. be extended to Dunkirk." It was estimated by the James S. T. Stranahan subsequently became inter- Company's engineer that the work between Bing- 1 in it. hamton and Hornellsville would cost $2,500,000, and the Directors figured that with the proceeds of the The original contract with these men was for the bonds the work could be done and the rolling stock grading of the road and furnishing of all the material, necessary to the increased mileage be amply pro- except the iron rails, and laying of the track from vided. The total liabilities of the Company at this Binghamton to Corning — seventy-seven miles — the time were $9. 802,433. contractors agreeing to take their pay in an issue of The arrangement with the construction company paper of the Railroad Company known as " income rescued the railroad from inevitable suspension of certificates." payable solely from the net income of further construction, awakened a new interest in it, the railroad east of Corning; the principal to be paid and insured its completion to the lake without fur- in six, seven, eight, nine and ten years; the road to be ther interruption. But it tightened the grasp of completed to Owego — twenty-two miles — by June 1, bonded debt on the Company. And it made the 1849; to Elmira — fifty-eight miles — by October 1, fortunes of the men who took the bonds as the price . : and to Corning by December 31, 1849. Sub- of their contract for earning the railroad less than sequently, with a view to a further and more rapid eighty miles beyond Binghamton, the road having extension of the railroad west of Corning than was been opened to Owego, Elmira and Corning on the contemplated at the time the contract was made, an dates provided in the contract. arrangement was perfected by which the contractors There had been an improvement in business affairs agreed to a modification of the terms, by which throughout the country in the meantime, and con- modification all the income certificates that had been fidence in the prospects of Erie became stron] to them on account of the contract were re- When the railroad w. in finished to Corning the Direct- tired, and the entire series of such certificates can- ors invited contracts for the remainder of the road celled. In place of those certificates the Railroad to Dunkirk, 169 miles, which the engineers estimated pany proposed a second issue of mortgage could be built for $3,750,000. To raise a fund to ount of $4,000,000, to run ten years complete this work ami meet other requirements for at 7 per cent, interest per annum, and convertible proper operations on the railroad, the Directors THE STORY OF ERIE 93 made another increase in the bonded debt of the By April, 1851, the railroad was in such shape Company by issuing §3,500,000 of income bonds, to that on the 22d of that month the Directors of the bear interest at 7 per cent., and redeemable at the Company made a tour of inspection over it to Dun- pleasure of the Company within five years. To kirk, and about that time many more or less prom- secure the payment of this loan the management inent people throughout the country received the pledged the whole income of the railroad after July 1, official announcement that the New York and Erie 1851, until the net amount reached §1,200,000, " re- Railroad would be opened to Lake Erie on Wednes- serving only a sum sufficient to pay the interest on day, May 14th, and an invitation to accompany the the mortgage bonds." This the Directors prophe- Directors on an excursion to Dunkirk on the oc- sied that they could do, and distribute an ample casion and participate in the celebration of the dividend among the stockholders besides, within the great event. At the same time the Directors gave first year after opening the railroad to Lake Erie, notice to the stockholders as follows in the public These bonds were placed at a heavy discount, and prints: the contracts were let for the final work on the rail- " It would have afforded the President and Di- road. rectors great pleasure if they could have extended In February, 1 85 1 , operations had progressed so their invitation to the stockholders and other friends well that the railroad was as far as Cuba, Allegany of the road, but the disappointment in receiving County, N. Y., within seventy-seven miles of Dun- their passenger cars, and the limited accommodations kirk, having reached Hornellsville September 1, 1850. at Dunkirk, rendered it impossible to do so. At an The Directors made a statement to the stockholders early day arrangements will be made to furnish ex- then in which they did some more calculating on the cursion tickets to stockholders, giving them an op- future of the railroad. In the year 1 85 1, they fig- portunity to examine the road at their leisure, and ured, it would earn about 8 per cent, on its existing at a reduced price." capital of §6,000,000; in 1852, 14^ per cent., and Even as long ago as 1851, stockholders in railroad in 1853, 17 per cent. There were then outstanding companies might have begun to see that they had and to be cared for when interest day came the invested their money largely for the pleasure of see- $3,000,000 of mortgage bonds issued in 1845, the ing the managers of their property enjoy themselves second mortgage of $4,000,000 issued in 1849, the at their expense, issue of §3,500,000 of income bonds of 1850, cer- . r . , , . , . , , |. c ., **tc ef Itir N"Po> JJoik mT) V.M Bail Bo.iS €o, ) tificates of old indebtedness as a result ot the S. M,„ lit, 1851, \ resuscitation of the road in 1845, ar >d a floating debt of §2,988,045, or a total indebtedness of $13,988,045; yet the Directors came cheerfully to the front in February, 185 1, as a result of the roseate future they saw for the railroad, Sir! The Bo*rd of I)ire:tors of the New-York and Erie Rail Road Company contemplate opening their road lo Lake Erie, on the 14th inst. They respectfully invite you to be present on that occasion to accompany them In a tour over the Road, to examine this great work, leaving this city, from the Pier foot of Duanc Street, at six o'clock, on the morning and announced that they needed §3,500,000 (lf Wednesday, the 14th, and returning on the morning of the 17th. more, and that to raise it they intended to is- As the number of guests, invited is necessarily limited, the favor of a reply to ilii* sue twenty-year 7 per cent, convertible bonds invitation is solicited. Vou are particularly requested to preserve the enclosed ticket, ai .1 show il on going on board the boat, at Duane Street Pies to that amount and place them on the market. They did this, submitting to the "shave" de- manded by Wall Street, and the fourth mort- gage was piled on top of the now rapidly accu- mulating mountain of Erie debt. This money was required, the Directors said, to fund the floating debt, and to provide necessary machin- fac . s , MI le of the official invitation, original from the ery and rolling stock. ™» IP CHURCH °" ' ECTION ' CHAS. M. I.Kl'PP, SHEPHERD KNAPP, JOHN J. PHELPS. HOMER RAMSDELL, Till 'MA? W. GALE, CoMMittet of ArromftHUMil* FIE. 94 BETWT EN 1 111 OCEAN AND THE LAK1 S III. IKHMI'll. • rs of desperate ng with adverse circumstances, the last spike n driven, and the New York and Erie Rail- impleted from the Hudson River to Lake Eric. The personnel of the management in author- ity when the great work was finished was as follows: sident, Benjamin Loder; Vice-President, Samuel Marsh; ry, Nathaniel Marsh; [Veasurer, Thomas J. Townsend. I : William E. 1> idge, Shepherd Knapp, Marshall O. Roberts. John 1. Phelps, Homer Ramsdell, W. B. Skidmore, Dan- iel Miller. Charles M. Leupp, Henry Suydam, jr., nelius Smith, Thomas W. Gale, Norman White, Theodore Dekon. General Superintendent, Charles Minot; Chief Engineer, Horatio Allen. These were all residents of New York City except Homer Rams- dell. who was from Newburgh. The completion of the railroad was at that time the most important event in the history of railroad building. This may be the better appreciated at this day when it is known that but one other really great railroad had been completed either in this country or abroad, and that, singularly enough, was in Russia — the line between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The present stupendous Pennsylvania Railroad was then but a local line owned by the te of Pennsylvania, extending from Philadelphia Hollida) it the eastern base of the .Alle- ghany Mountains. New York was then connei t< d with Albany, Buffalo and Rochester merely by a chain of ramshackle local roads of different gauges, subsequently combined and fashioned into one uni- form system, which is that of the New York Central on River Railroad Company of to-day. The Baltimore and Ohio, although tin- pioneer great railroad line in America, had as yet no important western connection, and was conspicuous only as the protector of Baltimore's trade against the attrac- tion of southern markets, which were convenient by Mississippi River navigation. Hence the comple- tion of ■ York and Erie Railroad marked tin- first epoch in rail transportation of really national importance. It initing ol western commercial center-, with New York City by quick communication that had long been the the. mi of far- seeing minds, an event that speedily followed in the completion of the Michigan Southern Railroad ami the lines that naturally ami necessarily grew ■ of its construction. It was the uniting of the Ocean ami the Lakes and the beginning of the present it era of railroad supremacy in the financial and commercial world. Consequently, it was justly con- sidered to be worthv of national attention, and the management of the Company arranged for giving the very first long-distance railroad excursion party ever known in this country, and made of it one which has never been equalled in number of illustri- ous and distinguished guests. Invitations were sent to President Millard Fill- more and his cabinet, and to numerous of the most eminent statesmen and men of affairs. President Fillmore accepted the invitation, as did Daniel Webster, Secretary of State; John J. Crittenden. Attorney-General; W. C. Graham, Secretary of the Navy, and W. K. Hall. Postmaster-General. The names of other notable men who accepted and were present will appear in the course of this chronicle. When it was announced that the President and four of the most distinguished of his official family were to participate in the celebration of the open- ing of the New York and Erie Railroad, the mu- nicipal authorities of New York City joined with the officers of the Company to make their stay in and start from New York a public affair, to be cele- brated with appropriate honors and festivities. The Presidential party were to be guests of the city, and a committee of two — Alderman Robert J. Haws and Assistant Alderman John B. Webb — were sent to Washington to notify the President and to act as an escort of the party from Washington to New York, on behalf of the city government. The authorities also arranged the following PROGRAMME OF ARRANGEMENTS i in tii, of tin- arrival in tlii s eity of tin- President of the United States and the membei of the ( ibinet, en route i" participate in I ation of the Opening of the New York and I ri< Raili i tad. // tpitalities of the City to the President iin,/ Cabinet. ial Committee appointed by the Common Council of the City ni New York to make the necessary arrangements THE STORY OF ERIE 95 for the reception of the President of the Uniti and Members of the Cabinet of the General Government, have adopted the following programme of Arrangements for the occasion, Tuesday, the 13th inst.: The President is expected to arrive at Castle Garden be- tween the hours of one and two o'clock p. m., where he will be received and welcomed to the hospitalities of the city, by his Honor the Mayor, after which the President will review troops on the Battery. National salute to be fired on his arrival, under the direction of Brigadier-General Morris. ROUTE OF PROCESSION. From the Battery up Broadway to Broome Street, through Broome Street to the Bowery, down the Bowery to Chatham Street, through Chatham Street to the East Gate of the Park, through the Park in front of the City Hall, where the Presi- dent and suite will receive a marching salute from the military under command of Major-General Charles \Y. Sanford. After the review on the Battery, the march will commence from the right of the division under command of Major-General San- ford, as follows: A squadron of Horse forming the mounted escort. The President of the United States and Suite. General Sanford and the Staff of the First Division. The First Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Spicer. consisting of the First Regiment, Col. Ryer: Sec- ond Regiment, Col. Bogart; Third Regiment. Col. Postley. The Second Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General George P. Morris, consisting of Fourth Regiment. Col. Yates: Fifth Regiment, Col. Warner; Sixth Regiment. Col. Peers. The Third Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Hall, consisting of Seventh Regiment, Col. Duryea; Eighth Regi- ment. Col. Devoe: Ninth Regiment, Col. Ferris. The Fourth Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Ewen, consisting of Tenth Regiment. Col. Halsey; Eleventh Regiment. Col. Morri-; Twelfth Regiment. Col. Stebbins. Senators and Representatives of the United Stati Sen- ators and Assemblymen of State of New York. Special Com- mittee of Common Council. Army and Navy Officers of the United States Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of New York State. Foreign Consuls and Ex-Mayors. Collector, Postmaster. Surveyor, and United States Marshal. United States District Attorney. United States Judges. Sub-Tn urer and Naval Officer. Members of Common Council in Carriages. Register, Sheriff, County Clerk, and Surrogate. Governor of Alms House, Commissioner of Emigration. Resident Physician and City Inspector. President and Direct- ors of Erie Railroad Company. Heads of Department-, of the City Government. Recorder and City Judge. General Committees of the Whig and Democratic parties. Citizens in Carriages and on Horseback. The owners and masters of shipping in port and propi of public buildings in the city are requested to display their flags from the same from sum: during thi The owners and proprietors of all public and licensed car- riages and vehicles are directed to withdraw them from the streets through which the procession is to pass, after the hour of eleven o'clock \. u. until the close thereof. The Chief of Police is charged with the enforcement of the above order. The owners and proprietors of all public carriages and vehicles are a!,., respectfully requested to conform to tin wishes of the Committee in this respect. No obstructions of any kind will be permitted in the street- through which the procession is to ; A. C. KlNGSLAND, Mayor. Special Committee.— Aldermen.— Oscar W. Sturtevant, Robert T. Haws. Jonas I'. Conklin, Daniel Dodge. James M. Bard. Morgan Morgans, President. Assistant Aldermen.— Daniel F. Tieman. Nathan C. Ely. John B. Webb, S. L. H. Ward, Robert A. San. Is. A. A. Alvord, Secretary. Chamber of Commerce Committee of Cooperation — P lent of the Chamber; Elias Hick<, First Vici Pn idi nl j tes De Peyster Ogden, Edwin Bowen Graves. Walter R. Jones, Charles 11. Marshall, Matthew Maury. President Fillmore and members of his family, Daniel Webster and his son Fletcher, and the others of the Presidential party, left Washington at 6 o'clock on the morning of May 12th. They arrived at Baltimore for breakfast, which was eaten at Bar- num's Hotel. Leaving Baltimore at 9 o'clock, they arrived at Philadelphia at 12, where they were guests of that city- until the morning of the 13th. Accompanied by Benjamin Mathias, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate, John Price Wetherhill, Dr. J. T. Wickersham, and a committee from the Philadel- phia City Council, the President and his illustrious fellow-tourists left Philadelphia that mornini New York, via the Camden and Amboy Railroad. Great preparations had been made for receiving the part}- at New York and Amboy. The steam- boat " Erie," gayly decorated with evergreens. flowers, flags, and banners, departed from the foot of Duane Street at 10 o'clock on the morning of the 13th to meet and welcome the President and the other guests at Amboy. The boat was in chat Captain Maybee. Aboard the " Erie" were Presi- dent Loder, his fellow-officers, and t rd of Directors of the Erie Railroad Company, and repre- sentatives of the city and county government as fol- lows: Recorder Talmadge, Sheriff Carnley, County Clerk G. W. Riblet, and District Attorney N. I'.. Blunt. There was also a number of invited guests, and a squad of police in charge of Captain Carpenter of the Fifth Ward. The boat arrived at Amboy dock at 12 o'clock, and one minute later the train bearing the President and his party came in. The distinguished guests were escorted aboard the boat. BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES nan Haws introduced the President and the the Cabinet I y Marsh, who introduced them to President Loder and the Direct- or-. Charles M. Leupp, Chairman of the Commit- :' Arrangements for the Company, addi dent Fillmore as follows: Mr. ure, in behalf oi the •irectors of the New York and Erie Railroad Com- iu, and the distinguished en by whom you are accompanied, on board the steamer, and to 1 and them on your safe arrival. The Direct- the high honor you have conferred ir acceptance of their invitation to accompany them in a tour over the road. It will afford them the highest satis- faction tn conduct you on this new highway, which connects by an indissoluble link the great 1- ' es with the ocean. And they wanting in proper appreciation of the magnitude and importance of the task in which they have been engaged, they would be reminded of it when the head of the Republic and its chief officers of State honor them by making it a special object of examination. They rejoice in the hope that the New York and Erie Railroad, built not for a day. but for all time, will realize the blessings expected from it. and that while it serves to develop the resources of the country through which it passes, it will contribute to bind still more together the distant portions of our glorious Union. I again, dear sir, bid you a cordial welcome. To which President Fillmore responded: I beg to return you. dear sir. and the Committee of Ar- rangements, my thank';, and through jrou, the Directors of the Erie Railroad Company, for the very cordial welcome you have given me and my associates. I assure you that we fully iate the great enterprise you have now so happily com- pleted. I know full well tin difficulties under which you have 1 in the accomplishment of this important work, and it is due to you. as t) ol the Board of Direct- ors, that the chief officer of the nation should recognize it. and greatest work of its kind on this ent, and in the world, with one exception. You say that it ] ikes with the ocean? Yes. sir: and i veral States of this great Union. I need not say that I 1 of an achievement in my native State which glory and strength to the whole country. ( Loud chi The steamboat " Erie" made its return trip on utside route. A banquet was spread in the cabin by Steward Simmons, at which Mr. Loder, a chief officer of tin: Railroad Company, presided. On the way up the Hay tin- boat was saluted by the puns of Fort Hamilton and Diamond uently ernor's and Bedloe's Islands. Tin- shipping in the harbor was one glory of bunting. At the Battery 50,000 people awaited the arrival of the President and his famed associates, and 9,000 State militia, under Major- «, .' I i.iiles Sanford, were drawn up in line to receive them with military honors. The boat ar- rived at the Battery at 2 P. \i. A salute was fired by veterans of the Revolutionary War, from a field piece of the days of '76. The air was rent with the shouts of the populace as the party landed. The distinguished visitors were escorted to Castle Gar- den, where they were welcomed to the city by Mayor A. ('. Kingsland. .After speeches by Presi- dent Fillmore. Daniel Webster, John J. Crittenden, and General Sanford, the President and party, with the exception of Webster, were escorted by a formal parade to the Irving House, which was then a famous hostelry at Broadway and Twelfth Street, where quarters had been engaged for them. Web- ster went to the Astor House, his habitual stopping place when in New York, and occupied a suite of rooms provided by the New York and Erie Railroad Company — Rooms 39, 41, and 43. During the day and evening the distinguished visitors were the guests of the city, and most elaborate preparations had been made to entertain them. There were many festivities during the day and night, and the city was in holiday array. The hour fixed for departure from New York to Piermont, as will be seen from the time-table, was six o'clock on Wednesday morning. May 14th. A heavy rain had begun falling during the night, and it was raining when President Fillmore and his suite took carriages at'tlie Irving House to be driven to the foot of Duane Street. The President was accom- panied by .Alderman Haws and Assistant Alderman Tieman. Attorney-General Crittenden was taken in charge by Alderman Franklin. Postmaster-Gen- eral Hall and Secretary of the Navy Graham were escorted by Assistant Alderman Ely. In spite of the rain and the early hour, the streets were crowded with people. By the time the President and his party arrived at the dock and were formally delivered to the care of the Company the rain had ceased. Daniel Webster rode to the dock with his son. The " Erie " was held at the dock until ten minutes past six, owing to delay in the arrival of Mr. Webster's baggage. When that arrived, the representatives of the city surrendered their guests to the custody of THE STORY OF ERIE 97 7 NEW TORK Ci£fijs 5-^HE RAHBOAD ^•; t ..rcion g w i n?) g^ f^ 15{ ^ 16( r. an <_ 17t§) 1851# 5ric fcnil-lloai] Eicr. fool nf Purine Street \ On the Hthof May inst jjtlie Sicaaiboat ERIE will leave tl.e New York rind E at A.M. forTicr.nnnt.whenec two Trains of Cars will start for Dunkirk, and Vn by tl^Thne'^bTon'thcTa^ hereof. •■% • ■■ ■ •' These Trains shall !, a v| the road against all other Train,, P^sSngcr, F«£ cLel ft*, an,l all other occupants of the Track, from their tune, at any Station, till their passage; and no .lb, , lWnmst leave any Station orTurnout, unless .t snail have ample time to arrive at the next Station or Turnout, at hast ( ve minutes prior to the time in this -table tor these Trains UJleave there. If the forward extra Train shall be detained, so as to have to stop on" the road t the time for the rear extra Train to come up, the. Conduct* of the former must immediately send a man l.adk to. wfcn the approaching Train ; and a J' lag-man must be kept 1J tfie ncry end of the rear Car, for this purpose. The Trains will stop afj Stations the number of minutes indicated by the following marks viz : • 5 minutes - f 10 minutes ; +15 minutes ;> It, 23 minutes, for dinner. f i CHA'S. MIXOT, SlTEEINTEXDEXT. OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION OF THE OPENING OF THE RAILROAD TO DUNKIRK -. i I NEW YORK AND ERIE RAIL-ROAD— TIME TABLE. May 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, 1851.> May IT. Train. STATIONS. "1 _ .-V..ik./i-7* At. l'itr. lP-p Orp. l'iemmnt. - - IHauveUville,- - CwrkftOM-n, - • Spring Valley, - • ■ Monitor, - 15 in Up Turnout - . Suffcm, Raman,*. • S.raitsburK. - • Rhllltl' Turnout -Hontvie Works, • Wilkes • Turner'*, Monroe, Oxford, • East Junction, ■ - Went Junction, • Chester, (Jos)* en, - NYw- Hampton. - • Middletowii, • Uowvll'it, OtisvUle, - Sliin Hollow, - Delaware, - Rosa Turnout, - Drp. MicMaugh's, - ,-T.t ]^. Tminljd Tini rt 00 A ! 8 00 A« S04 ' S.11 J S 21 • 8.27 '» :r, 840 ! 8.47 •: 850 8.52 8 58 ( 9-O0 i 9 12 ; 9 10 . 9i4 i 0.31 914 i 0.33 ' 0.37 : 9.47 i 9.50 . 11.11 ! 10.20 1031 : K. 4:. ' •1104 ■ 11 27 1137 • G 111 A* 809 817 810 8.37 •8.45 8.52 0.00 904 908 10 0.24 9 "I 9.39 9 45 0-46 'J 57 10116 10.12 10 22 •10.31 1041 1052 11.08 '11.49 12 10 p* 13.87 May 17.1 STATIONS. 142 1 92 1.18 I 1.05 12.35 12.20 IS 15 12.00 11 36 II 23 11.13 10.58 •10.48 III 24 •1003 9 42 9 32 0.23 •0 17 822 8,11 1.10 T 4" T 30 rxi>7>.6liohoU, I'- 1 ■ Lacktwiucen, • - Naatllooc, ■ J|\ in omtblirg, - • ICoborty's T't, - i i. hecton, Criljicoon, ■ Trr K'|iiimink, Stuckuorl, llllM.u'K. • Ihle'a Kdily, DepoKit, S lit. . S„v,,i,!,»„,ia, . . (Ir.-at limit, - • -Kirk" 1, . WMi.l.nr atiiail. . llinghniTttou,^ Dili Canipvillc, _ - Uwegn, ' ■ Ti,>«A, - Sniitlilmrn', 4 - Itartnn, * - Wivcrlr, I VellMbofx, Btp. Kliojra, At. May 14. 2.1 Tr; 11 51 Ay 12 4U 1 1201 P» 12.50 12 14 • 105 '12 54 •1-S5 103 1.30 112 1 45 1.2! 1 57 139 '2 14 2U2 2 40 2.15 2-54 2 25 305 241 3 21 •2 Mi •:; 97 .", 10 357 •3.43 •4 23 4 HO 4 42 410 4. 'J 4 17 502 •4 is •5 12 443 .', 27 4 53 9 •5J0 •5 55 "5.19 52S «17. 5 38 22 541 6 30 549 8.48 i 5.1 7.00 May 16. j 'J\ Tram 1*1 Tiam - l'f i.VA PM 5 57 pm| 0.23 0.18 ;..3S STATIONS. w>w i ::ii 5.18 4:58 •4.52 4 35 4 24 •405 3.45 8.80 3 31 •3.18 2 42 12-20 ! OS IM •i;2 ,12.52 ' 1153 11J0 5 08 50t 4 49 4-27 '4 25 3 56 346 •3 25 3 00 2 62 2 42 2 35 2 05 149 •1134 1 11 1212 Pa. 1153 A» 1 1 25 , 10.51 ' 10 30 A» Ar. Klnnra. Dtp •ion, Uiu Flata, mile, • Painlcl Pi 't, - • - AddM hi, • Railili.mcuHc, . UitliLtco. - 1[..-,. lUiillc, - 1 iund, ' • I!.. :i ■ Ijo, Aiidovcr, Oi>n - Urll : 1 • il-o. lltn*la>, Oloan, . . ■ .■ mv, • Crcii- ■ ■ Llttlj i • ArtnoD, llavton, I iHr;/ Dunkirk, A May 15. . " ij TIME-TABLE PNINTF.D ON THE BACK OF THE OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. III! FIRST THROUGH KK1E TIME-TABLE.! (The blurs and imperfection-; on these far-simile reproductions of this historic document are due to the fact that the original, which has been in the possession of the Curtis family, of Callicoon, N. V.. ever since it was used by the late Judge Curtis, of that place, who was a guest on the occasion, was thus marred from frequent inspection of it by curiosity seekers during the past forty-eight years. The original was kindly loaned the author by C. T. Curtis. Esq., of Callicoon.) BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND I III-: LAKES I itives. and to the band the " Erie " steamed iring its load of distinguished leave New mtinuous journey by rail from tide- the lakes. The steamer moved away, fol- I by the turn i heers of a witnessing mul- Chief among the excursionists, besides the President and his suite and the railroad officials and D . were ex-Governor and United States Hamilton Fish ; ex-Governor Marcy, i • i. C. Perry, Joseph Hoxie, Christopher tary of State of New York; State I ;er Silas Seymour; Philip Church, Charles G. Phelps, Richard II. McCurdy, C. W. Lawrence. Leonard Kirby, Don Alonzo Cush- nptroller Fuller, of the State of New York; State Senators Crolius, Beekman, Morgan, Williams, Brandreth; Ass mblymen Allen, Gregory, Yar- num, Dewey, Tuthill, Ryan, and Backhouse; W. C. Hasbrouck, ex-Speaker of the Assembly; Mayor Kingsland, and members of the municipal govern- ment. There were 300 passengers in all, including Chief of Police George W. Matsell and staff. An important adjunct of the party was George Downing and his corps of trained assistants. Downing was the most famous New York caterer of that day, and he was engaged by the Company to be the official caterer to the great excursion. That he did his duty well, both in the providing of solid and liquid • the recollections of the oa r fade from the minds of any of those 1 evidence of it and are alive to-day. On the .ere the head of the United ivernment and his chief advisers; Govern- ors; 1 ,t munici- pal c rinces of trad and Rfi ers of the entire Board of ent of the then greatest railroad in the : Id. ' If by any accident," said Joseph Hoxie, the wit of th' • should ■ to the bottom, what consternation there would be t it the L'ni- 1 the habitab ie!" rived at Pi Tinont at 7:45, amid theringin; ol of cannon, and the cheering of an immense assemblage from all the surrounding country. President Fillmore made a brief speech to the people. Everything on the mile-long pier was decorated with flags. On one large banner was in- scribed : "We know no secluded districts." On anothi r was: " Congratulations of Rockland County. Hud--, .n Rivi r .n\A Lake Erie." Two trains, decorated from locomotives to tear cars, were in readiness for the guests. The first one, carrying President Fillmore and the noted guests, started at eight o'clock; the other one seven minutes later. The conductor of the first train was Henry Avers; of the second, William II. Stewart. The weather being fair and pleasant, Daniel Web- ; A D ?l M €x\ sin ti JO ill; kirk. y lis li • > 1 . PLEASE SHO. IS TICK! IT Wl :en requested s Cif. THIS 1 ICKH 1 1 FAC-SIMILE REPRODUCTION OF THE TICKET OF ADMISSION TO I ill i.ii SION TRAIN. ORIGINAL OWNED BY BENJAMIN H. LOD1 R, I SQ., BROOK! YN, X. V. ster rode on a flat car, at his own request, a b j rocking chair being provided for him to sit in. He chose this manner of riding so thai he could better view and enjoy the fine country thro which the railroad passed. It seemed as if all the inhabitants of that portion of historic Rockland Count}-, N. Y., en one hand, and of Bergen County. N. J., on the other, had flocked to the railroad to raise their voices in rejoicing that the long-awaited and momentous event was at last at hand. But b foi the leading train had gone many miles the annoying discovery was made that the engine was not equal to the task, and the engine of the second train was brought into service to push the head along, and thus help the leading locomotive out. I ocomotive building was but little more than in its infancy in this country then, and Paterson, N. J., THE STORY OF ERIE 99 was making the reputation which has made it a the crooked Delaware Division it was not the fault center of that industry for almost the entire world. of the engine. He made his runs on time easier Rogers and Swinburne were rivals in the business, with "71 " than he had ever done with previous and both had turned out engines for the Erie, locomotives, and had run her but two weeks when Among the engineers running on the road were the great event of botli his and Swinburne's lives Joshua R. Martin and Gad Lyman. The former occurred. ran from Port Jervis to Susquehanna, the latter from After Gad Lyman had abandoned No. 71 as usi Piermont to Port Jervis. Martin had been running he was given an engine of the Rogers make — No. 100. a locomotive from the Rogers shop named " Onei- In May, 1851, Lyman was notified that he was to da," which he called the " One Idea," because he run the excursion train from Piermont with his said it only seemed to have one idea, and that was locomotive, and he was a proud man when he pulled that it couldn't do the work he wanted it to do. In open its throttle and started on that historic day. December, 1850, Swinburne delivered to the Com- But before he had gone many miles Engineer Lyman pany a locomotive known as No. 71. Engineer saw, much to his dismay and chagrin, that his engine Martin set his heart on the engine, because he was with difficult}' hauling the train, and that he believed it was a good one, and for the further reason could not make time. Before he reached Suffern that he was a firm friend of Swinburne's, and wanted the engine was " stuck," and the one on the rear to give the locomotive the best possible test for the train was called to its aid, as noted above. This benefit of the builder. The locomotive, however engine was the Steuben, or No. 6, Onderdonk Meritt was assigned to Gad Lyman, who was a strong advo- engineer, James Gillin fireman. The train reached cate of the Rogers locomotives. Lyman ran the en- Goshen in this way, much behind time, gine for some time, but complained constantly that At Chester, N. Y., where the Newburgh Branch its construction was such that he could not make his then had its terminus, a number of guests from time with it. As he failed so frequently in making Newburgh had joined the party. They added a his time, the locomotive was condemned. When splendid banner to the collection of such offerings Martin heard of this he made application to Master already aboard the excursion train. On one side Mechanic John Brandt, who in those days ruled in of it was a view of Newburgh Bay, looking toward all such matters, to have charge of "71." The West Point, with a train of cars in the foreground Master Mechanic said that the machine wasn't worth on the right, taken from the south end of the village bothering with for regular business, and he assigned near the point where the branch railroad entered, it to duty on the gravel train. The failure of the enclosed in a medallion or shield, surmounted by an engine was a severe blow to Swinburne, who had eagle holding in its beak a scroll, with the names of exercised his best skill and knowledge in the science the President and Vice-President of the Company of locomotive construction to turn out a perfect and the names of the other Directors tastefully machine. Martin did not lose faith in the engine's displayed on the leaves and scrolls which formed the qualities and capacity, however, and continued so border of the shield. Over it was the motto : "This persistently to solicit Master Mechanic Brandt for its peaceful victory more glorious in its triumph than charge that the latter, who was very emphatic in the Austerlitz or Waterloo." And underneath : " Neigh- use of language, told the engineer to "take the bors to-day, strangers yesterday. Newburgh. Dun- damned old thing and go to hell with it." At kirk." On the 1 was a faithful representation Martin's request, Swinburne took the locomotive to of Washington's Headquarters, over which was the his shop for the purpose of remedying whatever defect motto: " This day wanting, the world had not seen he had made in its construction, but a careful exami- the extent of human greatness." The banner was nation of the parts failed to reveal anything wrong. painted by a Newburgh artist named Charles W. Martin then assumed control of the throttle on Tice. " 71," and if he was ever late in making his time on At Goshen ex-Governor W. II. Seward, who had IOO fWEEN THE OCEAN AND Nil. LAKES I the vill Florida, near by, his native v joined the party. At Middletown Webster addressed the people. The trains were an hour late there, with Cud Lyman's engine still incom- petent. At Middletown General Superintendent irles Minot sent a telegram to " Josh *' Martin at I [ervis over the first railroad telegraph line ever constructed, and then but recently in operation, to be ready with his engine " ~i " when the first ex- cursion train reached Port Jervis, to take it on to lehanna. " I was present when Josh received the dispatch," 5 the Rev. H. Dutcher, of Warwick, N. V. " He was in his glory. With an extra chew of tobacco, and with his monkey wrench and oil can, he had the ' 71 ' in order and blowing off at 140 pounds pressure to the square inch long before the train came in sight. When the train arrived, forty-seven minutes late, Martin backed up ' 71 ' and coupled on. Swin- burne, her builder, who was one of the excursionists, stepped upon the engine to ride, and Martin slapped him on the shoulder and said: ' Swinburne, I am going to make you to-day, or break my neck ! ' " At Port Jervis a vast concourse of people, from three States and numerous counties, had assembled to welcome the train. The village fire department was out in force and gala attire, and a local band responded to the strains of the great Dodsworth's band as the train steamed to the station. A scarlet silk banner, beautifully trimmed, was presented to the officers of the Company, bearing the inscription, on one side: " The Banks of the Delaware Welcome the Iron Horse from the Atlantic." On the reverse: Pr< sented by Citizens of Port Jervis, May 14, i." As, according to the official programme, the first train had only five minutes to stop at Port Jervis, or Delaware, as the station was then called, the train was started on its way before the presentation addi was completed, and left a great many heart-burn: among the good people of Port Jervisand vicinity who ha Med to do honor to the distinguished excui A incident — to many amusing and to others not — occurred at the reception of the excursion train at !' liver Young, a leading lawyer and citizen of the place, and a strong anti-slavery man, had been one of Daniel Webster's most ardent admirers for years, but when Webster supported the measures that led to the passage of the Fugitive- Slave Law, Counsellor Young denounced him as unfaithful to his tru-t. When the excursion train, bearing Webster and the rest, stopped at Port Jervis, Mr. Young had devised means to demonstrate the indignation he felt toward his former hero. He did this by moving up and down, presumbly in sight of Webster, bearing a banner on one side of which, in large letters, was the word, " TRAITOR!" On the other side was the inscription: " SLAVE-DRIVER ! " What the effect of this was upon the distinguished statesman it was intended to rebuke is not recorded; but it gave Counsellor Young great satisfaction then and during all his after life. It is declared by old railroaders to this day that a train has never run over the Delaware Division of the Erie at greater speed since that memorable day. The late Captain Avers was the conductor. The distance between Port Jervis and Narrowsburg is thirty-four miles, and the run was made in thirty- five minutes, according to the testimony of the conductor, engineer, and several passengers. The officers of the road with the party were astounded. The passengers were alarmed, and some of them wanted the train stopped so they could get off. The party dined at Narrowsburg, at the hospitable house of Major Fields. The train was late in leav- ing Port Jervis, and it was necessary to make up lost time. Whatever of this was really regained between Port Jervis and Narrowsburg, it is a fact that the trains were detained at the latter place half an hour by hot journals. During the repast .it Narrowsburg a set of resolu- tions was adopted by the Railroad Company's guests, and presented to the President and Direct- ors. Governor Marcy made the presentation speech, in the course of which he said: " Men of the highest genius and eloquence in the land have bestowed the warmest eulogiums on the energy and devotion of the Hoard of Directors in the prosecution of their great work, but the most elegant tribute of praise is the work itself." The train sped on through the Delaware Valley, THE STORY OF ERIE 101 stopping at Cochecton, Callicoon, and other places astic, if not harmonious, reception awaited the to take on invited guests and give the people an excursionists there. Susquehanna had then the opportunity to see and hear the great men who most extensive railroad yard on the line. Sixteen were the orators of the occasion. At Callicoon a locomotives were on the switches, side-tracked with banner which created much amusement to all was their trains until the special trains had passed. As presented to the officers of the Company. On one the excursion train drew up to the station, the six- side of it was this inscription: teen locomotives blew their whistles and rang their DAMASCUS, WAYNE CO PENN l;>e " s in chorus — and a deafening and discordant chorus it was. Added to the din the locomotives So long as Pennsylvania Taxes the New York and Erie , , , . . Railroad Company $,o.ooo a Year to Run Through made ' WaS the boomin g of a cannon on an adjacent Pike County, We are Pennsylvanians— with a Proviso. hill, the piece being kept in active operation by a company of local militia. A broad scarlet banner, On the reverse side was this: stretched over the railroad at the station, bore BRING OUT THE BIG GUN, words of greeting and welcome to the visitors, who T O-DFRi „. , r T " . ; , 7 „ „.„ were met at the station by the entire population of The Mountains are Levelled, the Valleys are Filled, and the Marsh is Dry. tne place. There was a procession of railroad em- ployees, at their head Luther Coleman, one of the The former was an expression in a jocose way of pioneer locomotive engineers of the road, who the indignation the people along the railroad felt discoursed airs of welcome on what now would be because the Company was compelled by its grant an old-fashioned copper-key bugle. " There has from Pennsylvania to pay a perpetual bonus of been," says one who was present, " considerable $10,000 a year into the treasury of that State, as is 'spiritualistic' preparation for the reception, and, recorded in detail in a preceding chapter. The latter after the departure of the train, the festivities were inscription was a play on the names of the President prolonged the remainder of the day and evening." and Secretary of the Company, Benjamin Loder and The trains tarried at Susquehanna a few minutes, Nathaniel Marsh. and proceeded on their way, ushered out by the At Deposit, which station was made on time, a same chorus of many-keyed whistles and loud boom- stop of five minutes was made, amid the roar of ing of cannon. saluting cannon. Judge Knapp, Maurice R. Hulce, The largest gathering of people that had greeted Esq., and other prominent citizens were taken on the pioneer through-train anywhere along the route board. President Fillmore and Mr. Webster made was encountered at Binghamton, then a village, brief speeches. More than 4,000 persons, a large proportion of When Starucca Viaduct came into view as the them young women, welcomed the excursionists. train glided down the western slope of the mountain A large white banner, bearing simply the word between Deposit and Susquehanna, there was great 'Welcome," was conspicuously displayed. Presi- enthusiasm among the passengers, and the trains dent Fillmore appeared on the platform of his car, were stopped for a few minutes at the viaduct. The his head bared, and spoke as follows: President's party and many others left their car to „. .. r ,, a ■ , . , , , 1 - - The ] Full many a flower is born to blush un- inspect and admire this greatest and most beautiful seen, and wash- its sweetness on the desert air,'' but tins can work of masonry then in this country, and enjoy the n ° lon & ' '" *id "'" Binghamton, or of the other .lashing villages on the track of a railroad which connects the Atlantic landscape scene of which it was the center, then, w j t ], Lake Erie. as now, one of the fairest on the continent. A mile beyond was Susquehanna Depot, where The banner was then presented. Daniel Webster Josh Martin and "71" landed the excursionists only addressed the multitude: eight minutes late, in spite of the thirteen minutes' T can hardly say more than express the pleasure I have in stop at Cascade and Starucca Viaduct. An enthusi- seeing you and the western end of this great work of art. I BE I \\ 11 N 1111 I » E \\ AND Till LAKES re and the I their from these • • hills. It utiful and a healthy i m and retary of the Navy Graham also made a speech. 1 laniel S. 1 >ickinson joined the party at Binghamton and the train sped on. The citi Iwego liad made preparations for a fitting reception. The train arrived there about 5 o'clock P.M. While Webster, in response to per- mit calls, was speaking, the signal was given and the train moved off. The crowd cheered, but there was much disappointment. At Waverly a handsome white satin banner, designed and made by the ladies the villa presented as the train stopped. It bore the simple inscription: *' Westward, Ho! " The hour scheduled for the arrival of the excursion at Elmira, where it was to remain over night, was 6.40 P.M., but it did not reach there until 7 o'clock. A ind demonstration in honor of the event was ready for the ceremonies when the distinguished guests arrived. The military, the firemen, the civic socie- ties of the town awaited the train, with flags flying, cannon booming, and the populace cheering. When i illmore and his suite alighted at the tion a national salute was fired. The party was i m, headed by Alexander S. ;ioke as follows: in the name of Elmira, Tl of this -'1 evidence of it- vast t length the climax is capped bj I ould tell us how much ur doors, te a his- : 111- I will not, therefore, although 1 di iterprise. A i min 1 :i 1832 it hed. 1 at by many. th in it. and m nent estii ted tl it WOul i.OOO.OOO, il had the public known that it woul I would nol h \ ani- mals alarming the ■ a dollar in the tn tircr (,, inin v thai nied !•• sa> all was lost, both \"ur treasurer and your president used to greet them with hearty a laugh as Napoleon gave b( dis- armed their suspicions, and when they saw your smiling : went into Wall Street and said: "T Our apprehensions were unfounded." Then the inter] went "ii prospering, until now at length it is accomplished, ami everythinf iright and cheering. But there is bet- ter cheer For yi men. than mere words. We will show you with the products of our city market — you city gentlemen. But For you, what would we know of fresh : and living lobsters? (Roars of laughter.) What is better than all. you have brought us 1 dent (Renewed laughter.) Who, a little while ago, would have expected such an honor for this village? You have brought us enlightened statesmen, renowned throughout the world. You have brought us Governors, ex Governors, and Com- manders. Oh, little Elmira! how will you hear such honors? Will they not spoil you, or will you receive them with meek content, and improve them to your advantage and that of the State? This is thi since the first cannon planted at Buffalo, and a line of guns extended thence to Albany, which with one uninterrupted roar announced that the waves of the Hudson were baptized with the blue waters of Lake Erie. Tl i in which hind- those extremi- ties and all the intermediate pari- together with links of iron, dissoluble as the marriage tie. (Great cheei President Fillmore and Secretaries Webster, Gra- ham, Hall, and Crittenden made graceful speeches in respons,; to Mr. Diven's address "f welcome. The leading hotels in Elmira were then Haight's and Brainard's. At the close of Mr. Diven's speech the excursionists were separated into two divisions. One. headed by President I'illmore, was marched to Brainard's. The other, with Daniel Webster in front, proceeded tn Haight's. Magnificent enter- tainment had been provided by the village. At Brainard's Geoi '.ray presided, with the President of the United States and the President of the New York and Erie Railroad Company on his right, and the Attorney-General and Postmaster-General on his left. The banquet was served at four long tables, and besides the feast 1 ired by the hotel, the excursion's offii 1 il caterer, 1 'own- ing, lent the aid of himself and waiters in enhanc- ing the service and adding variety to the viands from the oard the train. Then- wei leeches, at President Fillmore's request. After the banquet tin- President held a levee in the parlor of the hotel, where li rowds of enthusiastic people who jammed the halls and Streets outside. Similar acted at Haight's Hotel, where Webster, 1 (ickinsOn, S -\ ard, and others of the THE STORY OF ERIE ,o 3 distinguished party were entertained. Although of which place even then was giving promise of the weary and hoarse from much speaking during the position it was destined to fill as the metropolis of day, Webster responded to calls for a speech by a Steuben County. Ilornellsville being the terminus short but eloquent address. Seward also addressed of the Susquehanna and the beginning of the West- the immense crowd. Although the eminent visi- em Divisions, a change in engines was made there. tors retired early, the streets of Elmira were alive Charles H. Sherman, one of the pioneer engineers of all night long with curious and vociferous people. the Western Division, with Samuel Tyler as his The party left Elmira at half-past six o'clock next fireman, attached his engine to the head train to morning. The cars had been further decorated by finish the run to Dunkirk. The second train's the addition, during the night, by the trainmen, of engine was handled from Hornellsville to Dunkirk- all the banners and offerings collected thus far on the by William D. Hall, another of the original engi- trip, and the gilded standards glittered in the morn- neers on the Western Division; and still another ing sun as the train sped away again westward. Con- one, William A. Kimball, brought up the rear with ductors Ayers and Stewart had run their respective his locomotive, to act as helper if help was required, trains to Elmira. Conductors C. L. Robinson and on any of the steep grades between Hornellsville W. C. Chapin were to take charge of the trains from and Dunkirk. After speeches by all the dignitaries, there to Dunkirk. It was an extraordinary occasion. the train started on. At this place Superintendent Great liberty and license were permitted to every Charles Minot pulled off his coat and mounted the one. Hospitality was unbounded. Everybody was locomotive of the leading fain, and rode in the cab celebrating and making merry. Men who were all the rest of the way. known as staid and strict men unbent themselves One of the excursionists, making notes of the and dallied perhaps overmuch with the help to good trip over the hills of the Western Division, gives cheer that prevailed everywhere, without money a vivid idea of the condition of that region at the and without price. Hilarity ruled the night. At time the locomotive's whistle first awoke the echoes six o'clock next morning Conductor Robinson was there. " Now," he wrote, " comes a long tour willing to remain in Elmira, and W. H. Stewart through vast lumber regions, showing no evidence was placed in charge of Captain Ayers's section, and of cultivation, except this noble road, and now and Conductor Chapin ran the second section. Thus then a secluded log hut. We fly rapidly to places Conductor Stewart became the first conductor who called Almond, Baker's Bridge, Andovcr, Genesee, ran a train the entire length of the New York and Scio, Philipsburg, Belvidere, Friendship, Cuba, Erie Railroad, from Piermont to Dunkirk. Hinsdale, Olean, Allegany, Albion, Dayton, Perrys- At Corning, which, since the construction of the burg, and Forestville. Most of these places are in New York and Erie Railroad was begun, had sprung the midst of the forests, with few or no houses vis- into being literally out of the wilderness, President ible, and wonder is often expressed as to where the Fillmore, Senator Douglas, and William E. Dodge assembled crowds came from — but they are there, addressed the few people who had assembled to greet and thriving settlements will soon begin to show the historic train and its distinguished passengers, what they are doing." A prophecy that long ago There were few cheers or hearty greetings there, for came true. the reason, as a leading citizen of the place has in- Among the numerous and appropriate banners formed the author, that Corning was then a Demo- presented at the several stations on the route, one of cratic stronghold, and many of the great people the happiest was the one from Belvidere. Allegany among the excursionists being Whig leaders, and County. The poetical inscription arrested attention : each one a candidate for the Presidency, Democratic ~ . ,. , • • _ , u i , Here the fierce roil man trod his pathless way, Corning did not propose compromising herself by v ° r r i- In search, precarious, dailj !<""I to --lay. turning out and shouting for them. An enthusiastic Qr, hid in ambush, sprang upon his foe, greeting met the train at Hornellsville, the growth Striking unseen the unsuspected blow; BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ds his fiery win. plenty bi nr borders ilr.iw, ilumbia's I white mar ice or war; >m ill you arc! At large number of Indians of the Ca - . Reservation had assembled to see their White Father. They were dressed in their peculiar :iid some of them were painted. Presi- dent Fillmore addressed a few words to them, ex- seeing them in such good .'.tli. and some of the party purchased articles of aboriginal fashioning. The excursionists began to men frequently mingled among the whites at different stations through which the railroad passed, as it ran for several miles through the re- served Indian lands. ' The route through Cattaraugus," wrote the ob- servant excursionist quoted above, '* affords a suc- >ion of views of the most stupendous scenery that any railway ever passed through. As the road winds among these titanic mountains, we are filled with awe at the majestic sublimity of landscape. It i perfect wilderness; but down in the deep val- - and up the mountain sides a patch of black stumps may be seen, and now and then the smoke of the destructive settler rises through the tops of the t.ill pines he is leveling both with fire and axe." At Dayton, Cattaraugus County, on the summit from which the first glimpse of Lake Erie was had, a glimpse which was greeted with glad huzzas from a hundred throats, the people had assembled to wel- ne the distinguished party, and make memorable the important event with a military salute from an •1 piece which had done duty in the War of [812. The gunner was Ebenezer A. Henry. He had fired one gun and had loaded the piece for an- other, when it was prematurely discharged. Both of Henry's anus were blown off, and one eye de- The unfortunate man was carried away, his death beinj thi to i m itter of a short tim lection in his behalf was taken up among tli«- excu id a comfortable sum of money I oad Company subsequently con- tributed { • At Dunkirk, lly, the western terminu the road being there, most elaborate preparations had been made for the fitting celebration of the event that had called the modest little village on the shores of Lake Erie suddenly into a world-wide prominence, and for the suitable entertainment of the illustrious and distinguished guests to whom it was to be host on the momentous occasion. For weeks the town and its surrounding country had contributed freely of their resources, so that the celebration might only not fail of success, but be of everlasting honor to the village and its people. The thousands who were sure to crowd the streets on the day of days must be fed, though a famine result to the outlying country. So favorable was the prog- ress of the preparations, that when the morning of the 15th of .May broke, it shone on a village resplen- dent in its holiday garb, and with a commissariat worth}- of the sustenance of an army on a long cam- paign, as the official programme for the occasion, here reproduced, well indicated : RAILROAD FESTIVAL to be giver to ■ THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY And their invited guests on the completion of and opening of the New York and Erie Railroad, connecting the Ocean with tlu Gre a 1. ikes, at Dunkirk, on Thurs- day, May 15. 1851. ■ PROGRAMME. The President of the United States, Secretary of State, and Heads of Departments of tin- General Government. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Heads of De- partments of the State of New York. The Mayor and Municipal Officers of the City, together with other distinguished ! ■! by the President ami Directors of the New York anil Erie Railroad Company, will leave Xew York at 6 a. \t.. Wednesday, May i-i, stopping at ira one night, and will arrive it Ihmkirk. May 15. at 4 i'. m., when the Company will he received with appropriate ceremoi After which a collation will be served up at the Station House, to which all are freely invited. 1111.1. OF 1 \KK. Chowder, becued whole. 10 sheep roasted whole, heei a la mo. le. boiled ham, corned beef, buffalo 1 . bei I tongui s 1 smoked and pickled), 100 roast fowls, I THE STORY OF ERIE 105 In the evening a magnificent display of fireworks in com- memoration of the great triumph of art over nature: 1. Plantain Tree. 2. Pride of America. 3. Egyptian Pyramid. 4. Palma Christi. 5. Star of Independence. 6. Chandelier Illuminated. 7. Passion Flower. 8. Triumphal Arch, with motto for occasion. George A. French, Chairman of Committee. The whistle of the locomotive that signaled the approach of the pioneer through-train was heard in Dunkirk about half-past four in the afternoon. This was the whistle of the first Western Division engine, Dunkirk," sounded by the engineer who brought it on the road, set it up, and ran it — Horatio G. Brooks. He had gone out with his engine to meet the train. Instantly church bells began pealing forth a glad welcome, and cannon roared. The vast throng went wild with excitement. When the train came in sight, the two having been made into one before entering Dunkirk — Brooks and his engine leading the van — a salute of thirteen guns was fired from the United States steamer " Michigan," lying in the harbor, and by the artillery of the 65th Regi- ment on the common near by, in honor of the Pres- ident and his party. The train first ran beneath a canopy formed by the union of the French, Ameri- can, and British flags. Beyond this, approaching the terminus of the tracks, a triumphal arch of ever- greens and flowers had been erected. It was sur- mounted by the American flag. Near by the arch, on a substantial pedestal, and at the extreme end of the railroad, was an old-fashioned plow, on which was printed the word " Finis." This was the plow used in breaking ground at Dunkirk in July, 1838, for the historic ten-mile section. At the platform erected for the reception of the guests were two banners, which were afterward presented to the President and Directors; one by the ladies of Dunkirk and the other by citizens. On the first was inscribed: "The ladies of Dunkirk honor the perseverance of the officers of the New- York and Erie Railroad. May 15, 1851." Beneath the inscription was a view of New York harbor. On the other was inscribed: " The New York and Erie Railroad and Erie Canal — Monuments to the Enter- prise and Resources of the Empire State. 1SJ4- 1851." In the neighborhood of the terminus there were other flags suspended from the houses and build- ings. One was inscribed: " The New York and Erie Railroad, the greatest achievement of human enter- prise, unites forever the ocean and the lakes." In the extensive shed erected for the purpose, a repast was spread for the dense crowd. It extended along Railroad Avenue from Deer Street to Lion Street. The table was 300 feet long, the whole length of the building. The barbecued oxen excited much curi- osity. There was pork and beans in tin vessels holding fifty gallons each. Bread had been baked in loaves ten feet long by two in width, and their weight was such that it took the strength of two men to carry them. Ranged along the table were barrels of cider to wash down the viands. The author's home was in Dunkirk then. As a six- year old boy he remembers that occasion chiefly from the fact that the shanty in which an ox was being barbecued caught fire and was burned, ox and all. When the officers of the Company alighted from the train, near the triumphal arch, Mr. Loder was introduced to the thousands of people by Chairman Carpenter of the Reception Committee, in a brief speech. William E. Dodge responded on behalf of the officers and Directors of the Company, as follows: I am utterly at a loss to express my own feelings, much less to give vent to the deep emotions of my associates, as we begin to realize the fact that we are at the end of our long am! toilsome journey, that our eyes look out upon this mighty lake and backward over a continuous line of rail to our city homes. Oh, yes! it is no fiction. We have reached the goal of our hopes. And now. as we look back on the days of darkness, disappointment, and toil — and they were many — let us to-day forget them all in our rejoicing that over all we have triumphed, and that at hist this arduous work has been accomplished. The Empire City and the gnat West, the Atlantic Ocean and the inland seas, are by this ligature of iron made one. Who will attempt to predict the future of this road? Al- though my friends have called me crazy in my estimates of its growth. I feel to-day that if I am spared to make fresh esti- mates ten years hence. I shall wonder at my present tame views and stinted calculations. What mind can keep pace with the progress of this country? What was Buffalo, or Cleveland. Detroit. Cincin- nati, or St. Louis in 1832, when this road was chartered' io6 BETWEEN FHE OCEAN AND THE LAKES .iiid Minnesota? When velops, will Who can compute its ■ . and nd to the multitudes in the West wi ng watched for the completion of built this highway tor you and your : ity. Mr. Dodge's speech was greeted with enthusiastic cheering. The Dunkirk hand played ' Yankee Doodle,'* after which the banners were presented to the President and Directors of the Railroad Com- pany — the banner prepared by the ladies of Dunkirk and the one tittered by the citizens. They were accepted by Director Dodge, on behalf of Mr. Loder and his fellow Directors. Three cheers were given for the ladies of Dunkirk, after which the following commemorative ode, written for the occasion, was sung: Ay. let the welkin ring With cannon's roar. Tune high each joyful string In this glad hour. Ring out a merry peal, Fling banners high, Throng round the festive board With mirth enjoy. Darkness and doubt have long Over us hung; Fitful and far the gleams Hope o'er us flung. But now her steady light Shines o'er our way. Sing with united voice " This is our day." And while our thanks arise at high power Who from the gloom of night Brings this fair hour. We to our faithful friends Thanks wi i too, Who through ; Stoo nd true. We joy with you o'er labor done, -t we greet, to the Queen of Hudson's wave Love and homage mete. Swell high the festive strain, Shout amid the cannon's ■ ■ mvey The echo to each distant shore. A procession was then formed under the direction of the Marshal of the Day. Noah D. Snow. It was loci by President Fillmore, his Cabinet, and the Erie officials, and paraded through the streets to the strains of Dodsworth's band, and back to and around the depot or shed, where the public refreshments were spread, the procession entering it at the east side. All were interested in the grand display. The barbecued oxen, suspended from poles: the roasted sheep, resting leisurely on immense dishes; the ten- foot loaves of bread, the tubs of pork and beans, were examined and praised. President Fillmore was attracted particularly by the pork and beans, and would have been pleased to taste them had the crowd permitted him to do so. Mr. Webster in- spected the chowder, but did not taste it. He said to Crittenden that it looked nice, and that he had no doubt it was properly compounded. He said that it was a dish of which he was particularly fond, and that when he had the pleasure of meeting Critten- den at Marshheld he would invite him to eat some of his own making. He said he had the reputation of making it well. "A little port wine," he said, " is a great improve- ment in chowder, and if you ever undertake to make any, I would recommend you, by all means, to put a pint of old portinto it. Then you will be as par- tial to it as I am myself." The barbecue was under the direction of Enoch Carter, assisted by C. \V. Tice, William Lisle, J. H. II. Chapman, J. K. Lawson, William C. Lawson, R. Sterling, W. C. Pcnnoyer, and W. Caulfield, of Newburgh, X. Y. , and W. Simonson, of Cold Spring, N. Y. The table was decorated with four banners, also the production of artist Tice. One was a view of Dunkirk harbor, with the motto: " New York welcome to Dunkirk." On the next was painted a shield enclosing a view of a train of cars passing over a viaduct, with the names of three engineers, Sey- mour, Stancliff, and Swift, and the motto: " Science and art have leveled the mountains, filled the val- leys, bridged the rivers, and joined the lakes and THE STORY OF ERIE 107 ocean with iron." On the third was a view of a train of cars passing through a deep cut, with the motto: " 'Tis done — 'tis done — the mighty chain that binds bright Erie to the main." On the fourth banner was a view of the depot at Dunkirk, with a train of cars entering, together with the inscription: " Completed May 15, 1851." The banner first in the Dunkirk procession was the one presented by the Waverly ladies, bearing the significant inscription: " Westward, Ho!" After inspecting the depot thoroughly, the pro- cession reformed and marched to the Loder House, where tables were spread for the guests. President Fillmore and the other distinguished men were introduced to the people by Lieutenant-Governor George W. Patterson. Speeches were made by ex- Governor Seward, Senators Stephen A. Douglas and Daniel S. Dickinson, Secretary Crittenden, Governor Hunt, Ely Parker, the eloquent Seneca chief who became General Grant's chief of staff dur- ing the civil war; Judge Jessup of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Loder, Horatio Allen, and many others. President Fillmore and others addressed the multi- tude from the windows of the hotel. One of these was the famous Joe Hoxie, whose wit and humor on that occasion were a pleasant memory in Dunkirk, and with all who heard him, for many a day. Wil- liam B. Ogden made a speech at the Loder House feast, in which he reflected savagely on the State of Pennsylvania for charging the Erie Company $10,000 a year for the privilege of passing over a poor portion of its territory. This aroused Gen. James Irwin, of Pittsburg, who repelled the charge of meanness, and made some uncomplimentary allusions to Mr. Odgen, who defended his position. Angry words followed, and a collision was feared, when Judge Jessup, of Montrose, Pa., arose and poured oil on the troubled waters by a timely explanation, saying that he had been employed by the Company to obtain the law at Harrisburg, and it was perfectly satisfactory. Mr. Ogden apologized handsomely, saying that he had been misinformed, and peace was restored. One of the most interesting and valuable speeches made on the occasion, because it was a contribution to railroad history which should settle forever the dis- putations on the subject that still prevail, was made by Horatio Allen, ex-President of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and at that time its Chief Engineer. His subject was the " Coming of the Locomotive," and he spoke as follows about the trial trip of the very first locomotive that ever turned a wheel on the American continent : When was it? Where was it? And who awakened its energies and directed its movements? It was in the year 1829, the month August, on the banks of the Lackawaxen, at the commencement of the railroad connecting the canal of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company with their coal mines, and he who addro^i ~ you was the only person on that loco- motive. The circumstances which led to my being alone on the engine were these: The road had been built in the sum- mer; the structure was of hemlock timber, and rails of large dimensions notched on caps placed far apart. The timber had cracked and warped from exposure to the sun. After about 300 feet of straight line, the road crossed the Lacka- waxen Creek on trestle work about thirty feet high, and with a curve of 350 to 400 feet radius. The impression was very general that this iron monster would break down the road, or that it would leave the track at the curve and plunge into the creek. My reply to such apprehensions was that it was too late to consider the probability of such occurrences; that there was no other course but to have the trial made of the strange animal which had been brought there at great ex- pense; but that it was not necessary that more than one should be involved in its fate; that I would like the first ride alone, and the time would come when I should look back to the incident with great interest. As I placed my hand on the throttle valve handle I was undecided whether I should move slowly or with a fair degree of speed, but holding that the road would prove safe, and pre- ferring, if we did go down, to go handsomely, and without any evidence of timidity, I started with considerable velocity, passed the curves over the creek safely, and was soon out of hearing of the cheers of the vast assemblage present. At the end of two or three miles I reversed the valve, and returned without accident to the place of starting, having made the first locomotive trip on the western hemisphere. Dr. Wilson, a full-blooded Cayuga Indian, made a speech at the Loder House banquet, which, for true eloquence and poetic fire, was by far the ablest speech of the occasion. It was as follows: 'Fellow-Citizens: I am a Cayugan, and a regular descen- dant from the pure stock of the native American. Gentlemen here to-night have boasted about democracy; but democracy was established here long before the pale face came upon these shores. My ancestors were democrats long before the arts of civilization drove them from their hunting grounds and the quiet possession of their forest homes. The orator from Kentucky (Crittenden) who addressed you to-night said that the pale faces came here a mere handful, and had grown to be a great nation: but he forgot to tell you that when they landed upon these shores, helpless and in want, the red man fed them with the milk of human kindness, that he took them ioS BETWEEN IH1-: OCEAN AND THE LAKES them \u- amplest hospitalities, - 1 am " to the manner born." 1 have no M> nation can trace its his- I when the territory dotted by your grand a primitive forest. It lias 1 with the politic- of the pale face, and 1 think gentlemen who have talked her..' to-night about Whigs rats had better left their politics at home. ("Good. ompleted a mighty work. He has tura! barriers; he has '. the valleys of the Delaware. Susquehanna, Chemung, and levelled the hills which were roamed by my igo. Now their descendants marvel at the mighty pale face. They cannot but be ■ ! to see him accomplish his great destiny: to see him m hill to valley, and ride upon the wings of the light- ning. If the New )'ork Tribune is to be believed, he has car- ried his enterprises beyond this world, and receives com- munications from inhabitants of the other world. I tried a short time since to get communication from my friends in the land of the great spirit, but they had learned the language oi the pale face since they have arrived there and could not understand the idioms of the Cayugan. (Uproarious laugh' But. fellow-citizens, in behalf of my tribe. I come to con- gratulate you upon the completion of your great work. Your passage through our territory amazed my people; nature seemed to shake as you thundered along, and the gigantic oak and lofty pine bowed in token of your triumph. But the heart of the Cayugan is warm, and he greets you and welcomes you to his country. (Prolonged applause.) Dr. Wilson then presented to President Loder a banner from the Cayugan tribe, upon which was inscribed the pipe of peace, their national emblem. He accompanied the presentation with a few appro- priate remarks, to which Mr. Loder responded. Among the speeches made in Dunkirk was one by Daniel Webster the evening after the celebration, he being too ill to deliver an expected address at the Loder House feast. The popular cry for him to speak had been clamorous and constant at every station. He was then in training for the Presidency, and had so often responded to these calls that he was nearly worn out, and his voice well-nigh spent. He was quite an old man, and, indeed, died the fol- lowing year, broken-hearted at the ingratitude of his part}-. On this occasion, though giving evidence that he was physically exhausted, the majesty of the man's person, countenance, and mien was inde- scribable. His great black eyes, gleaming out of cavernous depths, under heavy brows dark almost to a frown, but with a droop to the eyelids that gave them i look of inconceivable gloom, smote upon the senses of the spectators with a weird and wondrous fascination, lie appeared at a window of the Loder House, in response to the vociferous clamoring of the multitude, and made a few words of apology in a voice so faint and hoarse that few in the vast crowd could distinguish what lie said. In his address the next evening he spoke as follows about the railroad : Mr. Loder. who devotes so much of his time and atten- tion to the affairs of the Company, receives a small compen- sation. The other sixteen Directors do not receive a cent. Several of these gentlemen have for years given two hours of their time to the prosecution of this work for one they have devoted to their own private business. They derive no benefit from it. except what they derive in common with the of the community; and such has been sometimes the state of the finances that the whole thing must have stopped if they did not pledge their private fortunes and raise heavy sums upon their individual security. I heard the Secretary saj . within the last two days, that there was a time when there was not a dollar in the treasury, and not one could be raised except at a ruinous sacrifice. But these men came forward with $365,000 to save the enterprise. This I call public spirit. Webster's speech was made in the large dining hall of the Loder House at 7 P.M. of May 16th. President Fillmore and Mr. Webster were the guests in Dunkirk of Hiram Rislev, President of the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company. The other of the invited guests slept on steamboats in the harbor. Mr. Webster had intended to accom- pany the President to Buffalo on the steamer" Mich- igan," but was detained in Dunkirk until the next day, owing to the illness of his son Fletcher. The New York Herald, in commenting on the excursion editorially, said; "The unreported speeches, say- ings, talk, and incidents of the tour to Dunkirk would reveal a drama of the deepest interest to the benighted world around. One of the most impas- sive facts which lias struck us in reading the reports was the presence of so many Presidential candidates in the trains, at one time no less than six. Thl started from New York — Fillmore, Crittenden, Webster. Three jumped up behind, like naughty boys on the way — Douglas, Seward, and Matey. There were at least a dozen candidates for Vice- dent along." President Fillmore and his party continued their trip on the [6th to Buffalo by way of Lake Erie, THE STORY OF ERIE 109 Daniel Webster excepted. President Loder and the excursionists returned as they had come, and the journey home was greeted with almost as much of an ovation along the line as the journey out. At Elmira the trains again remained over night, and next morning were made into one for the rest of the return trip. The dream of nearly a score of years was realized at last. The ocean was united with the lakes. Could they who had brought about this consumma- tion, through toil, tribulation, and sore trial, but have gazed into the future of the railroad thus quick- ened through them, and by them confidently to be consigned to posterity as a gift to it to be cherished and preserved, would they not have been moved rather to lamentation than rejoicing? For would not the vision have been that they had reared not a proud and lasting monument to the honor of them- selves and the confidence of the people, but rather had builded only the foundation for a structure where fraud, corruption, peculation, and robbery were to dwell and riot for many a year ? Immediately after the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk, President Loder, broken in health, and feeling that he had performed fully the duty he had undertaken to perform, six years before, tendered his resignation. He was in the western part of the State when this communication was received by the Directors. The result of his determination to retire is better explained in the following extract from a private letter of his, under date of June 24, 1851 : In relation to my resignation I would remark that, when I returned from the West, I was met by a committee of seven of the Directors, who urged, entreated, and pleaded with me to withdraw my resignation, anticipating scarcely less than ruin from my withdrawal at the present time— threatening to resign themselves, etc. — offering to afford me any amount "t help that I wanted, allowing me to go away as long as I thought best, etc., etc., and pressed the matter, until I was compelled to withdraw my resignation to prevent a sort of break-up. This unanimous burst of feeling in expression of confidi is certainly gratifying, but brings with it a load of responsi- bility and labor anything but agreeable. I am now engaged in organizing the running and working of the road, and hope, when that is accomplished, that it will move on without my constant attention. IV. RISING CLOUDS. As early as 1834, during the debate in the New York Assembly on the bill proposing to extend the aid of the State to the New York and Erie Railroad Company, Assemblyman Wilkinson, in his speech on the subject, declared that the natural eastern terminus of the railroad was at a point in New Jersey, opposite New York City, instead of on the bank of the Hudson, twenty-five miles north of the metropolis, and that such would eventually be its terminus. There were some long-headed men in New Jersey who held to the same belief, and who were not by any means timid in practi- cally demonstrating the fact. There was but one feasible way that the New York and Erie Rail- road could get to a point in New Jersey, opposite New York City. That was south from Suffern, through the Paramus Valley to Paterson, and thence to Jersey City, and that route was taken in. possession by certain shrewd and far-seeing Jer- seymen by the obtaining of charters for two rail- roads, one from Jersey City to Paterson, to be known as the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad, and one from Paterson to the State line at Suffern, to be known as the Ramapo and Paterson Railroad. The former was built and opened as early as 1S36, but the latter was left lying in embryo until the fact be- came apparent that the New York and Erie Railroad was in a fair way to be completed. The Ramapo and Paterson Railroad was then built. It was put in operation in 1848, its terminus being only a short distance from the New York and Erie Railroad at Suffern. Owing to the provisions of the charter of the Erie, the railroad was not permitted to connect with any railroad running into another State. For more than a year the Company ignored the existence of the new railroad. It could not, however, prevent pas- sengers from quitting its trains at Suffern and con- tinuing their journey to New York by the Ramapo and Paterson and the Paterson and Hudson River Railroads, or from coming from New York by that route and taking the Erie cars at Suffern. The new- route saved twenty miles of distance, and from an hour to an hour and a half in time, and a BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES majority traveling over the Erie patronized it. The Erie not only ignored the New Jersey rail- riminated against them by making the fare between Stiffen) and Geneva, both ways, the the regular fare was between New York and Geneva— this latter point being then the western terminus of travel to Buffalo by the Erie, through the connection at Elmira with the Chemung Rail- road, which the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany had leased and was operating. But passengers paid the extra fare between New York and Suffern by way of the New Jersey lines to avoid the tardi- ness and annoyances of the Piermont and Hudson River route. This discrimination against the New Jersey inde- pendent railroads continued even after the passage by the New York Legislature of the General Railroad Bill, which became a law in 1850, and which com- pelled all railroads of the State to provide connect- ing railroads every facility for the proper interchange of business. The Erie provided the facilities for the New Jersey route, but did not change its rate of fare. Under this new law the Union Railroad Company was formed, with authority to build and maintain a railroad from the terminus of the Ramapo and Paterson Railroad to the Erie depot at Suffern, thus giving close connection between the two roads. Still the New York and Erie Railroad Company strove to compete with the new connection by increasing the speed of its passenger trains and steamboats, but all to no purpose. I rs for New York got off the Erie trains at Suffern, and those traveling west- ward bought tickets at New York over the New Jersey line to Suffern, instead of by the Erie steam- boats to Piermont. The New York and Erie Rail- road Company was at last forced to recognize the decided preference of the public for a shorter and more direct and certain route to New York than by the way of Piermont, and to acknowledge the fact that its railroad had become unpopular with the traveling public through the Company's persistence in trying to force patronage over a roundabout route, and uary 10, 1851, it obtained control of the Pati 1 m and Ramapo Railroad and the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad by li ich line dur- ing the continuance of its charter, which was perpet- ual, with the right to change the roads to the six- foot gauge, or to make any other change that would most benefit the New York and Erie Railroad. This aroused the people along the line of the Erie between Suffern and Piermont to a state of great excitement — especially certain prominent citizens of Piermont, who knew what a damaging effect the diversion of the traffic of the railroad from Piermont would have on the property interests of that place. A meeting of citizens was called at Piermont, and among others the following resolution was adopted : Resolved, that this recent act of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, in diverting the travel and business from the County of Rockland, and in transferring the terminus of their road from the State of New York to the State of New Jersey, contrary to the spirit and intentions of their charter and the laws of the State, merits and should receive the repro- bation of all citizens of this State. The movers in this effort to keep the business of the railroad to the roundabout and inconvenient route by the way of Piermont and the Hudson River based their assertions of the wrong and injustice of the change on the allegation that the people of Rockland County had made large donations of land for the terminal facilities of the road at Piermont, and contributions of money toward the building of the road. This was mainly land under water, the right to improve which for commercial purposes was granted by the State to Eleazar Lord and others, without cost to them. Up to 1845 l ' le Railroad Company had expended §200,000 in making the sub- merged lands available, and up to 185 1 had used $100,000 more in completing the work. The mate- rial used in the filling in of the necessary area, as the management of the New York and Erie Railroad Company charged in 185 1, had been purchased at a large price from Eleazar Lord, who, with others, owned all the abutting land, making the cost of the land, it was claimed, more than its real value could have been for any Other purpose. A suit had 1> brought by Eleazar Lord to recover a large portion of the land thus made by the Company, and thirty fi 1 t of the long pier. The Company was then en- ed in dredging in front of the pier to make it better available for its business, and an injunction THE STORY OF ERIE 1 1 1 was issued in that suit restraining it from further work there, pending the result of the litigation. The Piermont meeting resulted in the sending of a petition to the Legislature praying for the passage of an act prohibiting the New York and Erie Rail- road Company from making any further arrangement by which any of its trains should be discontinued between Suffern and Piermont, the fact being ap- parent that the New Jersey railroads would naturally become, in the no distant future, virtually a part of the New York and Erie Railroad. The Legislature appointed a committee to investigate the merits of the controversy, the result of which was a report against approving of the petition of the Rockland County people, but favoring a bill prohibiting the New York and Erie Railroad Company from run- ning any of its freight trains through New Jersey. The management of the Company gave every assur- ance that it was not its intention to disturb the ar- rangement for the transportation of freight, with the termini of that business at Piermont and Newburgh, because it could be done cheaper in that way; but the Secretary, Nathaniel Marsh, at the same time announced that " there was no doubt that the time would come when the traffic of the road would be so great that it could not be accommodated either at Newburgh or Piermont, and that when that time came it would be in vain for directors or legislators to attempt to withstand the demands of the public, for the cheapest and most convenient route would be found and adopted." The bill of prohibition was not passed; the Piermont litigation was decided in favor of the Company; and the attempt to force it to continue the running of its passenger trains over a route, the delays and annoyances of which passen- gers insisted on avoiding by leaving the Erie cars to take those of another line, came to the only end that common sense and the best interests of the Company could have foreseen. Although the railroad, after a long struggle, was continuous at last between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, so much haste had been made in doing the work necessary to get the connection complete within the legislative limit, that much of the road, it may be said, was only technically a railroad. A large sum of money and months of work were yet necessary to put the track and roadbed in such shape that traffic could be entrusted regularly upon the line with safety and profit. This was particularly the case on the Western Division. It must be borne in mind that the railroad had been doing active busi- ness on section after section of the line during all the time the struggle to complete the road was going on. The first section was put in operation from New York to Goshen in September, 1841 (in- cluding the ferry from New York to Piermont as part of the system); to Middletown in June, 1843; to Port Jervis in January, 1848; to Binghaniton in January, 1849; t0 Owego in June, 1849; to Elmira in October, 1849; to Hornellsville in September, 1850. The Newburgh Branch was opened in 1850, and the main line had connection with Buffalo by way of the Chemung Railroad from Elmira to the head of Seneca Lake, by steamboat on that lake to Geneva, thence by the Canandaigua and Buffalo Railroad. The earnings of the railroad, according to the reports of the Company, were increasing every year, and showed a promising excess over expenses. They were absorbed, however, by road repairs, interest payments, and other obligations. The railroad, including sixty miles of double track, wharves, turnouts, and sidings, locomotives, cars, steamboats, and stations, had cost §23,500,000. Ex- clusive of the rolling stock and other property, the cost of the railroad was $43,333 per mile, or six times the estimate that Judge Wright and his aids, Seymour and Ellet, had decided, in 1834, was a " liberal one " to place the cost at. But the actual cost of the road was low, for no line of railroad ever built up to that time had greater physical difficulties to overcome than this one encountered. The cost exceeded the estimate made by the Directors in their report for the year 1S50 by §3.080,000. In the first place, the engineers' report to the Company of the estimated cost of the railroad and right of way between Hornellsville and Dunkirk was $1,353,368 less than the actual cost was found to be. The locomotives and cars exceeded their estimated cost by half a million dollars; unexpected expense in terminal buildings, wharves, fences (of which latter 300 miles were built by the Company along its i i 2 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND INK LAKES d a subscription i - oo to the Line Railroad Company to secure • :i from Dunkirk to Erie, increased the d to these, the Company, in order t the road through in time, was obliged to '" incur inci xpenses in doing the wdrkdayand night, amid frost and snow, and to assume work contr led in performing, and in transporta- of materials for the superstructure — doing in one year an amount of work no other railroad com- pany had ever accomplished in less than between and three ye Yet, large as the cost of the railroad seemed, it was not above the average of that of railroads that had been built in other States, and nan the average cost of many of the important railroads of New York State. All this the Directors assured the stockholders in their annual report after the railroad was in operation between the Hudson and Lake Lrie, and it was undoubtedly the truth. If any interested parties to the matter had doubts about the economy of the management and the gen- uineness of their professions, a dividend of four per cent, on the earnings of the road for the last six months of 1851, which was declared earned, and payable January [3, 1852. more than likely changed the minds of such doubters. The receipts for the first six months of the railroad's through business :. C. McCaUum Comes in as General Superintendent and Precipitates a ike on the Railroad — More Hard Lines (or Erie — Bankruptcy Imminent, but I laniel 1 >rew and Others Come to the Rescue — An Investigation and the Sinking Fund — A Beautiful Erie Rainbow — Ramsdell's Master Stroke in the Matter of the Long Dock and Land for Terminal Facilities — Father of the liergen Tunnel — Another Strike, Disastrous in the Extreme — A Ruin- Rate War, and the Erie in a Crisis — Ramsdell Retires and Charles Moran comes in. The discontent among the stockholders, who saw the earnings that they thought should be turned into dividends for themselves absorbed by interest on bonds or by maintaining and improving a far from complete railroad, began to find such expression that a change of management became inevitable, and at the annual election of 1S53 new men came into the Directory, and Benjamin Loder, who had virtually worn himself out in the service of the Company, gladly retired as head of the enterprise he had done so much for, and was succeeded by Homer Ramsdell, of Newburgh. The earnings of the railroad for 1853 were $4,318,- 762, an increase of Si ,022,812 over those of the pre- vious year. The stock ruled in the street at about eighty, and the bonds were at and above par, the long-time, or seventy-year 7 per cent, convertible bonds, being especially strong and in demand. The r 1853 was not distinguished for any exciting episodes in the management of the Company or of the railroad, and the condition of the latter was but little bettered. Freight rates were made still higher, and discrimination against various towns were per- that the Company continued to be ex- tremely unpopular along the line. But while the year 1853 was not particularly eventful in incidents due directly to the Erie man- agement, the business and plans of the Company were greatly disturbed and interfered with toward the close of the year, and for months in 1854, by the bitter, bloody, and prolonged strife known at the time as the " War of the Gauges," which arose from a determination of the people of Erie, Pa., to pre- vent all communication by rail between the New York and Erie Railroad, or the New York Central Railroad, and the desired connection at the Ohio line with the railroad there (now the Lake Shore), unless all freight should break bulk at Erie and be reloaded there, and all passengers change cars at that place. In other words, the people of Erie refused to permit the building of a railroad through the place or near it that did not have a different gauge from either the Erie track or the New York Central track, thus forcing the breaking of bulk at Erie so that the work would add to the resources of the place. This war was accompanied by much discomfort and hard- ship to travelers and great loss and damage to freight, and consequent misfortune to the New York and Erie Railroad Company. The full story of this most extraordinary opposition to easy and quick commu- nication between the East and West is told in detail elsewhere in this volume. The railroad business was also disorganized, and its profits greatly reduced in 1854 by a war of rates between the New York Central and the Erie. In the winter of that year a convention of railroad man- agers was held at Albany, at which it was agreed between the Erie and the Central that their rates for passenger and freight from Buffalo to New York, and vice versa, should be uniform. In the following May the Central, charging that the Erie had been cutting passenger rates between those points, over its Buffalo and New York City Railroad connection (the present Buffalo Division of the Erie), made a heavy reduction in rates over its own lines. The rate that had been agreed upon was $9 for through passengers. The Central made a rate of $7.50 from Buffalo to New York, and put on a second class HOMER RAMSDKLL THE STORY OF ERIE n 5 train to connect with Hudson River boats at Albany, bonds, amounting to $337,000, was to fall due on for which the rate was §4. These reductions forced September 1st. The Company also had bills to the the Erie to a similar cut, and the consequent loss amount of $600,000 due in that month, and $700,- was great. In August, however, at a general rail- 000 in October. More than that, the five-year road convention held at New York, a restoration of income bonds, issued in 1X50 for §3,500,000, were the regular rate was effected. to mature in February, 1S55. Hut this was a con- Charles Minot, who had come in as General Super- tingency for future apprehension, and while its pos- intendent of the railroad in 1850, was called upon by sibilities had a disheartening effect on Erie affairs, the Directors in May, 1854, to put in force a code of it was the pressing immediate needs of the Coin- rules for the government of employees which had pany that threatened and harassed the manage- been drafted by D. C. McCallum, then Superinten- ment. Nothing but a substantial temporary loan dent of the Susquehanna Division. Superintendent could tide it over its difficulties. Then, in this emer- Minot read the rules, and reported that he could not gency, Henry Sheldon, one of the leading Direct- approve of all of them, as they were not capable of ors, and a prominent commission merchant, was application to the successful operation of the railroad. forced to make an assignment by the stringency of The Directors informed him that the rules must the times. Sheldon's failure was followed by that be adopted and enforced. Superintendent Minot, at of two other influential members of the Board, any rate, was not in favor with the ruling influences Edward C. Weeks and Gouverneur Morris, in the Board, Homer Ramsdell and Daniel Drew, The Company succeeded in borrowing §350,000 although he was exceedingly popular with the em- on acceptances endorsed by various members of the ployees and along the line of the railroad, he having Board, and secured by hypothecation of bonds of more than once protested against the discriminations 1883. Subsequently, on August 29, 1854, Corne- of the Board against Goshen and other towns in the lius Vanderbilt endorsed the Erie's paper for $400,- running of trains and the arrangement of freight 000, to secure him in which a mortgage on the rail- charges. Minot refused to enforce the new rules road and its franchises and on 180 locomotives, 2,975 and resigned, arid was succeeded by D. C. McCallum, cars, and upon other chattels of the Company, was who inaugurated a system of management so strict, executed. August 31st Daniel Drew, then and for and demanding such discipline among employees, years afterward a power in the financial world, and that it soon gave rise to discontent and open acts of who was a member of the Erie Board of Directors, revolt, especially among engineers and firemen. The endorsed for the Company to the amount of over first trouble with employees the Company had ever $980,000, and took a mortgage on all the property had came about in June, 1854, only one month after the Company had left that could be mortgaged, McCallum became Superintendent. The engineers which mortgage was to cover future endorsements, objected to two of his rules, went on strike, and the whole not to exceed $I,000,000. Thus while gained their point, after traffic had been practically the earnings of the railroad were largely above its suspended for ten days. expenses, the Company was forced, by the crowd- The summer of 1854 was one of great business ing of such heavy payments at this time of taut depression. Banks were cautious in extending ac- purse-strings and want of confidence, to pledge all commodation, and individuals or corporations that its available assets to meet its necessities, and its had obligations the maturity of which was imminent, stock and bonds were lamentably depressed in con- and which could not be met except by the obtain- sequence. Erie shares had fallen from eighty to ing of temporary loans, had a dismal future. It was forty-three. The bonds had also declined ten to known in August of 1S54 that the New York and fifteen per cent. On September 4, iS;.i. President Erie Railroad Company was in a situation such as Ramsdell, in response to public demands, published that. The semi-annual interest on its S3,ooo,ooo a statement. It simply expressed his regrets for the second mortgage bonds and on its $5,200,000 '83 situation, and announced that the surplus earnings I iO BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the road from October i, 1853, to June 30, 1854, which wen 21, had been used for the re- quiremi the road, among which was the ex- c of laying second track. Late in the summer of 1854 the fact became pub- lic that there were discrepancies in the report made in 1S52 by the Treasurer of the Company of the floating debt and the freight and passenger earnings. This added to the depression in Erie affairs, and September 14th the Directors ordered an investi- gation of the matter to be made. James Brown, Thomas Tileston, D. D. Williamson, John E. Williams, Caleb O. Halsted, David Hoadley, John II. Gourlie, ami J. C. Bancroft Davis were selected a committee to make the investigation. Their in- structions were to examine into all the books, papers, accounts, and transactions of the Company. It was expected that the committee's report would be ren- dered before the annual election in October, but it was not. That election of Erie Directors caused more than usual stir in Wall Street. Two tickets were in the field, one made up by the friends of the existing Board, and one by stock- holders who thought that the policy of the Com- pany required a change in management. The regu- lar ticket contained the names of Homer Ramsdell, Samuel .Marsh, William E. Dodgj, Shepherd Knapp, Cornelius Smith, Marhall O. Roberts, Charles M. Leupp, Nelson Robinson, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, George F. Tallman, Don Alonzo Cushman, William B. Skidmore, Louis Yon Hoffman, Charles Moran, and Ralph Mead. The independent ticket replaced the names of Messrs. Roberts, Robinson, and Smith by those of J'>hn Compton, James Van Nostrand, Samuel Willets, and Uriah Hendricks. There were four vacancies in the old Board caused by the resigna- tion of Henry Sheldon, Gouverneur Morris, Alanson on, and Edward C. Weeks. The names of Moran, Von Hoffman, Skidmore, and Cushman were new on both tickets, all the rest on the regular ticket being those of members of the existing Board. The ilar ticket was elected by 35,000 votes out of 44,000 cast. October 12th the Board elected the old officers. The election of Charles Moran, who was a !>■ 'id Louis Von Hoffman as Directors was in recognition of the interests of foreign cred- itors of the Company, Moran having placed a large amount of the Company's unsecured, or income, bonds in Switzerland and other parts of Europe. The report of the examining committee was not made until October 21st, the election having been held on the 10th of that month. The report was a voluminous anil exhaustive analysis of the Com- pany's financial and physical condition. The com- mittee found that the floating debt as reported in 1852 was understated by more than Si, 000,000. The actual amount was §2,384,406.83. The reported amount was $1,323,053.55. The earnings had been reported as $3,537,766.53, while the)- were in fact but §3,319,906.14. " We leave your body,'" said the committee in its report to the Board, " to deter- mine the reasons for these erroneous statements, and to whom they are to be charged. We can see no justification for them. It appears in evidence before us that the knowledge of them came to the then Board of Directors a short time after the re- port had been sent to Albany by the Treasurer, and that the subject was investigated by their orders. We think they erred in not frankly exposing them. Since September, 1S52, your Board has had to con- tend against the effects of a dividend when not fully earned and the representation of your floating debt at far below its actual amount. A development like this, at the outset, led us to regard all after transactions with suspicion, and to scrutinize them rigidly. The results have been highly favorable to the Company." While approving the existing con- dition and methods of the management, the commit- tee nevertheless chided it, and made suggestions as follows: " The New York and Erie Railroad now earns annually about as large a sum as was origi- nally proposed to be expended in its construction. * * * When we see what it has already done, while new, incumbered, and without perfect connec- tions, we have no difficulty in agreeing that it is destined to do decidedly more with experience, without incumbrance to the traffic, and with con- nections established. At the same time we cannot shut our eyes to the financial condition. We are- aware of the difficulties with which your Board has had to contend, and bear willing testimony to your THE STORY OF ERIE 117 arduous and untiring exertions to surmount them. But we think you will agree with us that the recent critical situation of the Company has demonstrated the imprudence of anticipating earnings so largely, and calls for frankness and judicious management on the part of the Directors. If the public can be assured that the construction account is closed, and a scheme can be devised for retiring the floating debt — making, at the same time, prospective pro- visions for meeting the funded — we see nothing to prevent this road from becoming one of the most valuable railway projects in the world. To insure these results we recommend: 1. That the construc- tion account be closed. 2. An increase in your tariff price of freight and passengers, both way and through. We believe that an immediate judicious ad- dition to the present rate is not only due to the stock- holders, but will essentially conduce to the welfare of the Company. 3. That no dividends be paid until the floating debt is disposed of. 4. That a sinking fund be established, to be paid monthly into the hands of trustees, independent of the Company. 5. That the President and Vice-President of the Company be required to give their whole time and undivided attention to the duties of their respective offices. We think this is indispensable to the proper management of so large a corporation." Referring to the manner in which the Company had raised money to tide itself over impending trouble, the committee said that " the measures adopted gave the necessary temporary relief, and it is the opinion of your financial officers that such an emergency cannot occur again. We understand that the contracts for rolling stock which increased the present heavy floating debt are either nearly completed or are cancelled. No new contracts have been made since March last. Of the seventy-five engines contracted for to meet the necessities of the road, the contracts for twenty-two have been can- celled. Sixteen remain to be delivered. This wise management has checked the increase in floating debt, and if this policy is persisted in, the affairs of the Company will soon be put on a sounder basis. It is better to pause where you are until additions can be made at a less sacrifice of the means and credit of the Company." The Board of Directors acted immediately on the suggestion of the examining committee, and a spe- cial finance committee, consisting of Charles Moran, Shepherd Knapp, William E. Dodge, Nelson Rob- inson, and George F. Tallman, was appointed to for- mulate a plan to help the Company over its difficul- ties. October 21st the committee reported a plan for establishing a sinking fund by placing an issue of $4,000,000 7 per cent, twenty-year bonds, pledging the Company to pay monthly from March 1, 1855, $35,000 into hands of the trustees to be invested, as well as the accruing interest on the instalments, in the bonds of the new issue as long as they could be purchased at or below par, whenever such purchases could not be made at that rate the monthly pay- ments and the accruing interest to be invested in any bond of the Company that could be purchased at or below par, and if such purchases could not be made at or below par, the monthly payments and all accruing interest to be invested in such bonds of the Company as could be purchased at the lowest rate. All bonds thus purchased were to be cancelled and held by the sinking fund, the interest to be collected, however, until the monthly payments and interest and the conversion of convertible bonds into stock should have reduced the entire debt of the Company to $20,000,000, when the monthly payments should cease and the trust be closed. The declaration was made that this loan would pay the income bonds redeemable on February 1, 1855, " and the entire present floating debt and the monthly payment of the sinking fund." On the recommendation of this special finance committee the following were adopted by the Board of Di- rectors: Whereas. The period has arrived when it is expedient and necessary to close the Construction Account of this company, to be re-opened only when the imperative necessity of the in- creasing traffic on the Road, and the state of the finances of the company will render it perfectly evident that it is proper an. I justifiable to re-open it. so as to increase the present capacity of the Road, therefore Resolved, That any and all future expenditures beyond the amount to be derived from the proceeds of the new loan, after reimbursing the [ncome Bonds due 1st February next, be charged to Transportation ' Resolved, That as often as the Bonds purchased by the Sink- ing Fund amount to ten per cent, on the Capital Stock, this company will, upon receiving due authority from the Legis- i [8 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES laturc ' the next semi-annual dividend ■ n per cent. olutions he published in the daily that the public have cognizance of the future policy According to the statement of President Rams- dell, announcing the approval of the Directors of the sinking fund plan (October 23, 1854V the debt of the Company was then { ^x>; of the amount, - .024,000 being capital stock. The gross earnings of the railroad for the coming year were estimated at §6, 000,000, and the expenses were estimated at o9o7°. °f which §1,739.570 was interest on the bonded debt, $3,300,000 operating expenses, and \0OO for the sinking fund, leaving " net revenue equal to over five per cent, on stock applicable to cash dividends and contingencies." The statement declared that " in the opinion of the Superintend- ent. Mr. McCallum, the road in its present posi- tion and with its present equipment, can earn $S, 000,000." The loan was placed, and in his report to the stockholders for 1855, President Ramsdell declared that " the sacrifices made by the Company to meet promptly all its engagements have been wholly repaid. The credit of the Company is entirely re- established, all the endorsed acceptances have been paid, whilst the new loan, negotiated by the unwea- ried, gratuitous exertions of the Directors, and the generous aid and confidence of our own and foreign capitalists and merchants, enabled the Company to pay at maturity the entire balance of the income bonds, and to reduce the floating debt to an amount moderate that all further sacrifices have become unnecessary." The entire report was optimistic to a degree, and the sinking fund established was confidently relied upon to" enhance the value of the Company's stock and favorably effect the future renewal of the loans as they may mature," although it at present pre- vented cash dividends, notwithstanding they were earned. Amicable relations had been restored with competing lines. In conformity with the terms of the sinking fund bonds, the report said that the Company would declare nd of ten per cent. in stock (the law authorizing the same being first obtained 1 in April, 1857 ; and the following was offered as an approximate estimate of the amount which would be accumulated in the sinking fund on the re- spective dividend days, until the debt of the Com- pany should be reduced to $20,000,000: SIN KING I 1855. September 30 $ 322.000 1856. April I estimated 580,000 1S56. October I " 834.000 1857. April 1 1.065.000 — 1st Dividend. 1857. October I " 1,333.000 1858. April 1 " 1.609.000 1858. October i " [,894,000 1859. April 1 " 2.188.000 — 2d Dividend. 1859. October I " 2.491.000 i860. April 1 " 2.804.000 i860. October I " 3.127.000 — 3d Dividend. 1861. April 1 3.470.000 1861. October 1 " 3.804.000 1862. April 1 " 4.159.000— 4th Dividend. 1862. October 1 " 4.525.000 1863. April 1 " 4.906.000 — 5th Dividend. Funded Debt, Feb. 29. 1856 $24,891,000 Sinking Fund, April I, 1863 4.906,000 Estimated Funded Debt. April I, 1863. $19,985,000 The stock and bondholders of Erie have been started on the chase for radiant rainbows many a time in the career of the Company, but never have they had so magnificent a bow of promise displayed before them to follow and delight in as this one of those buoyant days of 1 856. Mow it paled and dis- appeared and left the darkest of horizons where it had been, will develop with this chronicle. The legisla- tion required authorizing the declaring and distrib- uting a stock dividend, as provided for in the plan of the sinking fund, was obtained at the session of the New York Legislature for 1857. and on April Sth of that year the Directors met and declared a stock dividend of ten per cent., payable April 27th, on the accumulation of the sinking fund, which then amounted to §1,300,000, or nearly S25o,ooo more than President Ramsdell's estimate. The Directors also re olved "to make the dividend on this fund hereafter annually, when the amount divided will be 5 percent." The renewal of cash dividends, how- ever, was postponed for an indefinite pi riod. And with that one dividend the rainbow began to fade-. THE STORY OF ERIE u 9 With all the drawbacks the railroad had encoun- property was purchased in the name of Mr. Rams- tered, its business was steadily increasing. The ter- dell. minal facilities at Jersey City were, nevertheless, no The Long Dock Company was formed, and, greater than they had been for the transaction of under an agreement with the New York and Erie the business of the Paterson and Hudson River Rail- Railroad Company as to subsequent leases and ad- road before it was leased to the New York and Erie vances, began the improvement of the property and Railroad Company, and it was a railroad but six- the construction of necessary buildings, docks, and teen miles long, with only the business of Paterson ferry facilities. The terminus of the Paterson and and a few intermediate villages to handle. All of Hudson River Railroad was where the Pennsylvania the Erie's second class passengers and emigrants, Railroad's Jersey City depot is now, and a ferry and a large portion of its fast freight and express continued the route thence to Duane Street, New business, had to be handled by the way of Piermont York, where the Erie docks and depots were. To and Newburgh. Live stock trains, which were the reach this terminus the railroad ran to the western carriers of one of the chief sources of the railroad's extremity of the Bergen Hill, and through a deep traffic, ran only to Bergen, three miles from the cut over the track of the New Jersey Railroad. The Jersey City terminus. proposed new terminus would take the Erie a mile Homer Ramsdell, being of large experience in or more further up the North River front. This transportation affairs, had long foreseen the necessity was a long and roundabout way, and to shorten it of more room at the eastern end of the road for there was in the plan of the Erie's terminal facilities greater facility and economy- in handling the New the tunneling of Bergen Hill, an engineering exploit York and Erie Railroad's business, not only for that of formidable proportions, and one to be attended time but for future exigencies. In the winter of with great cost, but yet warranted by the consider- 1855, through his influence, two charters were ob- able saving in time and distance, and thus in money, tained from the New Jersey Legislature — one em- which it promised to the Company on its future powering the New York and Erie Railroad Com- business, pany to purchase land in New Jersey and to complete the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad, and the The year of 1855 was one of short crops through- other incorporating the Long Dock Company, with out the country, and one not of general activity in the right to construct a railroad to connect with any commercial affairs, but the New York and Erie other railroad then constructed, or organized to be Railroad earned §833,418.87 more than its working constructed according to law, and granting it cer- expenses and interest on its funded and floating tain ferry privileges. Under this authority, Homer debt, or S' ; per cent, on its capital stock. This Ramsdell quietly secured, at a low figure, 212 acres surplus was used for improvements. The notable of land, besides water frontage, and land underwater event in the history of the railroad during 1856 was half a mile out in the Hudson River. The 212 acres the great strike of the engineers, the second on the then unoccupied ground between Jersey City road. Like its predecessor of 1854, it was caused by nd Hoboken, which is now the property covered opposition to the severe rules of General Superin- by the immense Erie Railroad yards, depots, ferry tendent McCallum. This strike began in October, buildings, coal docks, freight houses, cattle yards, after the end of the fiscal year, and the disastrous oil storage houses, etc., at Jersey City, that city effect it had on the railroad's business did not ap- having grown up and around the property since the pear in the Directors' report for that year, which purchase in 1855. No one in the Board of Di- showed net earnings to September 30th of $1, rectors knew that Mr. Ramsdell was acquiring this 712. The sinking fund absorbed §420,000 of tins, immense property except Charles Moran, as it was and all except §120.000 of the balance was expended thought best for the interests of the Company that for new railroads, improvements, and lake steam- the matter should not be talked about. The boats. Work on the terminal facilities at Jersey were a I 20 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES City was begun in 1856. In June of that year the tnton, Mallory & Co. of New- burgh for putting the tunnel through Bergen Hill. These stupendous operations required the u< large sums of money, and early in 1857 the Erie management was face to face again with financial embarrassment. Erie stock had, in June of that year, depreciated from sixty-three to thirty-three, under the combination of a clique of brokers whose operations were by no means a credit to the Board, because Daniel Drew, an Erie Director, was one of them. The stock reached so low a point that many were afraid to sell it any further, more particularly that as the price fell the stock was gradually bought up by those who had confidence in its value, until it became very scarce — so scarce, that on June 30th the amount standing in the name of Wall Street brok- ers was less than 7,000 shares out of 1 10,000 shares constituting the capital, the smallest amount known for seven years. Added to its other difficulties, the Erie tracks, on the western end of the road and on the Delaware Division, were so badly blockaded by heavy snow- storms in January, 1857, that traffic was disastrously suspended for days at a time during that month. In January, 1857, great ice-floods in the Delaware River destroyed or blockaded miles of track on the Delaware Division, and swept away costly bridges, again crippling the railroad severely, and draining the Company's already scant treasury to repair the disastrous breaks in its transportation line. The same month, the Company being behind in its pay- ments to contractors for work on the Bergen tun- nel, the laborers to the number of 700 struck, the strike culminating in a long and bloody riot. In February, bridges that had been destroyed by the January flood and rebuilt were swept away again by another flood. A June flood carried off extensive bridges along the Susquehanna and Western Divi- sions, and washed away great sections of the track. ly in June the Company's statement of the business of the road for the six months 1 March, 31, 1857, was made. It showed that the expenses, not including the §210,000 paid into the sinking fund during that period, had exceeded the earnings by more than $72,000. The decreased l.n ine! due to the engineers' strike and the extraordinary cost of that strike, and to the losses by snow blockades and floods during the winter, was given in ex- planation of this discouraging showing. The most marked falling off in traffic reported was in freight, and the chief increase of expenses declared to be in repair of cars and engines. Superintendent McCallum had been forced to resign in March, 1857. The engineers' strike had cost the Company upward of §500,000, and left the road in wretched condition. After the resignation of McCallum the railroad, by order of the Board, March 12, I S 3 7 . was reduced from four divisions to two. One, from New York to Susquehanna, with the branches, were placed in charge of Hugh Riddle. Of the other, from Susquehanna to Dunkirk, J. A. Hart was made Superintendent. President Rams- dell acted also in the capacity of General Manager of operations. The New York Central Railroad Company, unhar- assed by pressing debts or urgent need of money, had earl}- assumed an aggressive attitude against the Erie, and lost no opportunity of asserting it, in spite of the assurance of President Ramsdell to the stockholders that amicable relations with its rival had been restored to Erie. At a convention of railroad managers held at Buffalo in May, 1857, the represent- atives of the New York Central insisted that a fast train should be run from Chicago to Dunkirk and Buffalo over the Lake Shore Railroad, ami that an Erie express train should connect with it at Dun- kirk, and another on the Central at Buffalo, to run through to New York. The Erie people remon- strated, but to no purpose. They were compelled to put on the extra train, although it left Dunkirk only a short time after their regular train from that place. They soon found that the train was losing money for them, and they withdrew it, giving notice at the same time that any passengers bound for New York from the Chicago train who would remain over night at Dunkirk would be carried to New York over the Erie at a reduced rate of fare. The Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company, whose road gave the sole connection the Erie had with trains from tin West, refused to honor tickets that THE STORY OF ERIE I 21 read by the way of the New York and Erie Railroad, and charged double rates to passengers holding such tickets, this in spite of the contract the Erie had with that company to carry its passengers at the same rate it carried the Central's. Besides these troubles, the Erie engineers' strike of 1856 had not only greatly crippled the railroad and interfered with its traffic for many weeks, but a great number of its engineers, the Company stubbornly resisting their claims, had left the road and were scattered about the country on various railroads, spreading unfavor- able reports of the condition of the Erie, to its great damage. Much feeling was excited among the New York and Erie stockholders by the arbitrary conduct of the managers of the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company in breaking its contract arrangements in regard to ticketing passengers and connecting pas- senger and freight trains to and from the West, over the Erie. The surprise was the greater from the fact that Daniel Drew, the Treasurer of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, was one of the largest stockholders in the State Line Railroad. The emphatic expression of this feeling impelled Daniel Drew to write this letter: New York, June 27, 1857. To George Palmer, President B. & S. L. R. R. Co. In consequence of having been informed to-day that the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company have refused to recognize through tickets sold by the New York and Erie Railroad Company in New York, for places West via the former road, and also tickets sold at places West for New York via same road: and that said road exacts the payment of fare from passengers holding such tickets, thereby showing partiality towards certain roads and a hostility to others, which I cannot but regard as being clearly in violation of obligations on the part of the Buffalo and State Line Road assumed by express contract, as they are against sound policy and fair business dealing. I beg respectfully, as a stockholder in said road, to protest against such policy, and to call on the Board of Directors to conform to that sound and just policy in their official action which those interested in the property they administer have a right to demand at their hands. I will thank you to communi- cate this letter to that Board. I am, sir, your obedient servant, Daniel Drew. This letter met with no response, and on July 1st, the position of the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company toward the New York and Erie remaining unchanged, and the New York Central insisting on its arbitrary demands, the New York and Erie Rail- road Company placed the fare from Buffalo to New York at $5, and to Boston at $9. The Erie's Boston connections were the Boston and Bridgeport line of steamboats, and the New York and New Haven Railroad. Besides the reduction in fare, the Erie advertised to transport passengers free from Duane Street to the steamboat docks and the New Haven depot. In a statement to the stockholders, July 17th, Nathaniel Marsh, Secretary of the Company, giving the history of the difficulty, said: "The Directors regret the necessity for such a measure (reducing the fare). They an- advocates of higher fare, fewer trains, slower speed, the abolition of the whole system of paying commissions for procuring passen- gers and freight, and such other reductions of ex- penses as will give to railroad property a permanent value; but they cannot consent to transfer the man- agement of your road to those who opposed its con- struction, and now seek to embarrass its operations, and render it unproductive to the stockholders. The object of the present reduction is to secure the travel that belongs to the road, and when that object is accomplished, and fair treatment is accorded by other roads, prices will at once be restored to the former rate." Before the New York and Erie Railroad Company had made the reduction in rates, Chauncey Vibbard, General Superintendent of the New York Central Railroad, illustrated the methods of that railroad's management at that day, and its application of them to a rival in misfortune, by distributing broad- cast through the country a handbill of which the following is a copy: NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD. Passengers taking this route can feel assured chat they are with careful, experienced engineers, the company, paying well for such, nevei have been obliged to use firemen, with no experience on account of strikes, endangering life, and never making time, as is the case on the Great Broad Gauge Route. Passengers should be particular and secure tickets by this route, as it is the only one having a uniform gauge from Cincinnati to Buffalo, thence to New York and Boston, saving several changes of cars and baggage, and the annoyance of missing connections, which occur so often on the New York and Erie route. This is the only route that can land passengers by cars in i :: BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES rk City, within a short distance of their principal •her route? land their passengers in Jersey City, porters and hacks, in . • e river, making an additional and disagreeable dent to the New York and Erie Ro ' The only route that can land passengers by cars in New York City." True. The Erie was already reaping a harvest of ills grown from the sowing of the short-sighted management that, years before, had refused to let Erie itself become " the only route that could land passengers by cars in New York City." Misfortune, indeed, seemed to have marked Erie for its own. It was evident that the Company's affairs were once more approaching a crisis. This was the situation that confronted the Erie when Charles Moran returned from Europe in July, 1857, whither he had gone the previous winter. Homer Ramsdell had private enterprises of much magni- tude, and the increasing depression in the business affairs of the Company, he declared, required that he should give them more of his personal attention, and he announced his determination to resign the Presidency of the Company. The Board of Direct- ors had been led to believe that Charles Moran, better than any other person available, could take hold of the Company's critical affairs and straighten them out. They notified him of their belief, and solicited him to take charge of the management. He replied that he would undertake the task, with assurances that he could perform it if the Company would pay him $25,000 a year for his services. This was as much as the President of the United States was paid, and an unheard-of salary for the executive head of any corporation. The Board decided, how- ever, that Moran was worth the outlay, and they agreed to his terms. July 18, 1S57, William E. Dodge, who was outraged because the Company persisted in permitting work to be done on the rail- road on Sunday, resigned from the Board. Moran was chosen in his place, and was unanimously elected President, Mr. Ramsdell continuing as a member of the Board. It was announced of Mr. Moran in the public prints, upon his election as President of the Eric, that he was a man of high character and integrity, of vigorous mind, and de- voted to the study of political economy, " which was at the foundation of the success of any work of this description; that he had superior administrative ability, and that his election would give great satis- faction to all true friends of the enterprise, both at home and abroad." All this about Mr. Moran was undoubtedly true, but within the next two years he was to learn by bitter experience that it required something more than devotion " to the study of political economy" to be " at the foundation of the success " of such a work as the New York and Erie Railroad was. CHARLES MORAN. CHAPTER XII. ADMINISTRATION OF CHARLES MORAN-1857 TO 1859. Clouds Still Thicken — The Services of an Over-confident President whose Salary was $25,000 a Year— Resignation of Daniel Drew as Treasurer — He Raises $1,500,000 for the Company in an Emergency — End of the Rate War— The New Management's Earnest and Persistent Cut — Fruitless Efforts to Sufficiently Float New Erie Mortgages— Moran Virtually Assumes the Duties of the Entire Executive Force — Business Decreases— All Work on Improvements Suspended — In Debt to the Employees, in Arrears of Interest and No Prospects of Relief, the Company Goes into the Hands of a Receiver. The Company began the year 1857 w ' ta a floating debt of $1,575,518.77, which was augmented every month, after the first quarter, by a payment of $35,- 000 to the sinking fund, and another of about $20,- 000 a month on the Long Dock improvement. The income of the road after the first quarter was insuffi- cient for the payments, and in the spring a loan became necessary, which was obtained from the banks on an arrangement by which Daniel Drew endorsed the notes of the Company, taking for his security a mortgage on all the previously unmortgaged prop- erty. The amount of this loan from Drew was $1,500,000, and the Company paid him $25,000 for his name. Daniel Drew was one of the principal owners of the People's Steamboat Line, between New York and Albany, as well as a stockholder in the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company. In 1855, during the war of rates between the New York Central and the New York and Erie, the People's Line had agreed with the former railroad company to carry passengers from Albany to New York at a rate so low that the Central could and did make its fare for second class passengers between Buffalo and New York $4. This was greatly to the damage of the Erie, and Daniel Drew was then prominent in the affairs of the steamboat company, as also Treasurer of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. This made serious trouble among Erie stockholders in 1855, anci in this later war of rates (1856-57) between the Central and the Erie, when the latter was handi- capped more than it had been two years before, the Buffalo and State Line Railroad and People's Line of Steamboats were again being used to the detri- ment of the Erie, of which Company Daniel Drew was still Treasurer and a leading Director. His equivocal position as financial officer of the one Company, and sharer in the profits of the other companies; and, moreover, his partnership in a firm of brokers whose manipulation of Erie stock to the disadvantage of the Company was freely charged, brought about such manifestations of displeasure among the stockholders that, on July 20, 1857, Drew made a statement to the Board in which he said that he was not ignorant of the fact that a por- tion of the stockholders regarded his various rela- tions to the People's Line of Steamboats on the Hudson River, and to the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company, that had attempted to annoy and embarrass the western connection of the Erie, and his participation, as a general partner, in a prom- inent firm of Wall Street brokers, as inconsistent with his position as Treasurer of the Erie, and so he tendered his resignation from that office. Drew's resignation was accepted, and Herman Gelpcke, of the banking house of Gelpcke, Keutgen & Reichelt, and a member of the Finance Committee of the Board, was elected to succeed him. Drew remained in the Board. The folly of the cut-throat rate-war policy that had so long prevailed began to be appreciated by all parties concerned in it before the end of July, 1857, and the new Erie administration began efforts to bring it to an end. A meeting between the Erie and Michigan Southern and the New York Cen- tral and Michigan Central Presidents was arranged. 1-4 BETWTI \ I Hi: OCEAN AND THE LAKES With the close of July an amicable and satisfactory ■emcnt was concluded, old rates were restored, and the ms war came to an end — for the time. Early in his incumbency President Moran demon- ted that his policy was to be radically different in the management of the Company's affairs from that of any of his predecessors. It had been the custom, as a bid for new business and an inducement to retain old, to issue free passes to drovers who accompanied their cattle to market on the stock trains, and to " freighters." who controlled produce shipments in those days. There were about 160 persons receiving these free tickets, and the issuing of them had been regarded as good business policy by all managements up to the Moran control. Moran did not believe it was a sound business principle, and he abolished the free pass system at once. He also dispensed with agencies, runners, advertise- ments, and all such methods of increasing the Com- pany's business. Money was necessary to carry forward the improve- ments the Company had then in hand, but which were being delayed by lack of funds, so a scheme for a fourth mortgage loan was announced early in August, 1857. It was proposed to raise $3,000,000 by creating a stock for $6,000,000, half to be paid in cash and half in the unsecured bonds of the Com- pany. The object of the loan was to fund the debt of the Company, and to obtain means to continue the construction of the Bergen tunnel, the depots, wharves and other improvements of the Long Dock property. It was calculated that the debt of the Company would be increased but about $1,000,000 by this plan. It was a discouraging time for negotiating loans, however, even on the most approved security, for it was at the height of the panic of 1857. when banks were failing by the score, and the oldest business houses were trembling on the verge of bankruptcy; but President Moran and his associates went to work- in earnest to place the new bonds. The unsecured bonds of the Company were low in the market — being then quoted at about thirty-five— and the terms of the new issue were favorable, but investors ignored it. They wen- shy of Eric once more. At a meeting of the stock and bondholders held at No. 13 Broad Street, New York, September 23, 1 S 5 7 . for the purpose of inducing them to subscribe for the new loan. President Moran made an address which is to-day a graphic— and in some respects an amusing — exhibit of the Company's situation and tribula- tions in that critical year. He began by presenting a statement of the financial condition of the Com- pany as follows : Sept. 30, 1855. Sept. 30, 1856. Sept. 30, 1857. Capital Stock $10,023,959 $10,000,000 $11,000,000 Funded Debt 24.Ny1.ooo 24.891,000 24,891,000 Floating Debt 1,211,763 1.104,970 2,437,209 [nteresi Unpaid 69.000 Total Indebtedness $26,102,763 Cash and Cash Items 180,756 Materials 504.855 Fuel 497.1 IS Steamers on Lake Erie... 88.N75 Rolling Stock loaned to Canandaigua and Niag- ara Falls Railroad 100.000 Other Assets 10,456 Due by Agents Advanced to Long Dock Co Bonds of 1875 in Sinking Fund 322.000 I.25.995.970 300.656 502,541 726,723 218,931 100.000 46,234 $27,397,209 84.551 550,000 610,000 231,229 100.000 50.000 250,000 684,254 794,000 1 ,386,000 Total 1.703.857 2,690.425 3.9-25-934 Liabilities over Assets $24,398,911 $23,305,545 $23,471,275 Sept. 30. 1855. Sept. 30, 1857. Total Indebtedness $26,102,763 $27,397,209 Less Sinking Fund 322,000 1,386,000 Total $25,780,763 $26,011,209 Increase for two years $230,441 But "ii the 30th of September there bad been advanced to the Long Dock Company 684,254 Which shows an actual increase, over and above paying interest on bonds, of 453.813 Mr. Moran did not think this was a good reason why F.ric bonds should be selling at thirty-five. He then adverted to the earnings of the road since its opening to Dunkirk, and made this statement: Earnings of New York and F.ric Railroad. 1852 $3,340,150 1853 4.318,062 [854 5.359.958 1855— Short crop year and war in Europe 5,488,9 8 E856 6.349.050 1857— Engineers' strike and short crop (estimated partly) 5,750,000 THE STORY OF ERIE 125 The most important difficulty the road had to contend with, he said, was the engineers' strike of the fall of 1856. " Owing to a policy which occupied itself with minutiae to the exclusion of the main chance, the best set of engineers ever gathered in this country was dispersed. They spread reports all over the country unfavorable to the Erie road; they said it was served by incompetent engineers, by mere boys, and what they said was in part true. The strike was followed by a December and a January change in weather by which the road was blocked by snows, and an inundation in February which de- stroyed the most important bridges on the line. Constant rains kept the road in a state of liquefaction until July, and the result of all this was that during the first six months of the present fiscal year there had been a diminution of receipts of $534,000, and an increase of expenditure of $482,000, leaving a comparative balance against the Company of $1,016,- 000. Notwithstanding this loss," declared Mr. Moran, " the road has gone ahead within the last two years between four hundred and five hundred thousand dollars. If, under such unfavorable cir- cumstances as these, such results could be obtained, what would they not be when the large crops of this year came in, and when economical and active management had made the road as productive as possible? When I assumed the Presidency of the Company its great difficulty was that out of the two millions of floating debt $1,500,000 was to become due this month, and we had nothing to rely upon but the current receipts of the railroad. The former Treas- urer, Daniel Drew, said he would carry the road through August, and he did so; but with the end of August, and the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, began the present crisis. We then had to meet this enormous payment of $1,500,000 with- out knowing where we were to get the first cent. I consulted James Brown. The Board of Directors had created $6,000,000 of new mortgage bonds, which were offered to the holders of unsecured bonds, payable half in unsecured bonds and the other half in instalments of ten per cent. We concluded to call a meeting of the banks and propose that if they would furnish $600,000, private individuals would provide $250,000, which would enable the Company to get through. In 1854 the Directors in a similar crisis had paid $40,000 to Cornelius Van- derbilt for indorsement on $400,000 for six months and created a chattel mortgage on the rolling stock to secure him, and while I was in Europe this sum- mer, they had unfortunately resorted to the same means of raising money, paying Mr. Drew $25,000 for indorsing for $1,250,000, and securing him in the same way. This, however, is destructive to the credit of the Company. I do not think that in this last case the remuneration was too large, but I would not have agreed to it, even at the risk of the failure of the Company. Only last Monday (September 21st), when, at half-past two o'clock, our Treasurer, Mr. Gelpcke, found it impossible to make the Com- pany's account good in bank, he advanced on his own responsibility $50,000 for that purpose. On the same day we had to pay the coupons, and only between eleven and twelve o'clock of that day, from four or five banks, we got the required assistance — $575,600 from them, and $10,000 from individuals. This was almost entirely due to the efforts of Treas- urer Gelpcke. We have found a reluctance on the part of individuals to aid the Company that is very discouraging. That the Company's notes have not been protested we owe to Mr. Gelpcke. Daniel Drew can take possession of us under his mortgage at any time. Our Treasurer has been able to carry the road through thus far; whether he shall be able to do so in future, some of those who have had to raise money for themselves may conceive. " The cost of the Erie now stands at $57,000,000. Its only competitors are the New York Central, the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads. The New York Central has a very advantageous route, but, in addition to the capital of $39,000,000, a million will be required to build the Albany bridge, and the $13,000,000 of the Hudson River Railroad must be added to reach New York, a total of | 000,000, exceeding Erie's capitalization by $14,000,- 000, before the Central can control the trade of New York. I think the Erie need fear no competition in any quarter. " In a recent journey West I found that the Illi- nois Central Railroad owed its large freight traffic to 126 BE l WEEN I HE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the fact that it had extensive water accommodation its termini, and upon my return I mentioned to inv co-directors in Erie that the only weak point in our railroad was its lack of water front at Jei Shortly afterward the necessary land was ten- dered to the Company at a low price, and the Presi- dent took the responsibility of accepting it, as there were other parties who would have taken it had they known it was to be sold. We now hold there 775 feet of dock front where heavy produce can be rolled directly from the cars into vessels for foreign ship- ment. This will secure almost a monopoly of the grain trade from the West to Europe, as that traffic is called for mostly after the close and before the opening of canal navigation. Soon the expenses of the Jersey City ami Piermont ferries, which are §75,- OOO a year, will be replaced by a revenue from the ferries to Duane and Canal streets of nearly the same amount. Then Western merchandise will be delivered twelve hours earlier than now. But if we cannot get assistance, we shall be compelled to discontinue the work at Jersey City, and dismiss the trained set of hands now at work there." ident Moran then presented the following statement and estimates, as encouragement to falter- ing investors: New York and Erie Railroad Company. ; j, 1856. Sept. 30, 1857. Jan. 1, 1858 (est.). Total Indebtedness $26,102,773 $27,397,209 $27,141,000 I. • -s Sinking Fund 322,000 1,386,000 1,500,000 Real Indebtedness $25,780,773 $26.01 1,209 $25,641,000 Advances to Long Dock Company $'■8). 254 $1,100,000 ting debt, Jan. 1. i8 r ° including inter- due on that day, all payments to Sinking Fund, ! S25S/XX) for the advances to Long Dock Com- pany 2.250.000 Sinking Fund will hold Dec. 31. 1857 1,500,000 Estimate for Fiscal Year, 1857-8. same as 1855-6 $6,350,000 $3,492,000 (The expenses of 1X56 were $3.1 (6,994 I 7 per rent, on $28,000,000, lint of di Mating of 1 ,960.000 1: 50.500 — 5.502.500 lie. 7 70-100 per cent, on $11.000.000. . . . $847,500 Leh Fund 420.000 Net income applicable to cash dividends $427,500 ' This," said President Moran, " is equal to three and seven-eighths per cent, on $1 1,000,000, while on the first of February next the sinking fund will have already in hand bonds in excess of last stock dividend of $1,000,000. The $400,000 yearly payments to the sinking fund, joined to the interest on the bonds already purchased, will purchase yearly more than equal to five per cent, on the $[ 1,000,000 of stock. When I took this position I found 158 persons riiling daily on free passes. I immediately cut them off. (Cheers.) That example was followed by other roads. I substituted an alliance for higher fares instead of ruinous competition — an agreement in which the four great roads all joined. We agreed to discontinue the use of runners and solicitors. I think my estimate of receipts is moderate, and of expenses very liberal. Our difficulties are to con- tinue to meet present expenses in case the loan is not taken. I appeal to stock and bondholders of Erie to take it. In July our bonds stood at seventy to eighty per cent. They are now at thirty-five. This loan will restore confidence and the bonds to their old value, which will be an actual gain of prop- erty more than the loan asked for. The moment it is taken our stock will go up to the extent of two or three millions. Since I have been in office I have been over the road but once. These money troubles have occupied me every day. I have been forced to delay payment of the men, and have had two difficulties with those employed at Long Dock. On two occasions these men have left the shops at Piermont, and the danger is that these men may re- fuse to work at any moment, which will render all our property useless. I have been unable to spend enough money on the road to get it in proper condi- tion for the immense traffic which will be offered in a fortnight from now. Can money in any way be used to better advantage than in helping this n tad ? " Richard Lathers, a member of the Hoard, rein- forced the appeal of President Moran. ' You must remember," said he, " that $->,ooo,ooo of your property may be wiped out any day. Lip to a recent period we have managed the road badly, but we have 1" un to change, and if anybody here has bonds or stock of this Company he hail better come THE STORY OF ERIE 127 forward and take of these new bonds. It is by no means certain that we shall rub through. From day to day it takes nearly all the time of the Directors and the Treasurer to raise money to meet their payments. Let no one express sympathy with this Company unless he make it substantial. If this Company goes to protest, you may just as well go home and burn your bonds. We want but little money. We want confidence, principally. Take this into consideration. If you do not, and if in three or four days the road goes to protest, you can- not but feel that you have been duly warned by at least one of the Directors." A closing appeal was made by President Moran, and the following subscriptions were received: Brown Brothers & Co., $12,000; Sarazin & Dufais, §6,000; George W. Van Stovorin, §2,000; Richard K. Hoffman, $8,000; A. M. Cazzens, §10,000 ; W. B. Bolles, §6,000 — a total of §44,000. Gelpcke, Keutgen & Reichel had previously subscribed §100,- 000, making §144,000 thus far taken toward the §6,000,000 loan. Ex-President Benjamin Loder made a speech in favor of an investigation of the Company's affairs, and he, William Whitewright, jr., John H. Gourlie, and John Stuart, jr., were appointed to confer with the President and Directors. The newspapers announced on September 25th that President Moran's explanations at the meeting were favorably received in the street," but Erie stock did not respond to the feeling. The com- mittee appointed at the meeting to examine into the Company's affairs and their prospects held its conference with the President and Directors and made a report to the security holders, the startling declaration appearing in it that the unsecured bonds for §10,500,000, and the §11,000,000 capital stock of the Company — which had been sold down to eight on the street — would cease to have any market value whatever unless immediate relief was obtained. By October 1st the stock was down to ten, but the subscriptions to the new loan had increased to §600,- OOO. The crisis in financial affairs continued, and October 10, 1857, President Moran issued the fol- lowing notice to the stock and bondholders of the Company: The event we dreaded has at last occurred. This company has been forced to allow its engagements falling due yesterday to be protested, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of its officers, who. unaided by you, found it impossible to obtain temporary loans, although they showed that they could be reimbursed in a few days from the receipts of the company. It now becomes imperatively necessary that you should come forward to relieve the company so as to prevent your valuable property from passing into other hands, at the risk of being 1 by litigation between parties in interest. A prompt and united effort on your part will yet avert any injurious consequences from the present unfortunate embarrassment. A very moderate amount received in cash will enable the com- pany to resume its payments at once, and the balance of the subscriptions could be made very gradual and easy, without danger to the company. In view of the present state of things we invite you to meet together on Wednesday evening next, tin 14th inst., at 7 o'clock, at the Mercantile Library, Astor Place. The meeting at the Mercantile Library- was largely attended. Strong appeals were made for subscriptions to the new §6,000,000 issue of bonds, but with no satisfactory result. The meeting ad- journed to meet October 28th, at the same place. A few days later the plan of the issue was changed so that all coupons on bonds due within the year would be taken as cash, as would any of the floating debt of the Company. At the meeting on the even- ing of the 28th Richard Lathers again explained the situation of the Company, and endorsed the payment of the §25,000 salary to President Moran, that having been a cause of some complaint among the stockholders. " It was true," he said, " that a person might be found who would serve the Com- pany as President for nothing, but I am afraid that such a President could not be trusted very far. These cheap Presidents, who can afford to build splendid palaces out of the city, while the railroads which they profess to manage are going the wrong way, make one begin to suspect that there is a screw loose somewhere. If the President is paid a liberal salary he is under no necessity of dabbling in stock, and can afford to devote his whole time and energy to the best interests of the road." It was announced at the meeting that instead of Daniel Drew being determined to take advantage of the Company's embarrassment, and foreclose his mortgage as had been announced, he was willing, if he could have §1,000,000 from the Company toward cancelling his endorsements, to take the remaining BETWEEN THE 0< I..W AND THE LAKES - '',000 in the new bonds. Tor this, on motion of utions expressing the full confi- dence of the stock and bondholders in the Hoard "and especially in Mr. Drew," were adopted. Hon. Erastus Brooks. Capt. Charles II. Marshall, George Kenny, and William 1). Murphy were appointed a committee to call upon the stock- holders and solicit subscriptions from them up to ten per cent, of the amount of stock they respectively held. These eager spurts of financiers toward aiding Erie resulted in strengthening its shares in the street and improving the price of the bonds. Confidence seemed to be returning. A meeting at Jersey City was held in Commercial Hall, Montgomery Street, Thursday evening, No- vember 5, 1S57, and the benefits of the railroad, with its terminals, after the Bergen tunnel should be com- pleted, were placed eloquently before it. Much in- terest and enthusiasm were aroused. This was the first Erie meeting ever held in that city. A com- mittee was appointed to solicit aid, and of that com- mittee DudleyS. Gregory and Charles G. Sisson sub- sequently became active Directors in the Company. This committee had a conference with citizens of Jersey City Monday evening, December 9th, at Mr. Gregory's office. Hon. Samuel Westcott, Mayor of the city, besought the people of the place to con- tribute to the full extent of their means toward the aid of the Company, " rather than let the work be stopped at this time, the completion of which will secure to us the greatest railroad terminus in the United States." The result of the conference was that Jersey City contributed $250,000 toward the loan. The modification of the terms of subscription so that the debts and acceptances of the Company ma- turing within a year were received as cash, helped the loan. Subscriptions were received from Eng- land, and President Moran suggested that it would be a good thing for some one representing the Com- pany to go abroad in the interest of the loan. In December, 1X57, the subscriptions had amounted to $1,200,000, half of them from abroad, and Presi- dent Moran declared that he was positive that if he went to Europe he could obtain subscriptions to at least one-half the loan. The Board resolved to send him there, and at the same time unani- mously agreed that the entire issue of the Com- pany's unsecured bonds should be funded in a fifth mortgage, so that the door might be shut against any more loans. This measure was not adopted formally, but was expressly left to be inaugurated by the President in England, as being well calcu- lated to help his negotiations. President Moran sailed in January, 1858, S. T. Headley, of the Morris and Essex Railroad Company, having been elected Vice-President, December, 20, 1857, to fill Moran's place during his absence. On the Presi- dent's return from Europe at the end of three months (April, 1858), he informed the Board that he had agreed, in England, that the subscribers to the fourth mortgage bonds should have, in addition to the previously announced conditions, the right to fund $3,000,000 of unsecured bonds in a fifth mort- gage, which was for no reason to exceed $5,000,000, thus excluding $4,000,000 from every protection. This limitation was in express contravention of the design of the Directors, yet they confirmed the Pres- ident's agreement, one member of the Board only (George Bruce) having his name recorded against the measure, he holding that instead of expressing con- fidence in the situation of the Company, it was an evidence of distress unexpected by creditors and impolitic from the debtor; nor does it appear that any additional subscriptions were gained from the concession, for so late as September 30, 1S58, the close of the fiscal year, the President's report showed the aggregate subscriptions to be only $3,020,5 11.- 55, of which half was in the old unsecured bonds, being an increase in nine months of only $300,000 to the cash loan. Soon after his return from Europe President Moran, with astonishing self-confidence, he having no experience or knowledge of the practical workings of a railroad, assumed charge of the duties of Gen- eral Superintendent. He abolished committees in the Board of Directors, and took upon himself the duties of Treasurer, Auditor, Chief Engineer, Pur- chasing Agent, and other offices. He dominated rything, and took advice from no one. He inau- gurated the system of regular semi-annual meetings of the stockholders, after the English custom. The THE STORY OF ERIE r -9 first one was held at Clinton Hall, Astor Place, New York, the night of June 3, 1858. The hall was crowded with stockholders and bondholders, and people who were there merely out of curiosity. Pres- ident Moran made a statement of the six months' business of the Company from October 1, 1S57, to April 1, 1S58, and it was by no means reassuring. The Company had lost over $400,000 during the time, although the expenses had been decreased by $198,000. Most of the expenses had been for repair- ing rolling stock and putting the property of the Company in better shape for doing business. The winter of 1857-58 had been an unusually severe one, and had interfered with traffic greatly. President Moran said that owing to the panic of 1857 and its results no railroad in the country was being operated at a profit. He was sure that if the Company could get out of its financial difficulties, and if the tunnel and the Long Dock could go on, the revenue of the railroad would not be less than $7,000,000 a year as soon as trade revived. He said that owing to compe- tition the Erie was transporting passengers at less than two cents per mile per head, and that the carriage of merchandise had not been remunerative for some time. He trusted the unsecured bondholders would look into the proposed mortgage bonds, for, even in the case of the Company's bankruptcy, he said, they would be a perfectly good investment. He referred to the fact that the Company was severely criticised for paying him the large salary of $25,000 a year as President, and claimed that he was worth it, for he was also filling the office of General Superintendent, who had received $10,000 a year, and was conse- quently drawing but $15,000 as President, which was only $5,000 more than Mr. Ramsdell had received. that certain excavation was not called for in the con- tract, although it was demonstrated that such exca- vation had been made necessary through no fault of the contractors. Work on the tunnel was not resumed for a year and a half. Up to August, 1859, of tne loan only $1,253,500 had been taken. The hopeless state of entanglement in the affairs of the Company culminated on the 4th of that month in the recovery of a judgment against it for $35,000 default in sinking fund bonds, and an execution was issued the same day. Other suits were pending in which the same questions were involved, and it became plain that if the bondholders wished to protect the property of the corporation, and hold it together against a reorganization, some steps must be taken at once. Proceedings were begun by the trustees of the fourth mortgage, default having also been made on the first, second, third, and fifth mortgages. On motion thus made, Nathaniel Marsh, Secretary of the Company, was appointed Receiver by Judge Mason of Chenango County. He took possession of the road on August 16, 1859. O n the 19th the Directors made a large reduction in President Moran's salary. On the 27th he resigned as President, and retired from the Directory. Sam- uel Marsh was elected President to succeed him. The bonded debt and capital stock of the Company when Moran left it were as follows : Capital Stock $11,000,000 First Mortgage Bonds $3,000,000 Second Mortgage Bonds 4,000,000 Third Mortgage Bonds 6,000.000 Fourth Mortgage Bonds 3,705,000 Fifth Mortgage Bonds 1,253.500— $17,958,500 Unsecured Bonds and interest due on them 7,825,150 Total Debt $36,783,650 Time went on, but with it did not pass the trying and threatening situation of Erie. The new fifth mortgage bonds were begging in the market. Busi- ness on the railroad went from bad to worse. The Company was falling into arrears in the pay of its employees. Work on the tunnel and other improve- ments was practically at a standstill. The tunnel contractors had ceased operations in October, 1857, President Moran having refused to pay the bills of the contractors, Stanton & Mallory, on the ground 9 Erie stock in July, 1857, when the Moran ad- ministration began, was quoted at thirty-three and one-third. In August, 1859, when the Moran ad- ministration ended, the stock was wavering at eight. That Charles Moran made earnest and conscientious endeavor to extricate the Company from its troubles and start it forward on a successful career it would be unjust to doubt. His ability to do so had been simply misjudged and overrated — and by nobody more than by himself. CHAl'TI.R XIII. ADMINISTRATIONS OF SAMUEL MARSH, PRESIDENT, AND NATHANIEL MARSH, RECEIVER AND PRESIDENT— 1859 To 1864. The Discouraging Condition that Confronted the Receiver — Wages Months in Arrears, No Money in Sight, and More than a Million Dollars in other Overdue Claims Clamoring (or Payment — The Contract with Davis and Gregory — The Clouds Dispersed within Two s — Vanderbilt Appears in Krie — The New York and Erie Vanishes Forever, and the Erie Railway is Born — Bergen Tunnel Finished — Pavonia Ferrj Established, and l'iermont Ceases to be the Terminus of the Krie Kxcept in Legal Fiction. ALTHOUGH Samuel Marsh was the official head of payment. These claims amounted to more than the New York and Erie Railroad Company from 1859 $700,000. The forbearance of the creditors, and to 1862 — being the last President of the old Com- especially of the employees, whose pay was some pany — the direction of its affairs was his merely in a months in arrears, relieved the Receiver of much formal way, as the Company was in the custody of embarrassment, and increased earnings enabled him, the court, and Nathaniel Marsh, as Receiver, was in the course of four months after his appointment, the officer and agent of the court to manage and to discharge all these claims, and pay the current direct the business of the Company until the legal expenses of the road. After that all payments for requirements of the situation might be met, and the labor were paid regularly as they became due, and property handed back to the possession of its own- all supplies were purchased for cash. The Receiver ers. President Marsh's office was simply an advi- on taking office had confronting him the providing sory one, and while his ideas, and those of the for the payment of the following claims: Board, might have been acted upon, and in many , ., -r, ., , . . For supplies purchased and labor performed, pre- instances were, bv the Receiver, the latter was in no . . . . „ . . , J vious to appointment ol the Receiver, with rents way bound to follow any such instruction or advice. and unpaid taxes, and certain claims and judg- A man of less experience in Erie matters, however, ments $741,510 14 . , Interest on tih Mortgage, due April, 1859 62,10500 might have been of much hindrance to the Receiver Im , , Mortgage> due Mav [8so I02>270 M in the management of the complicated business of Interest on 5th Mortgage, due June, 1859 31.027 50 the Company. Samuel Marsh having been Vice- Interest on 2d and 3d Mortgages, due Sept 1, 185 9 350.ooo 00 ident of the Company several years, had a knowl- Amounting in all to $1,287,002 64 edge that was of much service to the Receiver, and his application of it aided greatly in hastening the The settlement of these claims, and providing for development and success of the plans that were payment of future interest on the mortgage debt devised for Erie's rehabilitation. out of the earnings of the road, would have contin- Recciver Marsh found a most discouraging outlook ued the road in the hands of a Receiver for years, when he took charge of the Company's property, so an agreement was made between the stockholders " The income of the road," he subsequently wrote, and the creditors of the Company, by which the con- he depn I te of business generally, dieting interests among the latter should be sub- and to othei (as the Receiver charitably put mitted to the adjudication of Trustees. October 22, it), was barely sufficient to defray the current ex- 1859, a contract was made by the Company with J. penses," while- claims for labor and supplies, and < '. Bancroft Davis and Dudley S. Gregory, who, judgments rendered before his appointment, and under its provisions, undertook the task. The plan rents and unpaid taxes, were pressing for immediate they proposed was that the unsecured bondholders ••*» 01% * >x *jt 1 I SAMUEL MARSH. THE STORY OF ERIE , 3 , should exchange their bonds, with four years' ac- Trustees is interestingly told in "A Statement of crued interest, for seven per cent, preferred stock, the Operation of the New York and Erie Railroad, and that the common stockholders should stand, as Under the Receivership," from which the following they then were, subsequent in interest to the creditors extracts are taken. The statement was made by of the Company. Under the contract the Trustees the Trustees to the stockholders in surrendering the were called upon to execute the following trusts: property to the new Company in 1862, and is a val- I. To receive and hold said mortgage coupons of uable chapter in Erie history: each class, and issue scrip therefor. " When we entered upon this trust we found the II. To receive and hold such fourth and fifth road in the hands of a Receiver, with one coupon mortgage bonds, in case of foreclosure, and exchange matured and another about to mature upon the first them as herein provided. mortgage; with the principal of the second mortgage III. To receive and hold such unsecured bonds matured, and one coupon also due upon the same; and coupons, and exchange them for such preferred with one coupon matured upon the third mortgage; stock, and issue receipts therefor. with two coupons matured upon the fourth mortgage; IV. To receive and hold such shares as the capital with one coupon matured and one about to mature stock of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, upon the fifth mortgage; with several suits pending for the purpose above named, and issue receipts upon the sinking fund bonds, on which they were therefor. claimed or established to be matured: with $750,000 V. To cause proper agreements to be drawn in of liabilites for labor and supplies, and taxes in order to carry out the purposes of this agreement, arrear, charged as a preference claim upon net earn- and they or either of them, as the attorney in fact of ings, by order of the Supreme Court ; and with a the subscribers hereto, to sign the same. floating debt estimated at $320,000, for which fourth VI. In case a sale of the road under foreclosure mortgage bonds were pledged to the amount of is necessary to carry out this agreement, to buy the $2,300,000; or, to state it in a tabular form, the lia- same in on our account, assessing us as hereinafter bilities of the Company then matured, or soon to provided, said Trustees being under no liability to mature, were: furnish money for that purpose. „ , , -. ' r r Two coupons, first mortgage $210,000 VII. After said railroad passes out of the hands of One coupon, second mortgage 140.000 the Receiver, to receive the net earnings thereof from ° ne coupon, third mortgage 210.000 Two coupons, fourth mortgage (not including hy- the new management, and apply them to the pay- po thccated bonds) 2,0.000 ment of, 1st, such of the present floating debt of said Two coupons, fifth mortgage 125.000 xt tr 1 j t- ■ t> m j /- j Preference debt, due operatives, etc 750.000 New York and Erie Railroad Company, not exceed- ing $320,000 principal sum, interest to be added to Total mortgage, interest and preference debt $1,675,000 date of payment, as shall be contained in a schedule Principal of second mortgage 4.000,000 Sinking fund bonds 2.200.000 ■thereof to be furnished to the said Trustees by the Two , niU . rcs , on sanu . 3o8ooo Board of Directors, and for which fourth mortgage Floating debt, secured by fourth mortgage collateral. bonds are pledged as collateral ; 2d, to the expendi- at an a ^ e of about '-" :> ^ « nt ■ 3 20 - 000 tures upon the Long Dock property, estimated to Total matured liabilities $8,503,000 amount to $500,000; 3d, to the liquidation of said delayed mortgage coupons, in the order of their pri- " Our first object was to protect the collaterals ority, which shall terminate said trust. pledged for the floating debt. The contract allowed VIII. To retain from said net earnings, as acorn- this debt to be paid from the net earnings, if the pensation for their own services, a sum to be fixed by assent of the mortgage bondholders could be secured, the Board of Directors. This could not be obtained, and, under the order of The story of the result of the plan for caring for the Supreme Court (which we found it useless to the affairs of the Company under the Receiver and attempt to resist\ the net revenues of the road were 1 12 BETYVLKX THK OCKAN AND THE LAKES ordered to be applied to the payment of the interest m the first and second mortgages. The holders of the floating debt then gave notice that they should the fourth mortgage bonds held as collateral to their debts, and as the whole collateral would prob- ably have been sacrificed by such a course, we were obliged to refer the settlement of that debt to the Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany. They authorized the execution of a contract, eminently wise and judicious, in our opinion, under which it was retired. r next difficulty was with the holders of the second mortgage bonds. Finding it impossible to secure an exchange of those bonds into the third mortgage bonds on the terms authorized by the con- tract (by giving a bonus of ten per cent, in preferred stocki, we again referred the question to the Corn- pan}-, under whose authority a contract was made which secured the entire extension of the second mortgage bonds for twenty years, and the absolute retirement of i, ioo outstanding hypothecated fourth mortgage bonds, and a favorable contract for the retirement of 1,000 more of such bonds ($1,000,000) if the Company desire. As a part of this arrange- ment, we also secured the entry of a judgment in the pending suit for the foreclosure of the fifth mort- gage, affirming the validity of the mortgage debt of the old Company, and providing for the purchase of the property at the sale by ourselves as your Tru ind securing your interest in the prop- erty. " Before obtaining this judgment we had, with great difficulty, and in the face of a determined and organized opposition, obtained from the Legislature of New York a recognition of your organization for your protection, and an authority to ourselves, as Trustees, to purchase the road, and to organize the Erie Railway Company for your benefit. We had also obtained from the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey authority to sell so much of the prop- erty, franchises, and estate of the old Company as was in those States respectively, at any sale that might be ordered by the Supreme Court of New York, and an authority for the purchasers to convey it to any corporation that might be formed to receive it. The I. gislature of New York, in granting us the neces- sary jiowers to secure this property for you, enlarged the provisions of the original contract. That con- tract contemplated that the bonded unsecured debt only should receive preferred stock in the new Com- pany. Hut the Legislature, on the representations of sundry contractors and others holding claims against the Company which were not secured by mortgage, directed us to take into the trust, and grant certificates for preferred stock for aH such unsecured and judgment debts and claims as should be presented within the time specified in the act. While the proceedings to which we have referred were going on, we opened offices in New York and London to receive assents to the plan for reorgani- zation. The London office was under the charge of Mr. Evans, one of your Directors, and the New York office was managed by Mr. Otis, your Secre- tary, under our own supervision. Few creditors under the first and second mortgages made the con- cessions required of them. They claimed the reve- nues of the road, which were of necessity conceded to them for the payment of their interest. A larger proportionate amount of the third mortgage coupon holders made the proposed concessions; but in the execution of the trust this became practically unim- portant, as we were not able to divert the revenues of the road from the payment of the current interest on that mortgage. ' The payment of the coupons in arrear, and of the accruing coupons on these mortgages, left us at the sale to provide only for the fourth and fifth mort- gage coupons in arrear. YVe were allowed, by the terms of the judgment, to offset against our bid all such coupons held by us as Trustees, and we were required by the terms of the sale to pay, in cash, the amount of all such coupons not held by us. On these terms we bought the road on your account, at the sale on the 28th of January last. We proceeded at once to organize the Erie Railway Company, pursuant to the terms of the acts of the Legislature of New York. We provided, in the articles of asso- ciation, that no new mortgage should be created on the property covered by the existing mortgages, un- less the intention to create the same should be pub- lished in some newspaper in the City of New York, THE STORY OF ERIE once a week, for ten weeks next before the annual election of Directors; and also, that no floating debt should be created, except for the ordinary supplies, materials and expenses of operating the road, and for the payment of our bid, unless authorized by a vote of three-fourths of the Board of Directors, at a meeting called for that purpose. We also, with the assent of your Directors, levied an assessment of two and one-half per cent, upon the par value of both classes of the new stock, and caused the offices to be opened for the collection of assessments and the issue of certificates. While this was going on, we devoted ourselves to the adjustment of the many outstanding claims against the Company, which were entitled to share in the new organization, and we succeeded in ad- justing every claim presented to us. As the result of our labors, the whole amount of the unsecured and judgment debts of the New York and Erie Rail- road Company is $8,542,184, of which amount cer- tificates for preferred stock, and fractional certificates for such stock, and Trustees' certificates have been issued to the amount of $8,423,675.50, leaving still outstanding unsecured claims to the amount of $1 18,- 508.50. This latter sum is entirely in the form of unsecured bonds and matured coupons on the same; and as it is small in amount, we advise that author- ity be obtained from the Legislature of New York to admit it to participate in the new organization, so that it may be said that no one has suffered by the proceedings which have been taken. " Of the total capital stock of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, there have been already surrendered for certificates of common stock in the Erie Railway Company, or for Trustees' certificates not yet redeemed, 112,565 shares, of the par value of $100 each, leaving still outstanding 2,935 shares. The holders of these shares should, we think, still be allowed to exchange them for common stock in the Erie Railway Company, on the same terms as the other stockholders. "In collecting assessments, we authorized Mr. Otis and Mr. Evans to receive the outstanding fourth and fifth mortgage coupons as cash. By doing so the operations of the trust were greatly facilitated. We have to report to you that we have issueil assessment receipts for $462,402.50, on which has been received : In fourth and fifth mortgage coupons $214,375 00 In cash 248.027 50 Making a total of $462,402 50 ' The sums in cash, as received, were deposited in the United States Trust Company, by order of the Supreme Coutt of the State of New York. Before paying our bid, we secured orders from the Supreme Court directing the Receiver to pay the October (iS6i) coupons on the fourth mortgage, and the December (1861) coupons on the fifth mort- gage, thus relieving us from the necessity of provid- ing for the payment of those coupons from the as- sessments, and also carrying out the spirit of the contract. The road has now, as contemplated by the contract, resumed the regular payment of its current accruing mortgage interest. " At the time of the payment of the bid, we were the holders of fourth and fifth mortgage coupons to the aggregate amount of $704,042, which had been surrendered under the contract. The outstanding amounts on the fourth mortgage were $80,570, and the outstanding amounts upon the fifth mortgage were $24,885.50. These amounts we paid in cash to the Referee (Hon. Samuel A. Foote), and he is now distributing them to the holders of the mort- gage coupons entitled to receive them. By a res- olution of your Board of Directors, passed in Max- last, the holders of the Trustees' certificates for mortgage coupons are entitled to receive intere such coupons from the 1st day of May, [861. " We have distributed the balance of the cash received from the assessments among the holders of the Trustees' certificates for the fourth mortgage coupons of April and October, 1859, paying inl on their coupons for that time, and that the Re- ceiver, under orders of the Supreme Court, has con- tributed from the net earnings of the road the bal- ance necessary to complete the entire payment of those coupons and interest. In handing over the propertv to you, and terminating our trust so far as you are concerned, we have therefore to report, as the existing liabilities under the trust, the following. »34 BETWEEN I'HK OCEAN AND THE LAKHS .vhich th n certificates bear interest from May i. l86l, and th ment receipts bear inter- com their respective dat April. [860 $126,700 00 ^o I25.33S °° Lpril, e86i 125.125 00 Fiftl rune, 1859 10.10750 mber, [859 27,877 50 June, i?<« 39,35; December, iJvio 39.637 50 01' June. 1861 30,602 50 nt receipts given in London 155,425 00 New York 306,977 50 Total $1,005,235 00 As Trustees for the holders of the mortgage liabilities, we advise that your Company pursue such a policy as will ensure the speedy retirement of those obligations. It is but an act of justice to those mortgage creditors who have made valuable concessions to you for your benefit. In surrendering to you your property, we give much more than existed when the trust was created. Then your road was without a proper terminus at Ww York. The old Company had in- ted, directly and indirectly, nearly $2, 000, 000 in tile Long Dock property, which was intended to be the permanent terminus of your line, at deep water, opposite the City of New York; but the work was far from being finished; there was no apparent means for completing it so as to make it available; the contractors had failed, and the ignorant work- men had struck, and, in a riot, had interfered with the passage of your trains to Jersey City. Now the expensive tunnel on the Long Dock property is com- pleted; your ferries are regularly established, with connections in the lower part of New York superior to those of any other ferry; your passenger traffic is removed from Jersey City to your own ferries; and your freight traffic is transferred from Pier- mont to your own docks opposite the City of New York. Those docks, when completed, will be ample for any probable future traffic of the road, and will afford terminal facilities for railway traffic unequalled in the world, so far as our observation goes. You receive this property through us from the hands of those who have had the financial charge of it for the past two years and a half, with no liability in the form of a floating debt against it. We also transfer to you a perpetual lease of sixty miles of railway from 1 lornellsville, on your' line, to Attica, within thirty miles of Buffalo. Per- ceiving an opportunity to secure this property for the Erie Railway Company, on terms favorable be- yond precedent in the history of railways, we made the purchase, with the assent of the Executive Com- mittee. In order to carry out our contracts with the sellers 1 which were assumed by the Erie Railway Company), and to put the road in repair (for which a large amount was necessary), a bonded debt of ',000, having thirty years to run, was created by the Erie Railway Company, and secured by a mort- gage of the road purchased. A Company, made up from your Directors, was organized under the Gen- eral Railroad Act, to receive this property from us. We conveyed it to them, and they have leased it to you in perpetuity. Thus, without the payment of commissions, or of any intervening profit, you have acquired, with the creation of a moderate debt, sixty miles of new railway, in perfect order, with gradients as favorable as any on the main line, and bringing you within thirty miles of Buffalo." This condition of the affairs of the Company was led up to by the sale of the property of the old Com- pany, which was ordered at the suit of " James Brown and J. C. Bancroft Davis, Trustees, and another plaintiff, against the New York ami Erie Railroad Company and Joseph Walker, Uriah J. Smith, and William T. Hooker, Trustees, defend- ants," under the fifth mortgage, final judgment having been entered in the Supreme Court of New York, June 9, i860, and in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, September 15, i860. The sale took place at public auction on the date mentioned by the Trustees, at the Merchants' Exchange, New York, through A. J. Bleecker, auctioneer. It included all " the real and personal property, rights, and fran- chises directed by tlie said judgments to be sold," and that included pretty much everything in the possession of the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany. The sale was closed at the nominal sum of >,000, being the accrued interest on the fifth inoit .age, over and above the whole of the mortgage THE STORY OF ERIE I35 liens upon the railroad and franchises of the old originally put on the road." Disastrous floods in corporation, principal and interest of which were: September, 1861, on the Western Division, and in -. , . „ rQAa . November, 1861, on the Eastern Division, had in- First mortgage, 1868 $3,000,000 Second mortgage, 1859, extended to 1880 4.000,000 creased the expenses. The work of effecting the Third mortgage, 1883 6,000,000 change from the Cascade Bridge, east of Susque- FrLXSf^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :zz hanna ' t0 solid roadbed - which was ■**■■ j » ^ wa s completed. A very considerable portion of the Total mortgage lien $19,692,000 track, particularly on the Delaware Division, had never been ballasted, mainly on account of the want The purchasers, who were the unsecured bond- of proper material. During the receivership much holders of the old Company (to become preference of the unfinished portions of the track on that divi- shareholders in the new one), and the common share- sion was ballasted with broken stone and gravel, holders of the old Company assenting within six " Any doubts that may have existed as to the wis- months to the arrangement for reorganization, took dom of the purchase of the Long Dock property," the property subject to that lien, and to §796,400 said the Receiver, " and as to the expediency of the (including the $220,000 bid at the sale) overdue and large expenditure required to bring it into use, the unpaid interest on the fourth and fifth mortgages, experience of the last few months has completely They had until December 31, 1 861, to make payment dispelled. In May last the works had so far pro- of the overdue interest, or such part of it as might gressed that some of the passenger trains were run then remain unpaid from the earnings of the railroad, through the tunnel to the new ferry, and in October The further privilege inured to the new corporation all the passenger trains commenced running there, of paying the arrears of interest, and otherwise com- A portion of the freight which had heretofore gone pleting their obligations to the mortgage bondhold- to Jersey City was transferred to the Long Dock, ers in advance of the time named, and to take the and as facilities were furnished, the quantity of freight railroad out of the hands of the Receiver. How this sent there was increased till, about the last of Decem- was consummated is told in the above statement of ber, the whole business, freight and passenger, was the Trustees. concentrated there, and no trains, except a local pas- According to the report of the Receiver, made in senger train, have since been run to Piermont. March, 1862, the expenditures for repairs of the road ' The charter of the Long Dock Company author- and machinery had been large, though somewhat less ized, so far as the laws of New Jersey could do so, than the average of the three years preceding. Dur- the establishment of a ferry from their property to ing the term of the Receivership, 23,514 tons of new New York, and a lease having been procured from rails, equal to more than 230 miles, were laid, and the City of New York, the Receiver established, 956,000 new cross-ties placed in the track. The ma- about the first of May last, a regular ferry between chinery and cars had been fully kept up. The effi- the Long Dock property, at the foot of Pavonia ciency of the motive power was considerably increased Avenue, and the Erie Railway Depot in New York, by the rebuilding of the older locomotives, and ex- at the foot of Chambers Street, immediately opposite tensively repairing others. Twenty were adapted to the General Offices of the Company. At first the coal burning, with a large saving in the cost of fuel, service was performed by one boat, making trips (This was the beginning of the change in locomo- each half hour, but soon after another boat was live fuel from wood to coal, although several years added, and the trips are now made regularly every elapsed before it was completed, that result not fifteen minutes. The expenses of the ferry have having been attained until the time of Jay Gould, been comparatively large, on account of the service 1868-72. — Author.) Pour new locomotives were being performed for the first four months by char- added to the equipment. Nearly 700 freight cars tered boats. Two boats have since been purchased, were rebuilt, " and are now worth more than when and a new and very superior boat has been built, and 13 ' BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES will soon be placed on the ferry. The convenience ami comfort of passengers, and greater regularity in running the trains, have been secured by the estab- lishment of the ferry, and the want of suitable sta- tion accommodation in New York has been supplied by spacious and well-arranged ticket offices, passen- ger and baggage rooms." The last payment of the Receiver was made in December, 1861. and he was ordered to turn the property over to the Erie Railway Company. The New York ami Erie Railroad Company had passed out of existence, after nearly thirty years of struggle and vicissitude. The expenses of the foreclosure had been $64,753. '"• alK ' °f the three years* receiver- ship $55,150.22. A few years later a Receiver of the Erie Railway Company, who was in office but a month with nothing to receive, was paid §150,000 as his reward. Receiver Marsh turned over the property of the Erie Railway Company with every claim paid, and a balance of §181,451 in the treasury. The total cost of construction and equipment of the New York and Erie Railroad had been $35,320,907 Its capital stock paid in was 11,000.000 Its bonded debt was 26,35 1 .000 Its existing floating debt, i860, was 2.725,620 It had earned during the 19 years of its operative • nee 51,098,106 At a total operating expense of. 32,346,029 Leaving its net earnings for the 19 years 18,752,077 And dividends had been paid to the amount of 3,481.405 While interest on bonds, and other drafts on the treasury, had absorbed 1 5,270.672 The Articles of Association by which the Erie Railway Company was formed were entered into April 30, 1 861, pursuant to the Legislature in New Y'.rk State of April 4, i860, and of April 2, 1861, both relating to the foreclosure and sale of the New York and Erie Railroad. The associates were Dudley S. Gregory, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Nathaniel Marsh, Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, Robert H. dell, William B. Skidmore, Don Alorrzo Cushman, Henry L. Pierson, Ralph Mead, Cornelius Vander- bilt, and Henry A. Tailer of New York ; Ambrose S. Murray of Goshen ; Thomas 1). Wright ol Bingham- ton ; John Arnot and Alexander S. Diven of Elmira; Horatio N. Otis of Westchester County, N. Y. May 1, 1SO1, these associates organized as a Board of Directors, and elected Nathaniel Marsh a- Presi- dent. Samuel Marsh Vice-President, Horatio N. Otis Secretary, and Talman J. Waters Treasurer. Thus the Erie Railway Company came into exist- ence on the eve of the great civil war. when the country was rent by the uncertainties and fears and foreboding that preceded the awful clash of arms. But for that the career of Erie during the exciting period of the national struggle might have been at- tended by other than commonplace incidents. As it was, the affairs of the Company, now that they had been freed from embarrassing entanglements, and were placed in condition that practically gave the Company a new start in life, attracted no more attention, and deserved no more, than those of any other corporation that was attending quietly to its business. The war brought an increase in traffic that taxed the capacity of the railroad to care for, and that this business was handled successfully, with the equipment and facilities the Company then had, is something to be wondered at to this day. Erie stock and bonds steadily advanced in the market. The earnings warranted the payment of eight per cent, dividends on the common, and seven per cent, on the preferred stock. January, 1861, Erie stock was quoted at thirty-eight and a half. January, 1862, it was strong at fifty-five and a half, and the year 1 ' >2 closed with common stock at sixty-five, and the [(referred at ninety-six and three-quarters. Erie first mortgage bonds' were 116; second, 116; third, 109 ; + ; fourth, 102}4; and fifth, ninety-seven and a half. The construction account, for some reason, was of not much significance during these years, and there was undoubtedly much cause for the management that came in toward the close of the civil war to declare that the road and its equipment were entirely inade- quate and deplorably out of repair. The years of the Marsh management were certainly the most barren of exciting incident of any previous period in the history of Erie; yet the important record is, that that administration saw the dawn of many interests that are among the vital ones of Erie to-day, and the beginning of conditions that predominated all Erie's subsequent history. The development of the coal trade on the road THE STORY OF ERIE 137 began to occupy the attention of the Erie managers in 1861-62, " not only as an item of traffic, but to provide a supply of coal for the Company's own consumption, which had become large and was in- creasing, as well as to encourage the establishment of manufactories by ensuring to them at low prices a constant supply of the best fuel." At that time anthracite coal was brought to the road by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad at Great Bend, Pa., and by the Delaware and Hudson Canal at Port Jervis. Bituminous coal was received from the Fall Brook Railroad at Corning, from that company's mines at Blossburg, Pa., and anthracite and bituminous at Elmira, by way of the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad (now the Northern Central) and the North Branch Canal, anthracite coal being transported down that canal from Luzerne and Columbia counties to Northumberland, Pa., and there transferred to the railroads connecting at Williamsport with the railroad to Elmira. The coal carried over the Erie was in the cars of other companies, hauled also by their locomotives, the Erie merely receiving a fixed sum for trackage. Thus the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western car- ried anthracite coal to Erie points west of Great Bend to Owego, and the Fall Brook Company trans- ported bituminous coal from Corning to Elmira, and over part of what was then called the Canan- daigua Branch of the Erie to Seneca Lake. Arrange- ments were in prospect for supplying points on the Western Division with coal " from the mines lying south of Olean," and from the Atlantic and Great Western Railway. Early in 1 86-> the Erie made a contract with the Pennsylvania Coal Company to transport its coal from the termination of that com- pany's gravity railroad at Hawley, Pa., to Newburgh, Piermont, and Jersey City, and to carry out that con- tract a railroad was being constructed, under the direction of the Erie, from Lackawaxen, on the main line, to Hawley. This railroad was completed in December, 1863, and is the present Hawley Branch of the Erie. The prospective coming of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway into con- nection with the Erie was looked forward to with joyful expressions by the Erie management, as be- ing an event that would lift Erie into unassailable stability as an avenue of communication between the East and West. If they could have looked forward a few years and seen what the coming of that rail- road into the field had actually in store for Erie, per- haps the Erie managers of 1862 and 1863 would not have awaited it with such pleasurable expectation. At the beginning of 1861 the Company sold all of its steamboats on Lake Erie, and invested the pro- ceeds in rolling stock and other machinery. " much needed for the increasing business of the road." The boats were sold to the Erie Railway Steamboat Company, under an agreement to run its boats in exclusive connection with the Erie trains, and to fur- nish new boats if required. The Erie Railway Steamboat Company was another name for Daniel Drew, who was again a power in Erie. Four new boats were built, and in 1862 the line consisted of " ten first-class propellers, running between Dunkirk and Cleveland, Sandusky and Toledo. Connection with Chicago and other points on Lake Michigan was maintained by propellers owned by other parties, running to Buffalo." In 1862, for the first time in the history of the road, its capacity for receiving and discharging freight began to exceed its carrying capacity. This was due to the terminals at Jersey City, made possible by the Long Dock. From May I, 1862, the Erie leased the Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad, with its rolling stock, depots, and docks. This railroad began at Painted Post, N. Y., west of Corning, and extended to Attica, where it formed a junction with the Buffalo Division of the Erie, -from Hornellsville (acquired in 1 861), the two running thence to Buffalo. The new leased line also had a branch from Avon to Rochester, and is now the Rochester Division of the Erie. " Satisfactory arrangements " were also made in 1862 to run direct lines for passengers and freight between Buffalo and Philadelphia, by way of the lines running south through Pennsylvania from Elmira, " with a change of cars at Elmira only." The ex- pectations of the Company from this arrangement were not realized. The almost constant employ- ment by the United States Government of the roll- ing stock of the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad and its connections to Baltimore and Philadelphia, in 138 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the transp >rtation of soldiers and military supplies and equipments required by the civil war, prevented during the war for but little other business. ter results were anticipated in the future," Pres- ident Marsh said, but that day in the future when those better results were expected from that connec- tion never came to Erie. As early as [862 the Erie began to show that it preferred Buffalo as its western terminus, although it had long been evident that the Company had handi- capped itself by having that terminus at Dunkirk. There could be no escape from that place as the perpetual legal western terminus of the line, how- ever, for it was so fixed in the charter of the New k and Erie Railroad Company, as amended in 1838; but there was nothing to prevent the Company from regarding Buffalo as that terminus in fact. It was with that in view that the line from Homellsville Vttica was secured and made a part of the Erie in 1 861, and from that time the hopes of Dunkirk in the Erie began to fade, and since 1863 that place has been nothing more, in fact, than the terminus of a rather insignificant branch of the Erie, although it is really the termination on Lake Erie of the main line. Tlie number of trains, either passenger or freight, running out of Dunkirk on the Erie is just the same to-day as it was forty years ago, and none of the palatial through drawing-room or sleeping coaches of the Erie run to or from Dunkirk. As long ago as 1863 "palace-like" sleeping cars were running to Buffalo, however, and the new situation of the Com- pany's affairs at that end of the line was referred to thus in the Homellsville Tribune of September 17, \: "The Company have made Buffalo the per- manent terminus of the Erie Railway, the passenger and freight business having increased from that point over the road. It is gratifying evidence of the grow- ing prosperity of the Erie Railway to witness, as we frequently do, six or seven well-filled cars, with mostly through passengers, on the express trains. These palace-like sleeping cars on this road afford the night traveler a good opportunity to enjoy a comfortable lullaby repose while traveling at the rate of thirty miles an hour — finding himself at the end of his journey rested and fresh for bu im In October, 1863, it was announced that " the Erie expects to be able to run broad-gauge ens through from the Long Duck, opposite New York, to Cl< land, in a week or two, and to St. Louis by the first of March next. The Erie was doing so well in 1863, and its pros- pects were regarded as being so cloudless, that a leading Wall Street writer of that day declared of it all as follows: " Among the steadiest of the railway shares are * * * and Erie ; this last wonderfully strengthened by the connection with the Atlantic and Great Western, the marvel of the day, for the rapidity, quiet, and success attending its construc- tion. The Erie, at first the child of disaster, is now- enjoying the most vigorous manhood, and it is gath- ering strength with every day's existence, and will become the giant of the railway system." In May, 1864, the Company fixed Rochester as the northern terminus of the line from Corning in- stead of Buffalo, the route from Avon to Buffalo being made a branch, the branch having theretofore been from Avon to Rochester. Accommodation trains were run between Avon and Buffalo, and through trains between New York ami Rochester, a complete reversal of the order of operations on that division. In rejoicing over this change, the Roches- ter Union was moved to remark: "The Erie Com- pany has resolved to make Rochester an important point for business, and will enter into the work of getting a share of the through travel by rendering the road and cars inviting to the public." But the Erie did not carry out that alluring programme. The road and cars" were never made " inviting to the public," even to a small degree, until the Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company paralleled the Erie's Rochester Division with a rival line, almost a score of years later. Nathaniel Marsh died July 18, 1864. His death came suddenly, although he had been long in failing health. He had been a plodding, faithful servant of the Company for many years. His death was widely d. It is beyond question that President Marsh had stood in the way of the development of ambitious schemes in Erie that lay in the mind certain speculative members of the Board, and with his death a new era in the history of Erie began. ^T^^/^^f CHAPTER XIV. ADMINISTRATION OF ROBERT H. BERDELL— 1864 TO 1867. Cornelius Vanderbilt's Hand in Erie— His Ambition to Control it in 1S64 — The Beginning of Eric's Costly Complications with the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company — Vanderbilt's Corner in Harlem, and How it Cost Daniel Drew a Million — Drew Time and Strips the Commodore of a Goodly Share of His Millions by Manipulating Erie to Erie's Great Damage — Aided and Abetted in it by His Fellow Directors in Erii Mi —Drew and Vanderbilt Reconciled, and Vanderbilt Makes Another Attempt to Add Erie to His 1'ussessions — Breaks with Berdell and Takes up Eldridge— The Historic Erie Board Elected October S, 1867. FOLLOWING the death of President Nathaniel Marsh, his uncle, Samuel Marsh, then Vice-Presi- dent of the Company, was chosen President pro tern. Samuel Marsh was the head of the New York Dyeing and Bleaching Company, and had been for sixteen years a member of the Erie Directory, during which time he had been Vice-President, and Presi- dent through the Receivership of Nathaniel Marsh. He was the logical successor to the Presidency, and if he had insisted on being chosen, the honor would undoubtedly have been bestowed upon him for the term ; but there were influences coming to the fore in Erie affairs just then that preferred another head to the Company, and Samuel Marsh declined to be a candidate for the office. There was a strong sentiment in the Board in favor of the election of Alexander S. Diven as President. He had been prominently concerned in the affairs of the Com- pany since 1843. Conspicuous in the Board also was Robert H. Berdell. He had come into the Erie Directory in 1857, having won a reputation as a wise and prudent business man that was merited by the great success that had followed his manage- ment of his extensive private commercial interests. He at once took a leading and active part in the Erie Board, being made a member of the Execu- tive and Finance Committees. He had been instru- mental in organizing the Long Dock Company, upon which the future of Erie so largely depended, and had active charge of completing the Long Dock property in 1859-60. He was President of that company when he came into the Erie Directory. He was a friend of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was, in 1864, an influential member of the Erie Board, and with an ambition eager to the control of the Company. Vanderbilt desired Berdell's selection as the successor of Nathaniel Marsh. The frien- Vice-President Diven, however, were not inclined to ignore the claims of one who had given more than a score of years of his time to Erie's service; and thus Berdell and Diven were opposed to each other as candidates for President at the election in 1S64. The result of each ballot was a tie. The contest con- tinued day after day, without any change in the vote. At last Vanderbilt held a consultation with Diven. " Diven," said he, " I want Berdell to be Presi- dent of the Erie Company. I'm bound to have him, some way, and that's all there is to it. You can be Vice-President, have the general management of the railroad, and the salary of President, if you like. Will that satisfy you ? " Diven replied that such an arrangement would be satisfactory. He withdrew his name, and Berdell was chosen President of the Board, which composed the following persons: Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, William B. Skidmore, Cornelius Vander- bilt, Robert H. Berdell, Dudley S. Gregory, Ralph Mead, Ambrose S. Murray, William Evans. J. C. Bancroft Davis, Henry S. Pierson, Don Alonzo Cush- man, Alexander S. Diven, Thomas W. Gale, Isaac W. Phelps, Horatio N. Otis. Cornelius Vanderbilt was in 1864 only at the be- ginning of the career which was, in a very few years, to revolutionize the railroad systems of New York and adjacent States, and mark a new era in railroad 140 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES management. He had not yet made himself master it Hudson River and New York Central ind was famous simply as a feared ami successful Wall Street speculator. It is undoubt- edly true that in 1864 1 as well as later, his ambition was to obtain control of the Erie Railway. Judging alts that followed his subsequent owner- ship and control of the Harlem, Hudson River, and New York Central Railroads, it more than likely has been many times since then a matter of great regret to the holders of Erie securities that he had not fol- lowed to success the promptings of his early am- bition and his later efforts toward the control of Erie. When Yanderbilt came into possession of the Harlem Railroad in 1863, that company's stock was a drug in the market at 30. Under his manipulation it advanced steadily, and at last he had cornered Harlem stock against the Street, and run the market on it up to 285 by the middle of [864. Daniel Drew was caught in the Commodore's Harlem corner, and plucked to the amount of nearly a million. It rankled in his breast. He resolved on revenge. He bided his time, and it came — and Erie suffered, as a matter of course. In 1866 Cornelius Vanderbilt had become the greatest power in the land in railroad control and management. He had practically secured, although all the details were not yet definitely arranged, abso- lute title to the New York Central system (having already secured the Harlem and Hudson River Rail- roads), and control of the Lake Shore Railroad from Buffalo. X. Y., to Toledo, 0. He had retired from the Erie Directory in that year. His ambition and interest were to possess a through line between New York and Chicago by obtaining control of the Michi- gan Southern Railroad from Toledo to the latter city. This line was then the only one by which either the Erie or the New York Central might hope to secure a through route to Chicago, and the man- ment of the Erie pi ,ger for such a connection as \ It was. Whatever might have been the true motives of Drew and his ociates in the matter, a desperate struggle for the winning of the intermediate thoroughfare began ween the Erie and the Yanderbilt interests, with the Michigan Southern management inclined favor- ably toward the Erie. The Erie stood at a disad- vantage with Vanderbilt in the matter of obtaining the Chicago connection, because the New York Cen- tral system carried the Vanderbilt line direct to Toledo, while there was a necessary link of about ninety miles of railroad to be built from .Akron, the nearest point on the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, the new line that gave the Erie its only direct connection toward the West, before the Erie could touch Toledo. The Atlantic and Great West- ern was of the same gauge as the Erie, the six-foot or broad gauge. The Michigan Southern Railroad was of the standard gauge: but the management of the latter company was willing to enter into an agree- ment to lay a third rail on its route from Toledo to Chicago, whenever the necessary broad-gauge con- nection should be made between Akron and Toledo. Erie stock began to show weakness early in 1866. The business of the road, although greatly de- creased, owing to the falling off of traffic which the Civil War had created, was good. It could not be concealed that a speculative spirit was influencing the management. It was an open secret, in the Street, at least, that the brokerage house of Daniel Drew was constantly using Erie stock in Wall Street operations, and always to I )rew 's advantage, although the securities of the Company had to suffer discredit thereby. Drew became known as the " Speculative Director." and his associates in the Hoard must have known — for it was of common fame in financial circles — that depreciation of Erie stock meant individual gain to him, and that appreciation of the stock, in the line in which he was speculating, would be to him personal loss. The New York Times money article of April 6, 1866, referring to Drew in this respect, said that " as his influence now stands, and with the prevailing feeling against his conduct in Wall Street, it seems doubtful whether he will be suffered to have things his own way much longer, 1 in the Erie direction, blind and devoted as the majority of that Board have been to his financial had and arbitrary control for years. The question is one of self-respect for their own determination." It is one of the most unaccountable and lament- able facts in Eric history that there were men ass,.- THE STORY OF ERIE 141 ciated with Daniel Drew in the Directory of the Company who made boast then, as they make boast to-day, such of them who live, of their personal probity and business integrity, yet who looked on in unprotesting acquiescence at his raids on the credit of the Company, the honor and good name of which he as well as they were bound as sworn trustees to protect. The act of the New York Legislature authorizing the Erie reorganization in 1S61 expressly provided that the issue of the Company's stock should not exceed the amount of the outstanding stock of the original Company and the then existing unsecured obligations of the Company, which were represented by the preferred stock, a result of that reorganiza- tion. The General Railroad Act of 1850 prohibited railroad companies from increasing their capitals by a direct issue of stock, but provided that a company could issue its bonds for the purpose of borrowing money to complete, equip, and operate its road. That provision of the law gave to railroad companies, however, a privilege which, intended for the benefit of corporations in that respect, led to the develop- ment of some of the most exciting incidents that furnish material for exceedingly enthralling chapters in Erie's history. This was the provision empower- ing any company issuing its bonds for the purpose prescribed, to insert in the bond a clause authorizing the holder of it to convert it into stock of the cor- poration, dollar for dollar. The idea and intent of this clause were that it would be an inducement to investors to pay a higher price for such company's bonds because of the possibility of its stock rising above par, in which case the bonds could be con- verted into stock at greater profit; but, according to acknowledged authorities on railroad law, the con- vertible privilege was made only to apply when money was actually borrowed on a bond issue. But such was not the construction that Daniel Drew, nor Jay Gould after him, put upon the law. Early in 1866 Erie was quoted on 'change at 97. The Company was in need of money. That per- sistent bete noir of Erie, the floating debt, was lifting its head to plague the fated corporation. Daniel Drew had money to lend, thanks, in a great measure, to his manipulations of Erie stock. There was also much speculation in his eye just then, and he had contracted for deliver)- at a certain future day, to various persons in Wall Street, many thousands of shares of Erie stock at the existing quotation, 97. Vanderbilt was then endeavoring to get possession of Erie by buying its stock, and also had in his mind the plucking of Drew by a persistent bull campaign in Eric. This was Drew's opportunity. The Com- pany wanted money to pay the floating debt. Drew had money to lend. He made a proposition to the Company. This proposition does not seem to have met with the approval of every member of the Exec- utive Committee, for it was discussed at their meet- ings from May 16, 1866, until June 26th following, before the potency of Drew's influence overcame opposition, and the Committee approved of it. June 9, 1866, tin- Railroad Journal, which had been the firmest of supporters and friends of the Erie for many years, published editorially and conspicuously this significant paragraph: "It cannot be disguised that very great uneasiness prevails in interested cir- cles witli regard to the condition of this road. We do not believe the road, with every advantage as to route and business, is doing as well as it might, that it is not earning any dividends, and is in a bad con- dition, track and rolling stock. Rut, on the other hand, if it wants money, and the relief it seeks can- not be had except by placing itself in the hands of a wealthy Director, we do not see how this can be avoided. The Directors are in possession of all the facts in the case, and cannot be supposed to be indif- ferent to their true interests. If anything is wrong about it they themselves are to blame. The public look to them for a proper guardianship of the vast and valuable property placed in their hands. If there is anything wrong in their management they will be held to a strict account." Daniel Drew's proposition was that he would lend the Company $3,480,000 for two years at 7 per cent., on jS.ocx) shares of stock, or $3,000,000 convertible hi mkIs at 60 per cent, as collateral, without margin for depreciation, payable as wanted for that amount, or any part thereof, at any time within four months, the Company to have the option of paying off the loan or any portion thereof on ten days' notice, and 14* BETWEEN THE OCEAN WD I'll!'. LAKES iin all dividends. Drew's terms were agreed to by the ( j on the above date. President Ber- being authorized to make the loan on his state- ment that "' the floating debt of the Company amounted to about £5,500,000, and that the material hand amounted to more than that sum; that this iimulation of materials had been made necessary by new construction, which had ceased; that in his judgment the amount could be diminished by - 00,000, and the revenues, which would other- wise be applied to the purchase of new material, could be applied to the reduction of the floating debt, which, from time to time, as it matured, could be provided for by temporary loans on the bonds anil stock of the Company, a plan which he thought practicable for relieving the Company of its floating liabilities. " des being thus equipped by that Erie loan for his raid on Wall Street, Drew had also at his dis- posal 10,000 shares of stock which the Company had obtained by taking advantage of the law authorizing any company to create and issue its own stock in exchange for the stock of another company whose property was under lease to it. The Buffalo, Brad- ford and Pittsburg Railroad was leased by the Erie Railway Company January 5, 1866, for a term of four hundred and ninety-nine years from January 1st of that year. The terms were a guarantee by the Erie of the interest on the bonds of the lessor com- pany at 7 per cent., and all the taxes, charges, and operating expenses. The lease was signed by Presi- dent Berdell of the Erie Railway Company and John Arnot, Vice-President of the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad Company, Horatio \. I >tis being Secretary of both companies, and all were Directors in Erie. When the convenience of Drew called for help, the stock of this leased company was changed into Erie stock' and held for the emergency. Upon receiving the $3,000,000 issue of Erie con- vertible bonds, Drew immediately converted them into stock of the Company. With this great hold- ing of stock he fdled his contracts on the Street, but the sudden throwing of so large a block of Erie on the market forced the price below 70. In this oper- :i Cornelius Yanderbilt was caught by his wily antagonist in a corner from which it cost him more than one round fortune to extricate himself. This aid the Company gave to Drew in his stock- schemes opened the door of Erie to the entrance of ndal and other questionable transactions, the pen alty for which the Company is to this day paying. As early as the fall of 1865 Richard Schell, repre- senting the Vanderbilt interest in Wall Street, sug- gested to members of the Board of Directors of the Erie Railway Company that the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad was sure to be a valuable prop- erty, and would become still more so by a connec- tion with the Erie, a connection which would be of great future importance and profit to the latter. He said that it would be a wise stroke of business on the part of the Erie to secure a representation in the Board of Directors of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company. A committee from the Erie Directory, acting on this suggestion, went over the line of the proposed Eastern railroad, and the result was that on December 8th Daniel Drew. Henry L. Pierson, Ambrose S. Murray, Robert 11. Berdell, Dudley S. Gregory, Alexander S. Diven, and Will- iam Evans, of the Erie Board of Directors, were elected to the Boston, Hartford and Erie Board. John S. Eldridge was President of the Boston, Hartford and Erie. He was a financier bred in the school of State Street, Boston, and his subsequent career in Erie affairs proved that the State Street school of finance was one not far behind that of Wall Street in the teachings of methods that kept always in view the best way of caring for No. 1, no matter what the consequence might be to the other person. The Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company- was organized under charters from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, for the purpose of building a railroad from Boston to Fishkill, N. V., a distance of 300 miles, with branches that would increase its length to 400 miles. The Company was capitalized at $20,000,000. March 28, 1866, President Berdell appointed J. C. Bancroft Davis, Daniel Drew, and Dudley S. Gregory a committee to confer with the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company in regard to the arranging of traffic relations between the two railroads. The Eastern company was particularly anxious to make THE STORY OF ERIE 143 such an arrangement, although it had no railroad connection whatever with the Erie, and the pros- pects of having one were by no means bright. It was not so much the railroad connection that the com- pany desired as it was a guarantee of a large amount of its bonds, which were by no means a very desirable investment just then. At last, on June 3, 1867, a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Erie Railway Company was called to consider an applica- tion from the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company that the Erie guarantee the payment of interest on $6,000,000 of the Boston, Hartford and Erie bonds, on the promise of the Eastern company to set aside a certain amount of the receipts from its coal traffic to secure the Erie in its guarantee; in other words, giving a mortgage on receipts that could not materialize until the railroad was built, and which then depended entirely on the amount of the Erie's coal traffic itself, from which the business of the proposed Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad was to be obtained. On that date A. S. Diven offered a resolution that such an arrangement be agreed to, guaranteeing the interest on $4,000,000 of the Boston, Hartford and Erie bonds, on the security of future traffic, the receipts from which were to be set aside for repaying the Erie guarantee, and the resolution, with some amendments, was adopted June 5th. Directors Cushman. Davis, Diven, Drew, Gale, Gregory, Lane, Marsh, and Skidmore voted for it, and Berdell, Arnot, Pierson, Lanier, Murray, and Phelps against it. A contract cm- bodying the arrangement was made and signed October 8, 1867, by the representatives of the two companies. The report of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Rail- road Company for 1867 stated that 245 miles of the road were ironed and in operation, with twelve loco- motives, twelve passenger cars, and sixty mercantile cars as its rolling stock. There were ten mortgages on the road and its franchises, and the funded and floating debt was $10,326,406. The road had cost nearly $20,000,000. The total income of the com- pany in 1867 was $369,577. It was a well-known fact that the stock and bonds of the company had been sold and hypothecated far below 100 cents on the dollar. The guaranteeing of these bonds by the Erie Railway Company secured also to the manipulators of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Rail- road Company a loan of $3,000,000 from the State of Massachusetts. The comforting announcement was also made in the public prints that " the Boston, 11 ait ford and Erie has only to build a little more than 100 miles of railroad between Hartford and Fishkill, when a broad gauge will be in operation from Boston to St. Louis." If there ever was a pig-in-a-poke transaction this of Erie's with that Boston clique was certainly the one. Cornelius Vanderbilt added the New York Central Railroad to his possessions in 1867, and he then turned his eyes again on Erie. He resolved to get control of that Company also. He counted on the aid of the Boston, Hartford and Erie people in this project, and favored the election of John S. Eldridge to the Presidency of Erie. This was objected to by President Berdell, and resulted in a break in the rela- tions between him and Vanderbilt. Berdell opposed strenuously all of the action of the Company in the matter of the Boston, Hartford and Erie bond guar- antee, and warned the Company of its consequences — a warning that if heeded would have saved the Erie millions of dollars. Vanderbilt was still venge- ful toward Daniel Drew for cornering him in Erie in 1866 and stripping him of a good share of his mil- lions, but as the Erie election for 1867 approached, Drew made his peace with Vanderbilt by promising to let up on his opposition to the Commodore's get- ting control of the Erie, and to aid him toward that consummation. Rumors reached the Street that a compromise, if not an alliance, had been made between the two arch speculators. This was suffi- cient to disquiet the Street, for, with Drew and Vanderbilt working together, no one could foresee what might happen. When the Erie election came. however, and (October 8, 1867) the influence and strength of Vanderbilt in Erie affairs were mani- fested by the defeat of Daniel Drew as Director, and the election of Frank Work, a well-known Vander- bilt lieutenant, to a seat in the Board, and the subse- quent choice of John S. Eldridge as President of the Company, any apprehension that might have existed of a Drew -Vanderbilt alliance was dispelled, and it 144 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND NIK LAKI S med that the downfall of the great Erie speculator te. At this surprising election, Jay Gould and James .. Jr., were made members of the Board. They were practically unknown outside of Wall Str wh i member of the firm of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co., Jay Gould had attracted attention as a shrewd and long-headed operator. Fisk was famil- iar as the blustering, dashing, over-dressed head of the house of Fisk & Belden, brokers. It is not recalled that there had been more than a passing acquaintance between Gould and Fisk until their election as Erie Directors. This remarkable Board of Directors was made up in full as follows: John S. Eldridge, Eben D. Jordan, Josiah Bardwell, James S. Whitney, of Boston ; J. C. Bancroft Davis, Alex- ander S. Diven, William Evans, James Fisk, Jr., Jay Gould, Dudley S. Gregory, George M. Graves, Fred- erick A. Lane, Homer Ramsdell, William B. Skid- more, Henry Thompson, Frank Work, Levi Under- wood. The Boston interests were strongly represented in the Board, and Homer Ramsdell was the conserver of Newburgh's interests. The new Directors Henry Thompson (who was a brother-in-law of Eldridge) and Frederick A. Lane became conspicuous figures in events that were soon to make the name of Erie familiar in the most remote corners of this and other lands, and not to its honor or credit. Levi Under- wood was an ex-Lieut. Gov. of Vermont. He was a friend of Vanderbilt. Jay Gould was so little known then that the newspapers, in printing the names of the new Erie Directors, printed his as " J. Gould," whether the J. stood for John, James, Joseph, or Jeremiah few of them could have told; and some of the papers print :'s name with a final " e," and two recorded the future" Prince of Erie " under the cold and in : of " Fish." But plain J. Gould and unfamiliar Fiske or Fish found their names in the papers, correctly and in full, before main' weeks had passed away from the elec- i of that historic Erie Board. The administration of President Berdell may be said to have marked a period of transition in meth- ods of operation and equipment of the railroad — the beginning and progress in improvements then radical in their changes from old to new systems of railroad- ing, such as the use of coal instead of wood as fuel for locomotives, steel instead of iron in the mechan- ism of rolling stock, and the introduction of auto- matic couplers on passenger trains, and safety and labor-saving attachments of various kinds. The dawn of greater expansion of the Erie system also came with the Berdell management. The official records of this administration for the years 1S64, 1865, and iS66are therefore of more than ordinary historical value in the story of Erie's career, as the following extracts from them will show : 1864. In 1S63 the Directors had called the attention of the stockholders to the fact that increased motive power and rolling stock were necessary. There was still existing this same necessity. The road was comparatively well supplied with cars, except pas- senger and coal cars, but there was a great deficiency in locomotives. Extra service was required of them, and the shops were inadequate to keep them in repair, even when any could be spared lor that pur- pose, and more shops had to be provided. The room did not anticipate so large an increase in the rolling stock as had been found necessary for the increased and constant!)' increasing business offered. To meet this want the Company began the erection of new shops at Susquehanna, Pa. Lack of motive power had made the running of the railroad more expensive than it otherwise would have been. Con- tracts were made in 1864 for sixty-seven engines of the most approved pattern, to burn coal. The Com- pany was building coal cars in its own shops at the rate of three a daw Passenger cars were also being built in the Company's shops upon "the most approved plans, in a manner that is confidently believed," said the report, " will compare in the most favorable manner with any similar kinds of cars on any road. It is expected that the requirements of the travelling public will be fully met in the increa ed comfort of these truly complete coaches." With less provision for increased capacity than was being made, the large amount of business thrown • n the road by the opening of the Atlantic and THE STORY OF ERIE 145 Great Western Railway would become a source of embarrassment instead of profit. The managers of that road had already complained of the Erie's inability to do the business resulting from the con- nection, although the Atlantic and Great Western had not yet been operated as a through line to Cin- cinnati or St. Louis. " We are assured by the man- agers of the roads forming the broad gauge connec- tion to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers that by May or June (1865) their roads will be fully equipped. And with this assurance the managers of this Com- pany would hardly be held excusable for failure to prepare for so important an accession to its perma- nent business." The report announced that "the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburgh Railroad, connecting with the Erie Railway at Carrollton Station, 405 miles from New York and 54 miles from Dunkirk, will be open for use during the coming summer. This road from its connection with the Erie to Lafayette is about 24 miles in length, and will ultimately, and at no dis- tant period, be carried into the very heart of the great bituminous coal region of the State of Penn- sylvania. When opened to Lafayette, it will reach a point where coal, iron, and lumber can be obtained in almost inexhaustible quantities. It will become the natural outlet for the coal and iron from that great mineral region to New York, Canada, and the Western States, and will be a source of largely in- creased business to the Erie Railway. The growing scarcity of wood for locomotives has been a source of much anxiety, but with the opening of the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburgh Railroad, and the supply of coal from other tributaries of the Erie, a source of much disquietude will be removed, as the supply of coal will be ample for fuel, and the cost between the supply of wood and coal for locomotive use will be at least one-third in favor of the latter article." Increase in expenses was explained by a great ad- vance in the price of coal, " of which a large amount is now used in the engines " ; by increase in the cost of repairs, due to " the large amount of new iron laid down in 1864," 20,480 tons having been put down at a cost of $2,132,725.01, while in 1863, 13,967 tons cost but $817,609.67, a difference of only 6,513 tons, but a difference in cost of §1,315, 1 15-34- The average cost of railroad iron in 1863 was $58.66 a ton; in 1864 it was $105. The amount of new iron estimated to be required for 1865 was io.OOO tons, at the existing price, $105 a ton. 1865. Increase in freight traffic, particularly through West and way East, and in passenger traffic of all classes, but particularly way, was noted. Increased expenses were due to enhanced cost of fuel; substi- tution of steel for iron in renewal of axles and tires; and general improvement of bridges, ties, and bal- lasting. There had been a great decrease in the cost of railroad iron, it having fallen to $90 a ton. Thus 20, 170 tons were laid in 1865 at a cost of $1,815,300, against 20,480 tons in 1864 that cost $2,132,725.01. During the winter and spring of the year there had been severe floods, more destructive in their effects than any that had ever occurred along the line. The new shops at Susquehanna were progressing, and $379,056.13 had been expended on them during the year. Depot, engine-houses, and shops were building at Salamanca, and had thus far cost - 145.72. The ferry-boat " Pavonia " was built and cost $121,216. The branch roads leased and operated were the Buffalo Division, Corning to Buffalo, 140 miles; Rochester Division, 18 miles; Canandaigua and Elmira, 66 miles; Hawley Branch, 16 miles; total, 240 miles, which, with main line, Jersey City to Dun- kirk, 460 miles; Piermont Branch, 18 miles; New- burgh Branch, 19 miles; Northwestern Division, Hornellsville to Attica, 60 miles, gave 797 miles of track in the Erie system. The Wallkill Valley Rail- road was operated, but not leased. " Negotiations are now in progress for the transfer of freight at New York and Jersey City by contract, based on the actual tonnage. It is expected that this will result in large reduction of expenses at these points. If so, similar contracts will be made at other large stations." 1866. " The $3,000,000 first mortgage bonds mature and become payable July, 1S67. Previous to their maturity it is the intention of the Company to invite 146 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES pr< : their extension fur thirty years at ~ per cent, under authority given by the State of New- York." 1 notice was given April 1. [867. lad was never in a better condition to transact business with economy and dispatch, and although the net results of last year have fallen short of expectation of the Board, yet that result is mainly attributable to causes which will be inoperative in the future, prominent among these the fact of the suspension of the transportation of coal for the Penn- sylvania Coal Company for a period of three months and a half, resulting not only in loss of profits due to that business, but also involving this Company in a penalty of upward of $98,000, the liquidated dam- ages for non-compliance with the contract between the two companies. This contract has since been modified and arranged to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. " Ruinous competition between competing lines during the first six months of the year also seriously lessened the profits of the year. The heavy govern- ment and local taxes have been a serious drain on the revenues of the Company. The dilapidated con- dition of the Buffalo Branch and its equipment at tlie time they came into the possession of the Com- pany, have cost upward of S 1 ,000,000 to put in good condition." Hugh Riddle, General Superintendent of the rail- road, reported December 31, 1866, that " the condi- tion of the motive power and equipment of the road will, I am confident, compare favorably with any road in the country, and reflect credit on the officers in charge of that department. The track, roadway, and bridges throughout the whole extent of your road have very perceptibly improved during tin- past year, until I feel warranted in saying that the Erie Railway is in better condition and better equipped than at any period during the past ten years. Trains have run with great regularity and exemption from idents, with the exception of a few casualties attending the movement of oil in bulk." (This report of the condition of the railroad and its equip- ment is interesting in view of the report made on the same subject a few months later, as will appear. — Author.) Miller's car platform, coupler, and buffer was adopted on passenger trains, and was described as " a movement in the right direction, and has already in several instances averted serious damage and per- haps loss of life." (Miller's platform, coupler, and buffer, the invention of Dr. Ezra Miller, of Mahwah, N. J., will be remembered as the first great improve- ment in that class of railroad equipment. By it the platforms were brought close together, easing the jolting and jerking in starting and stopping of trains, and forming a perfectly smooth and safe passageway from one coach to another. As it was a continua- tion of, ami on a direct line with, the sills of the coaches, the danger of telescoping of trains in case of collision was greatly lessened. This attachment was not superseded by anything better for a score of years. — A uthor. ) JOHN S. ELDRIDGE. CHAPTER XV. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN S. ELDRIDGE— 1S67 AND 1868. Drew's Defeat Only Apparent — A Truce Between Him and Vanderbilt Broken, and Drew Resumes Mis Former Status in Erie — Vanderbilt Undertakes to Capture Erie by Buying Up its Stock, and Runs Against Drew and the Erie Printing Press — The Eamous Coir, of Millions of Bonds into Stock that Drew Delivered to Vanderbilt Greatly to the Eatter's Loss and Chagrin — Then the Lonr. of Suits, Cross-suits, Injunctions, and Counter-injunctions— Judge George G. Barnard and Erie — Flight of President Eldridge, Drew, Gould, Fisk, and the Erie Treasury to New Jersey — The Erie Scandal Reaches the Legislature, and Breeds New Scandal There — The Surrender of Drew, and the §5,000,000 Settlement with Vanderbilt— Official Story of it All. WHILE Daniel Drew's apparent fall was by no means a cause for regret to the true friends of the Erie Railway Company, it had to them a dreadful significance as the beginning of that ascendancy of the Vanderbilt interest in the Company that they had long feared. Vanderbilt domination meant entire subordination of the Erie and its interests to the New York Central. It was not long, however, before the outside friends of Erie were still further mystified by the resignation of one of Vanderbilt's partisans in the Directory (Underwood), and the election of the deposed Drew to the vacancy, a move that was promptly followed by the great speculator's appoint- ment to his old place as Treasurer. It is held to-day by many who say they have good reason to know, that the rumored alliance of Drew and Vanderbilt was not merely a rumor, and that the deposing of Drew by Vanderbilt at the October election was simply a collusive trick to deceive the public. As proof of this they point to the quick restoration of Drew to place and power in the new Erie manage- ment. Others who claim to know as much about the truth of the situation as any one else declare that the overthrow of Drew by Vanderbilt was bona fide, and that Drew, ever wily, diplomatic, and plausible, had secured his own restoration to power. The weight of evidence is in favor of the ante-elec- tion compact; but no matter which was the fact, the result could be but the same to Erie — misfortune, shame, pillage. Vanderbilt and Drew operated in the Street together — or, at least, not in opposition — for nearly half a year. Then suddenly it became known on the Street that Vanderbilt had resolved to get absolute control of the Erie Railway Company as the best means to carry out his private ends as well as to control matters in relation to the New York and Chicago connection. This determination, it was further asserted, had been brought about by the fact that the new President of the Erie Railway Company had not carried out his part of the pro- gramme agreed upon between him and Vanderbilt. It seems that as time passed the new President had become greatly impressed with the genius of Daniel Drew, and as the Vanderbilt succession to Erie had not assumed a condition of certainty that warranted longer alliance with the Vanderbilt interest, the manipulator of the Boston, Hartford and Erie scheme transferred his allegiance to the sagacious Drew. General Diven brought before the Board of Direct- ors, December 4, 1867, the question of the broad- gauge connection with Chicago, and offered a reso- lution authorizing the President, Vice-President, and Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company be a com- mittee to act on such recommendations as the com- mittee might make in the matter. The resolution was adopted. This committee made its report Feb- ruary 18, 1868, which was an agreement with the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Company for the laying of a third rail from the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad from Cleveland to Toledo and westward, thus forming a broad-gauge route to Chicago, and for operating the line. The agreement was approved ami signed by President Edridge, of the Erie, and E. P. Phillips, President 14S BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Raili mpany. All these things set Cornelius Vanderbilt to think- The more he thought, the more the transgres- f Daniel Drew and the deviousness of his ways as between man and man appeared to him in all'their enormity. Something must be done to stop Daniel Drew in his career, and, incidentally, to open an easier way to proprietorship in Erie. February 17. [868, something was done. On that day Frank Work, the member of the Board of Erie Directors elected in the Vanderbilt interest, applied through his attorneys, Rapallo & Spencer, to Judge George G. Barnard, of the Supreme Court of New York, for an injunction against the Board of Directors of the Erie Railway Company, to restrain them from the settlement of certain outstanding accounts between Daniel Drew, Treasurer of the Company, and the Company itself. These accounts were the ones re- sulting from the transaction between Drew and the Board in 1866, and which had not yet come to settle- ment. This action was begun in the interest of Y.mderbilt as incidental and auxiliary to his efforts to buy a majority of Erie stock, as it might guard him, as he said, " against any increase of the gross amount of that stock through a repetition on the part of Mr. Drew of his former ingenious expedient," meaning the conversion of bonds into stock. The injunction was granted, and, two days later, Vander- bilt made another assault on Drew and the Erie, under the statute authorizing the removal of officers or directors guilty of misconduct, and petitioned before Judge Barnard, through Attorney-General Marshall B. Champlain, in the name of the people, for the removal of Daniel Drew as Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company. The grievance that prompted this move on the part of the Vanderbilt interest was, that although they had been buying Erie stock right and left for weeks, they found the market still flooded with it, and there seemed to be as much of it for sale as if never a single share of Erie had been sold. Vander- bilt traced the responsibility for this prodigality in Erie shares to the resourceful Drew, and found that something had to be done at once to block the game of that wily speculator. On the very day this last Vanderbilt move was made, February 19, 1868, the Erie Board of Directors passed this resolution: It being necessary for the completing, finishing, and oper- ating the road of the Company, to borrow money. Resolved, Thai under the provisions of tin- statute authorizing the loan of money lor Mich purposes, the Executive Committee be authorized to borrow such sum as may be necessary, and to issue therefor such security as is provided for in such cases by the laws of this State: and that the President and Secretary he authorized under the seal of the Company to execute all needful and proper agreements and undertakings for such purposes. This was immediately followed by the issuing of S;, 000,000 in convertible bonds, which were at once converted into stock, and this was fed to the Street through the brokerage houses of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co., Robinson, Cox & Co., and William Heath. In the petition for the removal of Drew as Treas- urer of the Erie Railway Company, the main charge of misconduct against him was that he and other Directors " had induced the Erie Board to lease and contract to complete a certain worthless connecting road, mainly owned by them, and known as the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad. Having done this, they had then, since January 1st, pro- cured the issue of a large amount of Erie stock in exchange for the stock of this road." The Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad was a road extending from the main line of the Erie at Carrollton, N. V., 60 miles east of Dunkirk, the building of which the Erie Railway Company had insured by endorsing its bonds. This agreement was made January 1, 1866. In the time when Charles Minot was General Superintendent of the Erie, certain persons not entirely disinterested in the same Company, purchased large tracts of land in McKean and other counties in Pennsylvania, which were alleged to be valuable coal lands. To develop the territory a railroad was necessary. The Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad Company was formed, but very little was ever done toward completing it until the Erie Railway Company leased it and practically assumed all its responsibilities by agreeing to buy its 7 per cent, construction bonds, which were convertible into stock. This was done, and the stock exchanged at 80 for Erie stock at par. THE STORY OF ERIE 149 Vanderbilt's allegation was that " the Buffalo, Brad- ford and Pittsburg Railroad was not properly under lease to the Erie Railway Company, and that Daniel Drew had obtained the issue of the Erie stock simply to throw it on the market." Judge Barnard, on this petition, issued an order suspending Drew from his office of Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company, and ordered him to appear on February 21st and show cause why the prayer of the petitioner should not be granted, the same day having been fixed by Judge Barnard for further hear- ing in the proceedings begun by Director Frank Work. Drew appeared, with David Dudley Field, John E. Burrell, Dorman B. Eaton, Clarkson N. Potter, and others as his counsel. A motion to dis- miss the writ for want of jurisdiction was denied by Judge Barnard. Both hearings were postponed, and on March 3d Judge Barnard granted an injunction restraining the defendants from an} - further conver- sion of bonds into stock, or from issuing any capital stock in addition to the 241,058 shares appearing in previous reports of the Company, and from issuing or hypothecating any of the Boston, Hart- ford and Erie bonds that the Erie Railway Company had endorsed and guaranteed, and from proceeding toward carrying out the agreement with the Michi- gan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Com- pany in respect to the construction of the broad- gauge railroad from Akron to Toledo. The writ also ordered Daniel Drew to restore to the Erie Rail- way Company the 58,00x3 shares of stock delivered to him in May, 1866, and the 10,000 shares received in exchange for the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg bonds. March 10th was named as the day for a hear- ing on this and all the previous proceedings in the Vanderbilt-Drew embroglio. But injunctions did not worry Daniel Drew. In spite of this one, he converted $5,000,000 of bonds into Erie stock, and put the proceeds on the Street. In less than two weeks the Street had taken 100,000 shares of Erie, for which $7,000,000 had been paid. and Vanderbilt and his friends got the most of it, besides the 58,000 shares issued by Drew in 1866. If they had not made their contracts good, which they did at great loss, a wild panic would have resulted. As it was, the excitement and demorali- zation made by this continuous flow of Erie stock caused both Exchanges to take action against it. They ordered officially that no certificates of Erie stock bearing date after March "th should be a good delivery, or recognized in any way. This had an effect that the solemn orders of the court had failed to produce. Before March 10th, the day set for a further hear- ing in the Vanderbilt suit, came round, Daniel Drew had prepared a surprise for his antagonists. On March 5th his counsel obtained from Judge Ransom Balcom of Broome Count}-, \. Y., an order suspend- ing Frank Work from the Directory of the Erie Kail- way Company, on allegation that he was acting in the Board against the interests of the Company, and in the interest of the New York Central Railroad Company, to the great injury of the former. Judge Balcom also issued a writ ordering all the parties in the proceedings already begun to appear before him at Cortlandville, N. Y., on March 7th, and staying all further proceedings meantime. March 7th there appeared in the public prints a report by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Erie Railway Company to the stock- holders, in which all the allegations made against the management of the Company in the Vanderbilt suits were denied, and which declared that the Directors had moved in entire good faith in all they had done in raising money, and for a purpose single to the interests and demands of the road. New rails were badly needed, a double track was rapidly becom- ing a necessity, better terminal facilities must be secured, new rolling stock must be purchased, ele- vators, ferry-boats, depots, etc., must be built. The Company had made a contract with the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Company, according to this statement, by which the latter was to put down a third rail on its road as soon as other parties had completed a third rail to Toledo, thus giving the Erie a through Chicago connection. To accomplish this the Board of Directors of the Erie Railway Company consented to deposit bonds of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company, issued under agreement between that company and the Erie Railway Company, as collateral with the parties who were to lay that third rail. The committee did '5° BETWEEN rill- OCEAN AND THE LAKES though, that those Boston, Hartford and Krie . ilue until they were endorsed by the Erie Railway Company to the amount of $5,000,000. 1 ol the Executive! ■ that by these charges the Erie Railway my was suffering deep and unjust injury was ntly strengthened by two letters of G Superintendent Hugh Riddle, which weir incorpor- 1 the report, and which made a most deplor- able showing for the condition and equipment of the road. He estimated that the property could not be sufficiently repaired and renewed for a less amount than I O; but, at the same time, the fact that the property of the Company should be in such a dilapidated state, with all the money the manage- ment had raised during the past two years for the ostensible and declared purpose of improving it. was a fact to weaken and discredit the Committee's state- ment. There can be no doubt of their further state- ment, however, that if they had consented to carry out the plans Vanderbilt had made for the future of Erie, the discreditable situation would not have been taken into the courts. The proceedings before Judge Balcom brought about another complication in this rapidly entan- gling state of affairs. When his writ was served on the plaintiffs, they, through Richard Schell, obtained from Judge Ingraham, of the New York Supreme Court in New York City, an order enjoining the I of Directors of the Erie Railway Company from : . or transacting any business whatever, without the presence of Frank Work in the Board. Then the Drew forces made a new move. Dudley Eield, on the morning of March 10th, went bi 1 Ibert. in Brooklyn, N. Y., with a petition by William Belden, of the Wall Street firm of Fi< ing that a combination to ruin the Erie Railway Company had been formed lius Vanderbilt, Richard Schell, Augustus Schell, William II. Vanderbilt, and others, among .. Barnard, Justice of the Supn . w York, and asking for a writ the parties in the previous suits from proceeding further, ng the Erie Directors, with the e: Frank Work, to discharge the duties of tin ii and directing the further issue of convertible bonds. Judge Gilbert granted the injunction, and fixed March [8th as the day for fur- ther hearing before him in Brooklyn. " Here was the turning point in the struggle," said Charles Francis Adams, Jr., in his scathing review of this chapter in Erie, which he tersely called " The Erie Railroad Row." somewhat incorrectly, as it was the Erie Railway row. " The wily Drew had again, in face of the courts and the Exchange, regardless no less of the processes of law than of the elements of morality, repeated the strategy of two years before. The stock of the road, of which he was Treasurer, fell fifteen per cent, in about as many minutes, and Vanderbilt and Wall Street realized that in selling • short ' so boldly, this ' Speculative Director ' had not reckoned without his host." The Vanderbilt- Drew litigation had now become so confused and entangled, with writs and motions and counter-motions, that when, on March 10th, the parties to the litigation came before Judge Barnard, counsel for both sides were bewildered as to what move to make next, and Judge Barnard adjourned the proceedings until March 14th. A bold and entirely unexpected coup was made by the Erie party on the 12th, which changed the whole course of these litigious events, the news of which fell into the Vanderbilt camp like a bomb. Probably restful under the uncertainty of judicial procedure, and believing that the situation had assumed a degree of complication that demanded heroic treatment, Dan- iel Drew-, accompanied by President Eldrid^e. Jay Gould, James Fisk, Jr., and all the other members of the Board of Directors except Alexander S. Diven, Frederick A. Lane, William B. Skidmore, and J. C. Bancroft Davis, fled from New York in the night, and took up his quarters in Jersey City, no1 forgetting to carry with him all the Company's books, papers, funds, etc. Directors Diven, Davis, ainl Skidmore were arrested and arraigned before Judge Barnard on charge of contempt of court. Dn w, his fellow-Directors, and all the books and papers of the Company now being out of the juris- diction of the New York courts and of legal reach of the Vanderbilt people, the proceedings in this remarkable litigation took a new turn. At the hear- ing before Judge Barnard in the matter of Directors THE STORY OF ERIE 151 Diven and Skidmore, Judge Barnard held the ac- cused in nominal bail, and issued an alias for the missing Directors, announcing that he would hold them in $500,000 bail each should they be brought before him. Horace F. Clark, of counsel for the Vanderbilt interests, asked for an order of court appointing a Receiver into whose hands the " seven to ten millions of dollars which had been realized from sales of Erie stock," in violation of an injunc- tion, should be placed, and the matter sent to a referee for a hearing. Against the protests of the Drew counsel, Judge Barnard issued the order re- quested, and appointed George A. Osgood Receiver. As Osgood was a son-in-law of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and a close personal friend of Judge Barnard, who stood charged in the affidavit made before Judge Gilbert with being an accomplice of his and Vander- bilt in the alleged Erie conspiracy, the appointment naturally prompted much suggestive criticism. The ink was scarcely dry on the order appointing the Receiver before counsel for the Erie Directors had obtained from Supreme Court Judge Clerke of Ulster County, on petition of George M. Diven of Elmira, an injunction staying all proceedings in the Receivership matter until the first Monday in April, 1868. The venue in this proceeding was placed in Steuben County. Proceedings in the matter of the injunction obtained from Judge Gilbert by the Drew party on the Belden affidavit came up before that judge on March 18th, as appointed, and he dis- missed the writ, declaring indignantly from the bench that he had been deceived into issuing it. Thus relieved from that injunction, the Vanderbilt contingent resumed operations on the old line, and filed a motion before Judge Barnard, on March 19th, for the purpose of having the question of the Re- ceivership settled. Judge Barnard issued an order citing the Drew party to appear before him and show cause why Judge Clerke's restraining order should not be vacated. The defendants answered this through counsel with another injunction, issued by Judge Clerke, which was so sweeping that it enjoined all further proceedings on the part of tin- plaintiffs in any of the actions already begun, and forbade the beginning of new ones, and restrained all actions in the appointment of a Receiver by the court, and enjoined all clerks of the Supreme Court of New Vork from entering any order for such appointment. In defiance of this writ, however, Judge Barnard proceeded in the Receivership mat- ter, and a clerk of the Supreme Court was found possessing sufficient temerity to enter on record this order for Osgood's appointment. But even if no further move had been made to interfere with his Receivership, Osgood would have had some diffi- culty in performing the duties of a Receiver, for the millions he was appointed to receive and adjudicate upon were safe in the watchful custody of the Erie fugitives across the Hudson, in an alien State, and it is not likely that they would hue gathered them together, hurried with them to the Receiver, and poured them into his lap. Osgood was not permitted, however, to enjoy even the empty honor of the place. An appeal from Judge Barnard's order was taken to the General Term. This was not argued until April 8th, but in the meantime, on March 27th, Judge Ingraham had granted an injunction, the tenth in this remarkable and by no means laudable litigation, by which Osgood was enjoined from acting as Receiver, pend- ing the appeal. The decision was handed down on June 30th. Judges Barnard and Cardozo sustained the appeal (Barnard having issued the original order of Receivership), and Judge Ingraham dissented. Pending this appeal, Peter B. Sweeny, of the ! main- Ring, had been appointed by Judge Barnard Receiver of the Erie Railway Company in place of Osgood, for what reason was not plain to the com- mon people. The popular excitement over the " Erie War," as these scandalous proceedings were called, was in- tense. The questionable operations of the principals in the litigation were supplemented by open insinu- ations that judges concerned in the matter were guilty of briber}- and corruption. The subsequent fate « • f at least two of the judges (Barnard and Car- dozo) went a great way toward substantiating these allegations, for they were removed in disgrace from their high office, on impeachment proceedings taken on charges among which these Erie scandals were much in evidence. '5- BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The anti-Erie party held that their cause was the hole one, and that it was the duty of the newspapers and the public to sustain it. The Erie party de- clared that theirs was the righteous cause, and that they were doing battle against monopoly, and eu- ro avert the evil consequences t.. the public which would result from the success of their adversaries. The Chamber of Commerce Favored the Erie side, on the ground that the success of Wmdcrbilt would result in the consolidation of the Erie and New York Central Companies, and in the placing of New York at the mercy of a gigantic rail- road monopoly. The flight of Drew and the rest did not strengthen the Erie cause in popular estimation. It was an admission that their contention was an untenable one. They had failed to justify the over-issue of stock, and to extricate themselves from the dilemma they made petition to the New York Legislature to legalize their acts, they having in the meantime obtained from the New Jersey Legislature an act legalizing domicile of the Company in that State. The Erie petition was referred to the Railroad Com- mittee of the New York Assembly, which held it in consideration three weeks, and then reported ad- versely upon it, which report was concurred in, M irch 27th. In the meantime, the Erie muddle and its scandals having become of common notoriety, the New York Senate had taken the matter up, and a special com- mittee, consisting of Senators Pierce, Bradley, Mat- toon, Chapman, and Humphrey, was appointed to examine into the condition of the Company and the charges of corruption made against its managers. (Page 445, "Under the Legislative Probe." 1 A majority and a minority report were the result of this investigation, the minority report sustaining the Erie management, and recommending the passage of the legalizing bill asked for. Senator Mattoon at first this report, with Senators Chap- man and Humphrey. The day before tin- committee lorted, however, he called on the- fugitive Erie officials at Jersey City, and submitted the report to them. This was on March 30th. According to ony given before the Investigating Commit! he told the Erie people that " the majority of the committee had found the thing all right, and thought it was an act of justice to the committee that some representative of the road should go to Albany and explain'away the prejudii nst the Erie bill." The Erie exiles in Jersey City had been hiding there under protection of the police, to be guarded :nst the possibility of being kidnapped by emis- saries of their opponents, and of being carried by force back to New York State. Fear of arrest had 1 prevented them from being properly represented at Albany, although Charles ( >'Connor, of Yander- bilt's counsel, guaranteed Daniel Drew immunity from arrest and safe return to Jersey City if he would simply appear for examination before the Investi- gating Committee, which he did not seem inclined to do. When Senator Mattoon submitted the re- port to them at the Taylor House, the Erie people decided that it would be well for some one of them to go to Albany and give attention to important business there. It was accordingly resolved that an attachment which had been issued against Jay Gould by Judge Barnard on Monday, March 30th, and which was returnable on Saturday, April 4th, should be submitted to, and the Messrs. Field, it was claimed, made an agreement with Sheriff James O'Brien that Mr. Gould should be present then, and that he should not be arrested before that time. Thereupon, on March 30th, Mr. Gould left Jersey City. It was given out at the headquarters of the Erie party in that city that he was on his way West to complete the arrangement with the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Company for the laying of the 87 miles of broad-gauge track from Akron to Toledo. On the morning of March 31st, however, the following despatch, received by David Dudley Field, threw the Drew faction into great trepidation, and confused the public as to the westward journey of Mr. Goul 1: Albany, March 31. 1868. David Dudley Field, New York: I run just arrested by tin- Sheriff, returnable Saturday. This is in violation of your agreement with the Sheriff. Bail, $500,000. Jay il' hi i' It seems that Mr. Gould had arrived at Albany on Monday and taken rooms at the Delavan House. This fact was telegraphed to New York by emissaries THE STORY OF ERIE 153 of the other side, and counsel for that side applied to Judge Barnard for the issuance of a writ to Sheriff Parr, of Albany, commanding him to arrest Jay Gould at once. The instructions to the Sheriff reached him at I o'clock Tuesday morning, and he took Mr. Gould into immediate custody at his room-, at the hotel. Erastus Corning, on notification from Gould, immediately became bail for Gould's appear- ance before Judge Barnard on Saturday, April 4th. On April 1st the Senate Committee made its re- port on the Erie bill, and Jay Gould's surprise may be imagined when he found that Senator Mattoon had changed his mind, and signed a report strongly censuring Drew, Eldridge, Gould, Fisk, and the rest, and approving of the charges made against them, the other signers being Senators Pierce and Bradley. Senators Chapman and Humphrey were left alone on the report recommending the legislation asked for by the Erie management — the very report Sena- tor Mattoon had exhibited at Jersey City, and which the Erie Railway Company had had printed at its own expense, as was sworn to before the committee. The popular explanation for this sudden change on the part of Senator Mattoon was that he had met with more encouragement from the Vanderbilt side than he had received from the Erie. The New York Tribune flatly charged that he had been paid $20,000 for changing his mind. This presentation of two reports by the Senate Committee on the subject, however, showed a feel- ing so different from that which had been a few days before expressed so emphatically in the Assembly, that the future of the legislation became of intense interest. Up to the making of the report by the Railroad Committee of the Assembly, the Erie inter- ests in this legislation had no apparent head or effect- ive direction, while the opposite side was ably represented in the lobby. So conspicuous had been the pressure of anti-Erie influence at Albany that on the day the Senate Committee made its two reports, and, after long discussion, decided by an impressive majority to refer both reports to the Com- mittee of the Whole for future action, E. M. K. Glenn, Member of Assembly from Wayne County, rose in his place and charged that " the Assembly report on the Erie Railroad bill was bought, and that a portion of the vote on this floor, in adopting said report, was bought." He declared that a mem- ber had offered him $500 if he would vote against the Erie bill; that another member had been offered $500 for a similar vote, and that still another had been offered $1,200. The New York Herald said in its money article of April 1st: The scene in the Assembly to-day when the pot called the kettle black on the subject of bribery and corruption in con- nection with tin- recent adverse report of the Railway Com- mittee on the bill legalizing the acts of the Erie Company, excited much amusement in the Street, and it goes to show, if the assertions of Mr. Glenn are true, that the "unanimous vote " of the Committee against the bill, and the vote of the My accepting the Committee's report, were paid for in the Central interest. Mr. Gould was taken from Albany to New York in the custody of Sheriff James O'Brien, and arraigned before Judge Barnard on April 4th. for a hearing on a charge of contempt of court. Although Judge Barnard and Vanderbilt's counsel were inclined to proceed summarily in the case, David Dudley Field, ex- Judge Pierrepont, James T. Brady, and others of Gould's counsel showed that the court was taking a course not strictly according to law or practice, and one that was likely to make future difficulty for itself, and the Judge decided that there appeared to have been a mistake, and he adjourned the proceed- ings until April 8th, but insisted that Jay Gould must execute a further bail bond, with two sureties who cotdd qualify in $50,000 each, and volunteered the declaration that if Mr. Gould were convicted on the charge, the court would order him to refund the whole of the $10,000,000 worth of Erie stock which had been issued in violation of the order of the court. Immediately after the adjournment of this action, the Sheriff was served with a writ of habeas corpus, commanding him to forthwith produce the bod_\- of Jay Gould before Judge Barrett of the Com- mon Pleas. All the eminent counsel on both sides were present at the hearing, and the arguments took up the time of the court until 6 o'clock, when Judge Barrett transferred the custody of Jay Gould from the Sheriff to an officer of the Court of Common Pleas, and appointed James A. ( )liver as such officer, to have charge of Gould until he should appear at the adjourned hearing before Judge Barnard on BETWEEN Mil- OCEAN AND THE LAKES n the liab >us case were put over until the morning of April ~\h. Im- iik- ter this result. Mr. Gould, being anxious return to Albany, was advised by counsel that he might do so. I lliver, the officer in charge of Gould. Vou are in my custody." ' But," replied Gould, " you may go with me. I will still be in your custody." That seemed to be satisfactory to the officer, and the two took a night train on the New York Central Railroad for Albany. On the way. Mr. Gould com- plained of illness, and his illness became more seri- ous as the journey continued. When they arrived Ylb. my, Gould immediately sought Ids room and sent for a physician, Dr. Julian T. Williams, a former Assemblyman from Chautauqua Count} - . Gould's condition remained such that on the night before he was to appear before Judge Barrett, Court Officer Oliver telegraphed to Judge Barrett that his charge was ill in bed, with physicians attending him, and that it was impossible to get him away. This was the first intimation Judge Barrett had that Gould was out of his jurisdiction. He expressed in indig- nant language his opinion of the situation, and ad- journed the case until Saturday, April ioth. .April ioth came, but Jay Gould did not appear before Judge Barrett. Oliver was present, though, and made affidavit that he had accompanied Jay Gould t y, and, on arriving there, .Mr. Gould had said that he was ill, and retired to his room. A physician was summoned, who reported that Mr. Gould could not return to New York, without grave risk to his health, in time for the hearing on April ioth; " but," the affidavit said, " Gould was able to attend sessions of the Legislature, and do business in his room with numerous nun." When Oliver insi the affidavit declared) that Mr. Gould should return with him to New York, Gould, on the advice of Hamilton Harris, his counsel, locked him- self in his room ami refused to hold any further com- munication with Oliver, and therefore the discom- fited officer v.. i- compelled to return to New York and face Judge Barrett alone. Tin: indignation of the Jud noring the pleas of emi- nent counsel for G mid, he issued an order directing Jay Gould and Hamilton Harris to appear before him on April 14th, to show cause why they should not he punished for their alleged misconduct. On April 14th the proceedin re Judge Bar- rett were resumed. Jay Gould was not there, hut he sent an affidavit denying Oliver's allegations, and insisting that he was too ill to leave Albany. He said he hail kept Oliver out of his room because Oliver spent his time in the apartments of Senators William M. Tweed and Thomas J. Creamer, who were antagonistic to Erie interests, and to whom he believed Oliver reported what occurred in his (Gould's) room. Hamilton Harris made an affidavit which was satisfactory to Judge Barrett, but the Judge was not so considerate in Gould's case, and postponed action on his order until Saturday, April 1 8th. In the meantime, a committee had been appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly to investigate the charges made by Assemblyman Glenn. The Com- mittee held one session. Mr. Glenn gave his sworn testimony substantially as he had charged in the Assembly, and another witness corroborated him. Mark Lewis, a notorious lobbyist, and Assembly- man Frear, whom Glenn mentioned as one that had accepted a bribe, swore that Glenn's testimony was false. The committee reported that the charges were not sustained, and Mr. Glenn resigned his seat in the Assembly. The action of the Senate on the Erie matter left the question in abeyance in the Legislature. Jay Gould, as will have been seen, remained in Albany. The bill as recommended in the minority report of the Senate Committee was introduced in the Senate. Before a vote upon it was reached the Yanderbilt opposition to it began to grow lukewarm, and finally disappeared entirely, much to the expressed indig- nation of many legislators. The bill having passed the Senate 1 Senator Mattoon being one of its sup- porters, he having had another sudden change of faith 1, when it came up for final action in the Assem- bly on April 29th the sentiment that had caused an almost unanimous rejection of it there only a month before had undergone such a radical change that it received the emphatic sanction of that body, and became a law. The aits of tin- Erie Directory w< re THE STORY OF ERIE 155 legalized. The Erie War was, for a time, ended, and the Erie exiles returned to New York. The sudden withdrawal of the Vanderbilt opposi- tion to the Erie bill was a mystery to many. One reason, which found much credence, was said to be- that Vanderbilt had suddenly discovered that he himself held several millions of the stock he was seeking to prevent being made a legal issue, and that if he succeeded in his fight he would be a loser to just that amount, so he withdrew his forces that he might protect himself. This reason for the with- drawal of the Vanderbilt opposition is believed to be the true one by many persons to this day, but the absurdity of it should be obvious. The fact is, negotiations for a settlement between Vanderbilt and, ostensibly, the Erie Railway Company, but in reality Daniel Drew, had been begun, with a good show of success, and the terms of the proposed set- tlement were so advantageous to the Vanderbilt party that they were content to let the Erie people secure the legislation they were seeking. While Gould was at Albany engineering Erie's affairs there, Drew was making stealthy visits to New- York and consulting with Vanderbilt. The result of these clandestine meetings he reported to Eldridge, and by the time matters were settled at Albany a plan of compromise with Vanderbilt had been out- lined. Gould had his reasons for not wanting to compromise with Vanderbilt, and, of course, Fisk agreed with Gould; consequently it was attempted to be made without the knowledge of those two Directors, and a meeting was secretly arranged to be held at the residence of ex-Judge Pierrepont on an evening in the early part of June, 1868, no record being available now to fix it exactly. President Eldridge had made an appointment to meet Gould and Fisk at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, the very night that meeting of the Directors was to be held. The two men called at the hotel according to appoint- ment, but Eldridge was not there. Then Gould suspected that rumors he had heard might have some foundation, and he and Fisk went to the Pierrepont residence. There they surprised the Erie Board and counsel in conference with Vander- bilt and his counsel, and after making, as they declared, vain protest against the transaction and tlie mystery of it, they acquiesced in the settlement, although, according to the sworn testimony of Fisk, they protested to the last that it was illegal and would breed further trouble — which it most surely did. < >n the [2th of June, 1868, on motion of Charles A. Rapello, of the Vanderbilt counsel, the various charges against the Erie party — all of which had been decided against them on appeal — were dismissed, and on July 2d the settlement with Vanderbilt was made final. By this settlement Vanderbilt was paid a subsidy of $1,000,000 in cash and guaranteed Boston, Hartford and Erie bonds, and $5, 000,000 of the Erie shares he held were bought back from him at 70, the cash equivalent being $3,500,000. Van- derbilt was also allowed to have two seats in the Eric Board, and Drew was to retire. Richard Schell and Frank Work were paid $429,250 in cash, to recompense them for the losses they alleged they had sustained in speculating in Erie through Daniel Drew's manipulations against them. There had been nothing for a Receiver to receive, and as a balm for his not having had a chance at the Erie treasury, Peter B. Sweeny, who had been appointed to an impossible task, was paid $150,000. These difficulties and scandals had primarily been inflicted on the Erie Railway Company by Daniel Drew in his individual capacity, working for his own inter- ests, but their enormous cost was paid from Erie's beleaguered treasury. The cost in lawyers' fees to tin- Erie of this " War" also ran up into the hun- dreds of thousands, as may well be imagined from the calibre of counsel engaged in the Company's behalf — David Dudley Field, Thomas G. Shearman, Dudley Field, ex-Judge James K. Porter, Dorman B. Eaton, A. F. Smith, and a host of other legal lights. What the legislation this disgraceful " Erie War" made necessary cost the Company is known only to those now living who were in the secrets of that shady chapter in Erie history. The last act in all the blustering, opera-bouffe in- cidents of the Erie litigation of [868 occurred on June 30th of that year, when Judge Barnard, whose feelings had been so frequently lacerated by insinua- tions, if not positive charges, of counsel that li by no means a party entirely disinterested in the 1,6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the anti-Eric litigants, fined Directors I »a> is, Thompson, and Skid- ich for technical contempt. The punish- mei ' inflicted on those larger defiers of the lity of the court. .Messrs. Drew, Gould, and Fisk, Judge Barnard took further time to consider. What penalty he decided upon was never known, for he never announced it, and with the confirmation, on the same day, by Judges Barnard and Cardo sitting with Judge Ingraham in General Term of the Supreme Court, of the action of Judge Barnard in the appointment of Charles A. Osgood as Receiver of the Erie Railway Company, the curtain fell on the costly and malodorous farce. The documents of the Company bearing on this almost incredible chapter of Erie history tell the story in cold detail and sequence, but establish its facts by the incontrovertible seal of official authority. GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT RIDDLE TO PRESIDENT ELDRIDGE. Office of General Superintendent. New York. March 3, 1868. Hon. John S. Eldridgc. President line Railway : Sir: — On the 3d of December I addressed a communication to the Vice-President recommending the purchase of 5.000 tons (if steel rails, and at an interview with you. I expressi d the opinion that 15.000 to 18,000 tons of rails would be re- quired for the repairs of track during the year 1868. Since that opinion was given, we have passed through three months re winter weather and moved more than an average winter tonnage, with the road bid frozen solid a- a k, the rail- encased in snow and 1 hat it lias been imp. . do much in the way of repairs; the iron rails have en. laminated and worn out beyond all precedent, until ther ile of your road, except that laid with sti 1 rail ind Salamanca or Buffalo, w : . it is -;'\ en moderate steam pressure, and sure to break down if run long distances, Two THE STORY OF ERIE 157 hundred and twenty engines have performed over ten years' service, and 143 of that number over fifteen years' service. The master mechanics report 128 of these locomotives as requiring new boilers, and recommend the complete reconstrucl 107 of the number, whenever the boilers shall be renewed, or in other words, instead of giving the old engine a new boiler, it is deemed more to the interest of the company to construct a complete new engine, for the following reasons: M these engines are of the kind known as half crank engines, an expensive and troublesome class to keep in repair. The engines having been so long in service, no dependence can be placed upon the strength and durability of any of their parts — they are of a great variety of patterns, and make it necessary to keep a very large stock of materials on hand to provide against breakages, there being something Over sixty different kinds of engines on the Erie road. It will be seen by the foregoing that the company have only 300 serviceable en considerably less than that of really efficient ones. From 15 to 25 per cent, are in shops undergoing rep linarily, at this season often a large proportion. Our mechanics estimate the life of an engine at fifteen years. Assuming that to be true, we should build twenty every year to keep our 300 good, to say nothing of the seventy now idle and wen: but as we have added by purchase and construction only twelve new engines to our stock during the last two years, we are at the present moment some twenty-eight engines short of what we should have to make good the depreciation. In view. therefore, of the certain increase of the coal tonnage, and prob- able increase of both through and way traffic, I feel justified in saying that there should be fifty new locomotives added to the equipment of the road during the next twelve months. In the company's shops at Susquehanna and Dunkirk, if worked to their capacity, with slight increase of machinery, it mated thirty engines per annum can be built^at present we are working only force sufficient to build about one-third of that number. The engines built in the company's shops, in point of strength, durability, and perfection of workmanship far excel those procured from locomotive builders, and 'while their cost may fully equal, perhaps exceed, the price for which similar engines may be contracted for. I yet deem it good policy to fully employ our own facilities for the construction of engines. To fill out the number I have ventured to suggest as needed, twenty will be required outside of the company's ability to construct. These I would contract for to be built after fications and plans, to be furnished by the company's officers and under the inspection of a good mechanic to be si and paid by the Railway Company. In this way I think we could obtain satisfactory machines. I also deem it necessary to recommend an increase of freight and coal cars. Say 300 box freight cars and 100 coal cars in addition to those heretofore ordered. The coal cars are sure to be needed, and the box freight cars, unless the freight traffic should fall off contrary to all expectations. Respectfully, your obedient servant. H. Riddle. General Suft. P. S.— Since writing the foregoing report. I have learned from General Potter that he is desirous of establishing stock yards at Urbana and Cincinnati, on the line of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway. and taking stock for the New York market, that has hitherto gone via Pittsburgh, provided the Erie will furnish her full proportion of stock cars. This we cannot do without adding, say, 200 stock cars to our present number, and to meet this and other demands, I would respect- fully submit the following estimate for new cars: 300 box cars, at $800 $240,000 200 box cattle cars, at $900 180,000 100 coal dumps, at $625 62.500 $482,500 THE WAIL OF DREW. (Report of the Executive Committee, made to the Board March 9, 1868.) The Executive Committee beg to submit to the Board of Directors a separate report of their doings under the powers conferred upon them by the Board, on the 19th day of Feb- ruary last, by the following: It being necessary for the finishing, completing, and operat- ing the road of the company, to borrow money — Resolved. That under the provisions of the statute author- izing the loan of money for such purposes, the Executive Com- mittee be authorized to borrow such sum as may be neci and t.> issue therefor such security as is provided lor in such cases by the laws of this State, and that the President and Secretary be authorized, under the seal of the company, to execute all needful and proper agreements and undertakings for such purposes. Early in the winter the President called the attention of the Committee to the condition of the road, and to the probable wants of the company during the coming summer. At several sessions of the Committee the subject was informally consid- ered, .in.l it »;i< discussed, as well between the members of the Committee as with Mr. Riddle and the Vice-President, and it was substantially agreed to by all. that the best interest of the company called upon us, so far as we might be able to do so. to replace iron with steel rails whenever removals were made, and to double track the Delaware Division also with steel rails. It was also supposed that the new storehouses now being constructed for the Central and Hudson River Railroad, in St. John's Park, would give them such an ad- vantage over us in the transportation from storehous< heavy freight destined for competing points in the West, that we should be forced to construct equally good accommoda- tions at Long Dock. Several private parties were in negotia- tion with us for the privilege of erecting such storehouses, as well as of erecting grain storehouses and elevators, but we thought it the best policy for the company to own the build- possible. The Superintendent had also informed us that the new equipment was needed for increasing business of the company, and we had informally determined that when these things should so take shape that we could make a definite report thereon to the Board, we would advise that the neces- sary capital be raised by the sale of the convertible bonds of the company, under the powers conferred upon the company by the General Railroad Law. Of the power to issue such bonds, and of the right to comply with the terms of such a contract by authorizing the conversion of such a bond into stock, we did not entertain a doubt. Our predecessors had claimed and exercised the right of increasing the capital stock of the company by conversion of bonds as early as iSVi?. and had reported the same to the Legislature, and had continued to exercise the right and to report their action to the I lature without criticism. The Xew York Central Company i;s BETWEEN Till: OCEAN AND THE LAKES sed the same right also to the amount of over oo. and had from I rted their domes [h iny, in the settlement, twelve hundred such I" .iul>. at the price paid for them. the settlement, it was further an that Mr. Drew should retire from the Board and the Treasurer- ship, and should pay the company for a discharge and release under his contract, the sum of live hundred and fifty thousand rs, with interest adjusted to date of settlement. 4th. That in order to raise means to take -lock from Mr. Vanderbilt and other parties, arrangements have been made temporary k, with the usual margin of ten per cent. jth. I also report a form of contract agreed upon with the Vici '. of the Boston. Hartford and F.rie Company. irry out tl irrangement, which I ask authority to have executed and delivered as follows: Memorandum of an agreement made the ninth day of July, A.D., 1S6S, by and between the Erie Railway Company, party of the first part, and the Boston, Hartford 6V" Erie :', party of the second part. Whereas, in and by an agreement between the parties hereto, and Dudley S. Gregory and J. C. Bancroft Davis. Trustei dated (Jet' 'her 8. 1S67. it was agreed, among other things, by the party of the first part hereto, that the interest upon said bonds should be paid, as will more particularly appear by refer- ence to said last named agreement. And. whereas, afterward a certain other agreement supplementary thereto was enured into between the parties hereto. dated the [8th day of December last, whereby, among other things, it wa- agreed that certain of the rtgage bonds should be deposited with certain parties loaning their property to John S. Eldi ' to aid in the construction of the road of the party o' the second part, as col lateral security for the repayment of the said loans, and such bond- have been di as collateral to the amount of five hundred and thirty-seven bonds, each for the amount of one thousand dollars, as will more fully appear by reference to the lemental agreement, and the several agreements wit'i the parties so loaning their property. And. whereas, the said lents having been made the subject of litigation, the .rning the same have been settled and adjusted upon terms, part of which are hereinafti sed. it is agreed between the parties as follow-: I hat the ninth clause of the said agreement, dated Oct and hereby is. so modified and changed, that the party of thi agree in mam thereii pre ided, w ith I nl of five millions of dollar-, in lieu - therein t the interest on their id rding to the terms of the coupi -"' 1 arty of the first part shall, and hereby doth, pur^ irty of the second part, who doth sell thi sa» j ' irty of tin- first part, the entire is^uc of the said ind dollars each, upon which tli' nl with thi of i- indoi including llateral, and dol •" I of eight hundred do each bond of >,,,„ j dollar- on den u i tin- bakn. hundred and fifty thousand each mom icing on the fir-t day of January 110.1, and continuing until the full sum of five million- of dollar- 1- paid. Coupon- maturing after the time of each payment, belong to the party of the first part. 3d. Except as herein modified, said original agreement-. and said agreements supplementary thereto, shall stand in full force. SADDLING THE B., H. & E. BONDS ON ERIE. from General J Wren's Testimony before tin- Hepburn In- vestigating Committee, 1S79.) During Mr. Berdell's admin: the Erie was always embarrassed in it- New England trade for want of communi- cation. They had only a water communication, while the New VTork Central had a 1 ommunication. The Boston, Hartford and |->:e Railroad Company contemplated a con- nect:' 'ii 1 id with ih. I rie at Xewburgh — with the New burgh Branch. A good deal of their railroad had b constructed bj different companies, 1'hc-c companies had been consolidated, and they had a completed road to Willi- mantic, but lacked a link from there to Danbury. upon which a good deal of work was done, ami they wanted to finish it from Danbury to Xewburgh. They presented the condition of their road to the Erie Director-, and ask-d us to aid them to com- plete that road. Myself and Mr. Gregory were appointed a committee to ton and examine the lin 1 and ascertain by estimates the probable cost ol completing it to Xewburgh. We satisfied ourselves of the value of the line. They had a great deal of excellent work — an excellent road, and some of it in operation. Our estimate of the amount necessary to complete it was $4,000,000 of the bonds of the Boston. Hartford and Erie Company, conditioned that the company would give the I rie Railway Cpmpany the right to fix the rates upon freight going from the Erie to their 1 which should be a fund going int.. the hand- of the Trust t.. meet the interest upon those bond-, h wa- onl) the in- terest on the bonds that wa to b guai inteed Hie re| further recommended that these bonds should remain in tin hand- of the Trustees, Mr. Bancroft Davis and Mr. Gregory, to be sold by them not below par, the proceeds <■• 1" by them and annually paid out upon voucher- for work done. That was the character of the report made, and ■ V0t< of the Berdell board wa- passed approving of it. and directing a ontl u 1 i" be drawn in accordance with that report. This was near the close ol Mr. Berdell's administration. Soon after the that administration and tin- inauguration of the Eld- ridge administration, 1 was told by Mr. Fisk to look out. Some difficulty had arisen between Fisk and Gould and Fid ridge. I wa- told b) Fisk to look out for Fldridgc: that he was going to get all of those bond-. I told Fi-k that lie could . iuld :i"t let him ha\ e them : thai 1 could not let him have them. lie said I was mistaken. What he said t" me led me t.. examim the contract, winch 1 found 1,, bi a ..'nil tcl for the guarantei millions instead 1 f the market was forced to succumb, and Erie closed at 61. That important events were bound to follow from this desperate battle seemed inevitable. They began on Tuesday, November 17th, when the courts were appealed to on behalf of the interests (at least osten- sibly) of the Erie stockholders. The standing of the parties who thus began a new Erie War lent no little strength to the belief that the action was what it professed to be. Suit was brought on that day before Judge Josiah S. Sutherland, of the New York Supreme Court, by August Belmont and Erastus B. Lucke, as bona fide holders of Erie stock, through Rapallo & Spencer, their attorneys, against the Erie Railway Company, Jay Gould, James Fisk, Jr., and the entire Board of Directors, recounting all the charges that had been brought against Daniel Drew and his associates in the Vanderbilt litigation, and making the new charge that the defendants had made a further illegal issue of stock to the amount of many millions of dollars, and that they had appropriated without legal right $7,000,000 belonging to the Erie- Railway Company in settling the Vanderbilt-Drew litigation. The petitioners asked for an injunction restraining the defendants from performing any fur- ther acts in their capacity as Directors of the Erie Railway Company, and for the appointment of a Receiver for the Company. The Belmont petition was accompanied by an affidavit made by Daniel Drew, in which he swore that he was guilty of the acts which had been charged against him in the Vanderbilt suits, and which he had then either denied or claimed had been performed under authority of law. He admitted the taking of 28,000 shares of stock in May. the issuing of $5,000,000 convertible bonds on Feb- ruary 19, 1868, and an equal amount on March 3d following, in which he affirmed he was aided and abetted by Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr., with whom he had signed an agreement to pay to them io4 BETWEEN nil'. OCEAN AND THE LAKES ■half of the profits that might result from any : 72 cents on the dollar for which the bonds were sold. The bonds were disposed of through the houses of Fisk & Belden, ami Smith, Martin & Co., , .1 So. Drew swore further in his affidavit that the defendants, Gould, ., anil Lane, had compromised the claim the Erie Railway Company had against him for the 2S.000 shares of stock by the payment by him of $1,000,000 and the further consideration of his resigning from the management. He charged them with having bought the resignation of President Eldridge in favor of Gould by taking from him $3,000,000 of Hoston, Har.tford and Erie bonds at 80; that Gould was Treasurer as well as President of the Company; that they had abolished the Hoard of Audit and placed Fisk in entire charge of that Department as Con- troller of Accounts; that they had received $40,000,- 000 by over-issue of stock; that they had paid 1 \000 for the Grand Opera House; $1,500,000 for nine houses adjoining it in Twenty-third Street; $300,000 for Lake Erie steamboats; $300,000 for Buffalo real estate, which was mostly in the names of Directors; and that Gould, Fisk, and Lane had received bonuses on these purchases amounting to $1,500,000. Drew also affirmed that he had con- spired with Gould, Fisk, Lane, and others of the Erie Board to lock up money to make it scarce on the Street, so that they might reap a great profit from speculation in Erie, and that he had put $1,000,000 in the pool, which he subsequently drew out, and then severed his connection with the clique. These developments intensified the panicky con- dition of Wall Street. The lock-up of money had been the one great disturbing and threatening ele- ment since the unsettled state of affairs began months before. With an easy money market the dangers of the formid; laught on values and contracts could have been gu ainst to a great extent, anil Id not have stood for months as if in momentary expectation of a financial earthquake; so, for I) Drew to deliberately and shamefully declare, undi 1 oath, that he had been a willing party to a conspiracy which had for its ends the damming of the natural monetary current of Wall Street — a proceeding which, if carried to its projected length, would have scattered widespread ruin and disaster anion- hundreds — was sufficient to bring down upon his head an avalanche of indignation which would have driven a more sensitive man into hiding. His confession of past misdeeds that he might drag his former Erie co-workers into the mire also reacted against him, although he had told nothing which common rumor had not long before settled upon as the probable truth of the Yanderbilt-Drew contest and its settlement. Every one knew that these things had not thus been put in the form of sworn testi- mony by Drew for the purpose of relieving his con- science or to disinterestedly aid the ends of justice. This tardy coming forward to lend a helping hand to the end that suffering Erie might be rescued from her alleged despoilers, now that he was no longer one of them, was proof positive that something had gone wrong in Daniel Drew's speculative calcula- tions, and that he was playing a bold and desperate game to extricate himself from a precarious situation. There were rumors a-many as to what his situation was, and when the facts came out later, the rumors were found to have been not far from the truth. Judge Sutherland, on the strength of the strong petition of Belmont and Lucke, and the affidavit of Daniel Drew, issued an injunction against Jay Gould as President, and all of his associates in the Erie management, restraining them from exercising any authority in the' management of the Erie Railway Company until further order of the court, and directed them to appear before him on November 20th, to show cause why a Receiver should not be appointed to take charge of the Erie Railway Company. Now it was that not only Wall Street but the world at large began to recognize the amazing genius of Jay Gould. He had embarked in an undertaking of the greatest magnitude. At the start he had adopted heroic measures. lie had at one stroke added millions to the capital stock of the Erie Kail- way Company beyond the amount fixed by law. He had converted bonds into stock through the firm of brokers of which he was the head, and as President and Treasurer of the Company, and Chairman of its THE STORY OF ERIE i6= Executive Committee, held the proceeds of these bonds at his own pleasure. He had started out to do certain things with the Erie Railway, and he was not to be balked by such a simple thing as an order of court. In fact, he had anticipated such an order and had provided against it. On Sunday, November 15, 1868, Daniel Drew called on James Fisk, Jr., at his office in the Grand Opera House. " He said," so Fisk's statement went, " that he had come to make a clean breast of it, and to throw himself upon our mercy. He was short of Erie stock 30,000 shares, he said. I told him I knew that, and that that was not half of it, for he was short in addition 40,000 calls. He com- plained bitterly of his position. He then entered into an explanation as to certain proceedings that he said were being got up by parties who were to attack us in the courts. He said he had been in the enemy's camp, and that all he cared about was to look out for number one. If we were willing to help him he said he would make a clean breast of it. I told him that his disposition and his nature were so vacillating that I should not trust him unless he made a clean breast to begin with. He finally, after much hesitation, said he would tell me. He said that Work, Schell, Lane, and Thompson were em- barked in a scheme with him. He refused to tell me in whose name the proceedings were to be insti- tuted. Upon inquiring closely of him whether the case was taken up on its merits or as a mere stock operation, he admitted to me that it was to relieve those who were short of this stock. I presented the idea to him as to what the others would do, and he said he could take the ringleaders with him if they were also provided for, and he would break up the whole scheme. " He begged and entreated that I should go and bring Mr. Gould, saying that he knew if he could see Mr. Gould he could benefit his position, and would tell us who were to be the plaintiffs in the suit. I tried to convince him that it was one of his old tricks, and that he was the last man who should whine at any position he had put himself in with regard to Erie. Finally I consented to go and get Mr. Gould, and did so. I was not present at the entire inter- view between Mr. Gould and Mr. Drew, but portions of the conversation that I heard were of the same nature as the one- that Mr. Drew had held with me. He also urged many arguments upon Mr. Gould and myself to induce us to help him with regard to the stock. I le stated to us that it was within our power to protect ourselves, but urged us to issue more con- vertible bonds, saying no one would know anything about it. "At this time he told us that a suit was to be brought in the name of August Belmont; that he was present at a meeting they had held the night previous, and heard the paper read. We told him over and over again that we could not help him. He would not leave us, but insisted on remaining. Mr. Gould and myself, unable to get rid of him in any other way, told him that we would meet him again at 10 o'clock that evening. We then parted. "Consequently, about ii o'clock, I found Mr. Drew waiting for us. At that time Mr. Gould was not present. I again told Mr. Drew that nothing could be done for him. lie said: Then, if you put up this stock, I am a ruined man ! ' He harped upon the fact that he was willing to pay a large amount of money for the use of 30,000 or 40,000 shares of stock for fifteen days, and offered me as high as 3 per cent., which would amount to nearly $100,000, for the use of it for fifteen days. Finding he could not induce us to accede to his wishes, he tried another tack, saying there was a conspiracy against us; that they would ruin us if they could ; that the}' would put the stock down at all hazards, and that if I would not agree to any- thing with him he would give his affidavit to the other side, having before this said he would not give his affidavit if I came to his rescue. 1 le said : " ' You know during the whole of our fight I ob- jected to ever giving my affidavit, but I swear I will do you all the harm I can do if you do not help me in this time of my great need ! ' "He also said : " ' You can loan me the stock. I will give you 3 per cent, for it. You have the power to issue more convertible bonds. I will buy the bonds from you if you are caught, or I will buy the bonds of 1 66 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES . with the understanding that I shall not pay for them unless you are caught.' " 1 p isitively and unequivocally declined his prop- i had on each occasion. After talking in this strain for more than an hour, I adhering to my decision that nothing could be done, he, at about I o'clock Monday morning, said: " ' I will bid you good-night!' " Then he went away." Whether or not it was through this pitiful self- humiliation of Daniel Drew that Jay Gould obtained the information about the coming Belmont suit, lie- certainly was forewarned of it, for when the order of Judge Sutherland to show cause why a Receiver should not be appointed for the Erie Railway Com- pany was issued, Tuesday, November i ;. (868, a Receiver had already been appointed! Monday, November i6th, hours before the Belmont proceed- ings had come up before Judge Sutherland, Charles Mcintosh i who was Superintendent of the Erie Ferry between New York and Jersey City) brought suit through Brown, Hall & Vanderpocl, his attor- neys, against the Erie Railway Company, Jay Gould, and all his associates in the Erie Directory, and against August Belmont, Richaid Schell, and others, " to have the law defined in reference to the legal powers of the Eric Railway Company in reference to the issuing of stock; to restrain the commencement of actions against the Company founded upon the issuing of stock; and for the appointment of a eiver of the Company's property," the plaintiff having been informed, so his complaint averred, that various persons had threatened to commence suits against the Company, under color of calling in ques- tion the right or power of the Erie Railway Com- pany to create and issue the stock as had been done, but in reality to destroy the value of Erie securities for stock-jobbing purposes. The plaintiff declared that he brought the action on behalf of himself and all other stockholders of the Erie Railway Company who might join in the action. Th ations of Mcintosh were supported by an affidavit of James Fisk, Jr., who swore that he was conversant with the business and affairs of the Erie Railway Com- pany, and had no doubt of the legal authority of the Company to issue all the shares of capital stock now tstanding. He charged that speculators in Wall Street had been for days active in efforts to depress the stock of the Erie Railway Company, and a-> a means to aid them had threatened to institute legal proceedings calling in question the acts of the officers of the Company in issuing shares of stock, which suits would greatly hinder the officers in the due and proper discharge of their duties. These proceedings were brought before Judge George G. Barnard — the same Judge Barnard who had indignantly fixed Jay Gould's bail at $500,000 in the Eric War of then recent date, and who had declared that if Gould were brought before him he would not only impose condign punishment upon him, but would compel him to refund the entire $10,000,000 alleged over-issue of stock, so horrified was he at the enormity of that offence! And Judge Barnard, the affidavits of Charles Mcintosh and James Eisk, Jr., appearing satisfactory to him, issued an order directing all the parties who were alleged to be on the point of bringing suit against the Erie managers to refrain from such action, and to refrain from obtaining orders from any court, judge, or jus- tice that would hinder, embarrass, or delay the officers of the Erie Railway Company in the man- agement of its affairs, and from applying for the appointment of a Receiver for the Erie Railway Company. After which deliverance, Judge Barnard ordered that Jay Gould be appointed Receiver of the Erie Railway Company, with full charge and custody of all its moneys, upon his giving bonds in $2,000,000 for the faithful discharge of the duties of his trust. This surprise for the anti-Gould faction was quickly followed by another, the result of which was the utter and disastrous rout of the hard-fighting clique that hail struggled for a week to force Erie stock back to its October quotation, in order that they might escape without loss from the predicament they h ul brought themselves face to face with by offend ing their late Erie coadjutors. November iSth, another petition of Jay Gould came before Judge Barnard. It referred to the charge made in the Bel- mont suit that 200,000 shares of Erie stock had been issued in excess of the amount authorized by law, THE STORY OF ERIE 167 and to the fact that the stock of the Company was then selling at about $54 per share ; that there were only 200,000 shares in the New York market, the balance being in Europe, so that if it should be decided judicially that this stock was illegally issued and must be withdrawn from the market, such with- drawal would in all probability carry the remaining shares to par and above. In view of such an event, Gould in his petition declared that the interests of the Erie Railway Company would be promoted by the purchase and withdrawal of such 200,000 shares, if they could be purchased at reasonable prices below par. lie asked, therefore, that the order appointing him Receiver be so extended as to authorize him to apply so much of the Erie Railway Company's money as might be necessary for him to use in with- drawing for the benefit of the Company 200,000 shares of the stock at prices not above par. This extension of the order was at once granted by Judge Barnard, and Jay Gould had the authority of the Supreme Court to use $20,000,000 of the Erie Rail- way Company's money, if necessary, to repurchase the Company's own stock at par which had been issued and sold at about 40! This at once insured the bull side of Erie. Yet the bears fought with the fierceness of gladiators to prevent the catastrophe. All in vain. November 24th the end came. Daniel Drew was forced to settle his contracts in Erie at $~, at a direct financial loss of $1,500,000, and an irrepar- able loss of prestige. The conflict cost the Erie clique a much greater sum than that, but the}- had won the battle and avenged themselves on Daniel Drew, in spite of his abasing, humiliating, pathetic appeal to them on that fatal Sunday to pity and save him. November 24th proceedings came before Judge Sutherland, upon motion on behalf of August Bel- mont, for an order to vacate all the Barnard injunc- tions, and the orders of the same judge appointing Jay Gould Receiver and authorizing him to purchase the 200,000 shares of Erie stock. Charles A. Rapallo, Dorman B. Eaton (late prominent among the Erie counsel), and ex-Judge Pierrepont appeared for the motions, and A. J. Vanderpoel, John E. Burrill, Clarence A. Seward, ex-Judge John K. Porter, and ex-Judge William Fullerton appeared in opposition. Jay Gould's affidavit, denying all the charges made in the Belmont affidavit of November 16th, was read. The argument continued all day and far into the night. It was plain that Judge Sutherland regarded the Barnard proceedings and the authority the)- im- posed on Jay Gould as anything but commendable. He granted the motion to vacate the Barnard injunc- tion and the order appointing Gould Receiver, and appointed Hon. Henry E. Davies, ex-Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of New York, Receiver of the Erie Railway Company. When the news of the vacation of the Barnard orders by Judge Sutherland was carried to the Erie officers their discomfiture was unmistakable, but they immediately prepared to bring into use other weapons they had at hand. Judge Barnard was first appealed to. The ink was not dry on Judge Suther- land's preliminary order in the Receivership matter when Barnard, ex-parte and out of Court, issued an order staying all proceedings under Judge Suther- land's order pending an appeal, this stay not to exceed twenty days. Before midnight of that day, at a suit brought against the Erie Railway Company by Henry B. Whelplcy, who, in his bill, described himself as a stockholder of the Erie Railway Com- pany, Judge Samuel Blatchford, sitting in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, had appointed Jay Gould Receiver of the Erie Railway Company. Under this appointment Gould was to give bonds in Si, 000,000, and the Erie Railway Company was ordered to transfer to him and place in his name $S, 000, 000 with which to pro- tect the rights of the plaintiff Whclpley and other stockholders. Gould's securities were Henry N. Smith, James Fisk, Jr., William M. Tweed, and Hugh Smith. The plaintiff's attorney in the suit was Clarence A. Seward. November 24th Field & Shearman, in the name of the Erie Railway Company, entered one suit against August Belmont, Ernest B. Eucke, Richard Schell, Daniel Drew, and Frank Work, and one against Daniel Drew, Richard Schell, and Frank Work. The first was on the affidavit of Jay Gould that the suit brought by Belmont and Lucke, ostensibly in the interest of Erie stockholders, was really to force BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the Erie Railway Company to pay them a large sum of money to ma i their losses in a stock-job- ation in Erie in October and November, In this suit the Erie Railway Company de- manded §1, 000,000 damages. The second suit was brought with the avowed intention of compelling the defendants to repay to the Erie Railway Corn- pan { .-'io, which, it was alleged, had been ex- acted from the Company in the settlement of the Drew-Yanderbilt suits, to make good their losses in the speculation that led to the first Erie War. •.his same day, on application of Clarence A. ard, Judge Barnard, in the suit of Belmont and others vs. The Erie Railway Company, in which Judge Sutherland had appointed ex-Judge Davies Receiver, granted an order removing the cause, so far as it affected James Fisk, Jr., from the State courts to the United States Circuit Court, and stay- ing all proceedings in the action in the State courts against Fisk. The effect of this was to leave Fisk in possession of the railroad as a Director, free from the control of Receiver Davies, provided that Re- ceiver Davies should ever get an opportunity for exercising any control by virtue of his appointment. This new move on the part of the Erie party was promptly met by their opponents. Judge Suther- land, on application of Charles A. Rapallo, granted an order on the defendants to show cause, Novem- ber 25th, why Judge Barnard's order should not be vacated. November 25th Judge Sutherland, ignoring the stay which Judge Barnard had granted in the case, settled the order of his appointment of Judge Davies as Receiver, making it absolute. This disposed of, Judge Sutherland vacated Judge Barnard's order granting the stay. Soon after these proceedings were settled, or, as it was charged, before they were entirely a complete part of the court records, a further stay was obtained by counsel on behalf of tin- Erie party, this time from Judge Cardozo, who made his order returnable November 30th. Not to lose any time, Receiver I 1 ivies, accompanied by his counsel, ex-Judge Noah Davis and Dorman B. Eaton, went at once, after the settlement of Judge Sutherland's order, to the Grand Opera House at Twenty-third Street and ;hth Avenue, where the offices of the Erie Rail- way Company had been established in resplendent quarters. If the Receiver had had visions ol inarch- ing triumphantly through the portals of the Opera House, serving his papers on a defeated and humili- ated President of the Company, and a despondent and unresisting staff of aids, and receiving from them the keys and combinations of the strong boxes, with every token of submission to his authority, thi visions must have vanished quickly when he arrived at the outer gate, for the gates were not only locked, but there was a body of men outside to guard them, and the countenances of those men were not gentle. In fact, they were of the class known in the parlance of the sporting gentry as "toughs." They were commanded by one "Tommy" Lynch, who knew a thing or two. When entrance was demanded by Receiver Davies, he was ordered to take himself off, and if an Eric Railway employee, who had known Dorman B. Eaton when he was one of the Erie counsel, and who had not heard that Mr. Eaton was now particularly under the ban of his recent em- ployers, had not from that recognition supposed the delegation was all right and proper, it is not at all likely that Receiver Davies would ever have had even a brief sight of the interior of the offices where he supposed he was soon to be himself enthroned. The employee passed the word to the guard, and the iron gate was opened. It was then an easy matter to get to the apartments of Gould and Fisk, who were in council with their advisers. The presence of Judge Sutherland's Receiver and his counsel in the office of Judge Barnard's and Judge Blatchford's Receiver was not at all expected by the latter or his friends, and it was followed by momentary suspense and embarrassment. This over, the visitors were received with some show of politeness, especially by Comptroller Fisk, who soon withdrew. The matters moving the visitors had not yet been more than referred to, when Erie's Comptroller returned. lie at once ordered the visitors to leave the build- ing. The}- refused. He summoned a number of " Tommy " Lynch's guard, and gave orders to them to forcibly eject the strangers from the place. The consummation of this act of violence was prevented by the prompt interference of ex-Judge Fullerton, THE STORY OF ERIE 169 Thomas G. Shearman, and others of the counsel. Quiet having been restored. Receiver Davies served his papers on Receiver Gould and the others, and gave notice that he had taken possession of the Erie Railway Company's property. Receiver Davies was then served with Judge Cardozo's order staying the proceedings pending a hearing on November 30th. This order Judge Davies disregarded, and, satisfied with having taken legal possession, he retired with his counsel, prepared to return on Friday and assume charge of affairs. Judge Davies must either have been of child-like simplicity or had learned nothing by experience with the managers of Erie; otherwise, he would have remained in possession while he had it. When he returned on Friday he could not regain it. The guards knew not his authority, and he never saw, in an official capacity, the inside of Erie's splendid halls again. The news of the action of Judge Blatchford in appointing Jay Gould Receiver of the Erie Railway Company had fallen like a bombshell in the camp of the Belmont party. Judge Blatchford's character and ability were of such a high order that his de- cision and prompt movement in the Whelpley case — Whelpley being an employee of the house of Smith, Gould & Martin — came with stunning force to those who had started in on their campaign against the new Erie managers with the apparent idea that the law would quickly and easily overthrow them, and rescue Erie from the alleged disaster toward which they were wildly rushing her. This sagacious move of Gould in taking the contest into the United States Court, and the gaining of the instant indorsement of his cause in that court through the medium of one of its most discreet and impartial justices, opened the eyes of his assailants to the fact that they had thrown down the gauntlet to one who had new and original ideas about such warfare, and who had no use for old weapons that had proved valueless, but forged new ones as he fought, and used them in un- expected and unprecedented ways. The advantage gained by Gould in Judge Blatchford's court being followed so quickly by his virtual turning out of doors of Judge Sutherland's Receiver, in defiance of all the writs and orders with which he was fortified, forced the further discovery upon the champions of the anti-Gould party that the genius of Gould held itself as something above even the law and its machinery, and that unless they quickly showed him how fatal his error was in this respect, he might so change the aspect of the contest that they them- selves would appear to the public as the real male- factors in the case, against whom and their wicked designs Gould was defending the rights, franchises, and treasury-of the Erie Railway Company. As soon as they could collect themselves, after the Blatchford proceedings and the cool ignoring and repudiation of ex-Judge Davies's claims as Receiver, Belmont's counsel made a countermove, November 28th, before Judge Nelson, in the United States Court. Two petitions were presented to him, one from August Belmont, citing the various alleged acts of Jay Gould against the true interests of the Erie Railway Company, and asking for the vacation of Judge Blatchford's order appointing him Receiver, and for his removal as such. The other petition was from ex-Judge Henry E. Davies, who related in detail his appointment as Receiver of the Erie Railway Company, his vain efforts to obtain pos- session of the property, and his prevention by force from the performance of his duties as Receiver, and prayed that he might be put in possession of the property by the action of the United States Court. Judge Nelson issued an order on all parties inter- ested to show cause on Monday, November 30th, 1868, why these petitions should not be granted. There had been great commotion in and about the Erie quarters at the Grand Opera House ever since the new war began, but on Saturday, Novem- ber 28th, the excitement, although under a state of repression, seemed to be more intense than ever. Jay Gould, his lieutenants, and the great army of eminent counsel had been in almost constant con- sultation for twenty-four hours. That some impor- tant, or at least sensational, move was being planned was evident. The guards at the iron gates were especially vigilant. A strong force of the city police was also on duty, as if it might be that some breach of the peace was not improbable. Process-servers were hanging about, watchful, and ready to thrust BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES their papers upon the persons named in them at the first opportunity. Reporters by the score were busy at the no-easy task of learning something of what ng on within the mysterious portals, and fill- their note-books with guesses. Politicians of note, and some of notoriety, flocked around the building, am! seemed to be the only ones whose cards could cause the iron gates to open. At midnight on the 28th the Erie magnates were busy within the locked and guarded privacy of the President's room, but soon afterward James Fisk, Jr., carrying a satchel, and accompanied by two of the Erie counsel, left the building, entered a car- :, and drove to the Twenty-third Street Ferry. The carriage was followed by a patient process- server, who had for hours longed for such an appear- ance. He succeeded at the ferry in serving Fisk with the papers in the proceedings of that day before Judge Nelson. Fisk and his party crossed the ferry. In the Erie yards at Jersey City a locomotive and a special car, plainly on previous order, were awaiting the party. Fisk and his companions entered the car. and were instantly whirled westward over the Erie. On Monday morning the New York newspapers and the press throughout the land startled the world with the announcement that James Fisk, Jr., Comptroller of the Erie Railway Company, had fled to Canada, bearing with him the funds and books of the Com'- pany, to escape the inevitable punishment that was awaiting him and his associates in the Erie manage- ment. Fisk got no nearer Canada than Binghamton, Broome County, X. A'. He telegraphed from there nial of his reported (light, and explained his hur- ried trip from New York by the statement that he - on business connected with a rolling mill which making rails for the Erie Railway Company. He was so much outraged by the published reports that he ordered the bringing of libel suits against -papers, claiming damages far up in the hundreds of thou of dollars. So far as the rec- ord none of these newspapers was ever called upon to 1 .if the damages claimed. Whatever business Fisk might have had with the rolling mill, it was not that business entirely that called him to Binghamton. Judge Ransom Balcom, of the Supreme Court, lived there, and on Novem- ber 30th, in proceedings brought in the name of the Eric Railway Company against its officers and Directors and the plaintiffs in the Belmont suits, he issued an order appointing Giles \Y Hotchkiss Ref- eree to examine into all the proceedings already in- stituted in the Erie litigation, and make report. The hearing under the order of Judge Nelson, of the United States Court, came up before him Mon- day, November 30th. Voluminous affidavits, offered by all the parties concerned, were read, among them a long one by Jay Gould, in which he denied all the allegations made by the plaintiffs; declared that the settlement in the Drew-Yanderbilt litigation had been against his protest and in spite of his opposi- tion ; that the treasury of the Erie Railway Com- pany had been left practically empty, and was in that condition when he and his associates came into control of the Company; that no new Erie stock had been issued by him or the management since the annual election, October 13th, and that the alleged over-issue had been necessary to meet per- emptory obligations of the Company, among them the acceptances for §3,500,000 given in payment of the Boston, Hartford and Erie bonds, by the terms of the Drew settlement with Vanderbilt. The argu- ment in the hearing was adjourned from day to daw While counsel were arguing the merits of the com- plicated issues of the new Erie War before Judge Nelson on November 30th, counsel for Gould and his associates applied to Judge Cardozo, a judge coordinate with Judges Sutherland and Barnard in the Supreme Court, for an order granting a stay in the matter of the Receivership of Judge Davies, and he issued a writ staying all proceedings thus far had before Judge Sutherland, and ordering the parties interested to show cause on Monday. December 7th, why they should not be vacated. Judge Sutherland promptly granted an order, in counter-proceedin for cause to be shown on Wednesday, December 2d. at 11 A.M., why Judge Cardozo's order should not be vacated. Judge Cardozo issued an order early Wednesday morning changing the hour to 10 a.m. This led to such complications that Judge Suther- land, disgusted with the entire proceedings, refused to have anything further to do with them, and THE STORY OF ERIE 171 handed the case over to the tender mercies of Judge Cardozo. Pending the weary dragging along of the argu- ments before Judge Nelson to settle the case of Erie, James Fisk, Jr., by way of giving variety to the war, and to show that the Erie management was deter- mined to exact justice though the heavens fall, began proceedings, December 10, 1868, against Cornelius Vanderbilt to compel him to take back the 50,000 shares of Erie he had surrendered in the Drew set- tlement, to repay the $3,500,000 paid him by the Company for the stock, and to refund the $1, 000,- 000 he received on the same compromise, all of which, the complainant alleged, Vanderbilt had wrongfully received from the Erie treasury at the hands of the men who had settled their individual embarrassments at the expense of the Erie Railway Company in July, 1868. Previous to commencing this suit," said James Fisk, Jr., in explaining matters to the court in one of the many hearings it had, " I made a tender of 50,000 shares of Erie stock to Vanderbilt. I went up to his house, in company with Thomas G. Shear- man. I received the certificates of shares from Gould, and put them in a black satchel. It was a bad, stormy day, so we got into a carriage, and I held the satchel tight between my legs, knowing it was valuable. I told Shearman not much reli- ance could be placed on him in case we were attacked, he was such a little fellow. We concurred in the opinion that it was dangerous property to travel with; it might blow up. We rang the bell and went in. The gentleman came down, and I said: " ' Good morning, Commodore. I have come to tender you 50,000 shares of Erie stock, and demand back the securities and money.' " He said he had had no transactions with the Erie Railway Company, and would have to consult his counsel. I told him I also demanded $1,000,000 paid him for losses he purported to have sustained. He said he had nothing to do with it, and I bade him good morning." December 15th Judge Nelson made his decision in the Gould Receivership case. He vacated the order of Judge Blatchford appointing Gould as Re- ceiver, set the Gould Receivership aside, and sent the whole case back to the State courts for adjudi- cation. While this decision was a defeat for Gould in one aspect of the case, it was, in fact, a victory. He had demonstrated from the start and all through the proceedings such a capacity for meeting emer- gencies and turning them to his account when they seemed most harassing to him, that he had strength- ened his footing at every step. The handing over of the Erie case to the State courts necessarily placed it before Judge Cardozo, whose injunction in the Sutherland proceedings, by the way, had been dissolved by Judge Boardman of Chemung County on December 8th. Judge Cardozo immediately issued an order staying all other pro- ceedings in the case, and held it for reargument before him. This practically brought this Erie War to an end. Jay Gould and his party were more firmly established in their control of Erie than ever. There were now no injunctions to give them trouble, and they had put all their assailants virtually on the defensive. The Belmont-Gould litigation passed entirely from the public mind. Although he had been appointed Receiver by two different judges, and the decision as to whether he was Receiver or not was still pending; and although ex-Judge Davies had also been appointed Receiver of Erie, and was also waiting to know whether he was Receiver or not, Jay Gould had transacted the business of the Company right along as President and Treasurer. Then, on February 10, 1869, Judge Cardozo made deliverance of the result of his long pondering over the points of the Belmont case, which had been handed over to him in bulk first by Judge Suther- land and later by Judge Nelson. His opinion was as long, almost, as the arguments had been, but resolved itself into the simple fact that there had been no ground for the appointing of a Receiver by any one, and that railroad directors had a right to issue convertible bonds and turn them into stock whenever they were so inclined. This was the last the public ever heard of the litigation. The public had also forgotten that there were pending somewhere in the courts the suit of the Erie Railway against Cornelius Vanderbilt, which had 172 BETWKKN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES been begun in December, 1868. Suddenly, Novem- ber ' was called before Judge Barnard. in the Supreme Court. The great defendant was on the witness stand. Although he had a few- months before denied publicly over his own signa- ture that he hail ever received any money from the Erie Railway Company, or had anything to do with it in the settlement of 1868, he admitted, on his examination in this Erie case, November 20, 1869, that he had received from Jay Gould, as Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company, in July, 1S6S, a check OO.OOO, and the bonds, for carrying out a tract he had made a few days before with Daniel I >iew to sell Drew 50,000 shares of Erie stock at 80, to be paid for in cash, $4,000,000. He accepted 625 -thousand-dollar bonds of the Boston, Hartford Erie Railroad, however, in payment for 5,000 res of the stock, leaving only §3,500,000 to be paid in cash. Mr. Vanderbilt denied that it was part of the agreement in the settlement that he was to give the Erie Railway Company the privilege of buying 50,000 more shares of him, but David Dudley Field, of the Erie counsel, produced the agreement, duly signed by Vanderbilt. It turned out also, that he had not received a check for $1, 000, 000 from Jay Gould, but two checks the sums of which made that amount. The defendant denied, in all the trans- action, that it was anything to do with the Erie Railway Company. It was a personal deal between Daniel Drew and himself. This Daniel Drew swore was the case as he understood it. He said he had bought 50,000 shares of Erie from Vanderbilt and paid him $4,000,000. He had agreed to hold his stock, and Vanderbilt had agreed to hold 50,000 shares of Erie, neither one to sell without the knowl- edge of the other. I had an idee," said Drew, " that I might want .it control of Ary ag'in, and if I had 50,000 shares o' stock, Vanderbilt's 50,000 might come in handy." The suit was becoming interesting, when Mr. Field asked for an adjournment on the ground that the suit of Ran inst the Erie Railway Corn- pan}- had been called at Rochester, and his presence was imperative there. This suit was one of the manifold actions and cross-actions that had grown out of an attempt of the management of the Erie Railway Company to obtain possession of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. The adjournment of the suit in the midst of its hearing was vigorously opposed by Vanderbilt's counsel, but Judge Barnard was on the bench. He adjourned the case until the first Monday in January, 1870. At that hearing he decided that he could entertain the action only so far as it sought to recover the $1,000,000. The case was again adjourned. The telling of its progress and termination belongs to later chapters in this History of Erie. II. GOULD SUPREME. In the midst of the whirl and excitement of the desperate struggle in Wall Street that had shaken the financial foundation of the country as with omi- nous preliminary rumblings of a mighty earthquake, and from which trouble he had not come himself unscathed, and in spite of the savage and persistent assaults of powerful rivals who attacked him on even- side to encompass his downfall, Jay Gould found time to formulate plans not only for the mak- ing of himself more secure in his position, but for the extending of his influence and power from the vantage ground of his control of Erie, and to find the means to keep in motion the machinery neces- sary to the pushing forward of such plans to the desired issue. The friends of the new control of Erie by courtesy called it the " Erie Management " ; but, although personally he was least in public evi- dence of any of his associates, Jay Gould's genius dominated the rule of Erie as indisputably as if Jay Gould alone had the right to plan and act. Fisk, Lane, Thompson, Davis, Tweed, Sweeny, and others in the Hoard were automatons, moving only at the will of Gould, so closely had he allied their interests with his and such was the fascination of his audacity, his daring, his originality, and his fine contempt for harassing conventionalities — although he never acted without the advice of the best coun- iliat money could procure, advice that perhaps not infrequently came as the wish that was father to the thought. The men who had entered the lists against Jay Gould with the determination to end his career at its THE STORY OF ERIE 173 very outset, soon discovered that they had much mis- taken the quality of the man. They knew him only as a Wall Street broker and speculator, presumably learned only in the ways and means of the Street, although perhaps past master in their mysteries. That he had any thought or idea in connection with the Erie Railway that did not centre in the most profitable use he could make of its property, as a tender to his Wall Street schemes, never occurred to them. As a matter of fact, although his practical experience in railroad management had been slight, and such as to attract no attention outside of the local circle directly interested in the outcome of his management, the problems of transportation, the great possibilities of railroads in the future develop- ment of the resources of the country, and the dom- inating influence and power they were destined to bring to men who could grasp such control of them, as well as concentrate certain existing lines and pro- jected lines into a uniform system under one mana- gerial head, had long been a subject of profound study and thought with him. Whether or not the promptings of ambition led him, through Daniel Drew, into the Erie Directory in 1867, and to the manipulation by which he obtained subsequent con- trol of the Erie and the power to raise millions on its credit at will, it is certain that no sooner was he in sure control of the Company than he made it apparent that possession of Erie was not the sole end he was battling for, but only the means to a greater end. In 1868 the Erie Railway was still practically only a local line. It had a terminus at Buffalo and one at Dunkirk. Its cars could run no farther. They were of the six-foot gauge. The connecting lines were of the standard gauge. At Salamanca the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, the broad- gauge line that was to have revolutionized the through transportation business of the country, but which had as yet failed in its purpose to such a gree that it was having a desperate struggle to keep its own wheels revolving, made connection with the Erie, but not a satisfactory one. This road ex- tended to Dayton, O., by its own line, and had entry to Cincinnati over the tracks of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad gave it a further convenient route to St. Louis. At Dunkirk and Buffalo, pas- sengers and freight over the Erie between New York and Chicago were transferred to or from the Lake Shore Railroad or Lake Erie steamboats. Consequently, tin- Erie Railway was at the mercy of its Western connections. True, neither the New York Central nor the Pennsylvania Central had its own through Western connection as yet, but each had an advantage over the Erie in its arrangements for Western traffic. Jay Gould soon formed plans to get control of cer- tain railroad lines the possession, of which would make him master of the interstate transportation situation. His first move was to effect a lease of tin Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, which was practically owned by James McHenry, of London. This gave the Erie an unbroken route between New York and Cincinnati and St. Louis. It was also the beginning of the entanglement of the McHenry interests with those of the Erie Railway Company, the complications growing out of which assailed the peace and drained the treasury of the Company for many years, forced the Company into a Receiver's hands, and entailed upon it a heritage of lasting misfortune. This acquisition opened the eyes of the other great railroad managers of the Fast, and especially those of the Pennsylvania Central magnates. The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad had a branch into the Pennsylvania oil regions, and one to Cleveland, where there were large oil refineries. The petroleum field was still confined to the Oil Creek and Alleghany valleys in Pennsylvania. Owing to its location, the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad commanded a share of the oil traffic, this being long before the system of pipe-line transportation to the board was introduced. The Pennsylvania Central Railroad enjoyed a monopoly of the oil transporta- tion from Pittsburg, and the managers of that com- pany had resolved to get control of the Atlantic and Great Western, change it to the standard gauge, and make it a feeder of the Pennsylvania line. The I ing of the property, therefore, by the Erie Railway Company not only surprised but alarmed the Penn- 174 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND nil. LAKES . Railroad manage i 5. B< lore they had recov- ered from their surprise, in January, 1869, they rned that Jay Gould had made an agreement with the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central Railroad Company for a lease of its railroad to the Erie and the putting down of a third rail on the road to meet the Erie broad gauge, and that he was further nego- tiating with the Chicago ami Rock Island Railroad Company for a lease of its railroad. The railroad magnates of the country suddenly awoke to the fact that a giant had come among them. Such aggres- sive audacity was something hitherto unheard of in railroad management. If the lease of the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central Railroad to the Erie were consummated, it would not only give that road a through Chicago connection, but would rob the Pennsylvania Central of one of its most important and necessary Western connections; and if Jay Gould succeeded in his stupendous scheme of add- ing the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad to the Erie system, he would be practically master of the transcontinental trade, for the Rock Island route would be the eastern extension from Omaha of the Union Pacific Railroad, then approaching com- pletion. This was a generation ago. The great Xew York Central king had not yet obtained his own line to Chicago, but was quietly awaiting his chance. The Pennsylvania Central managers were as yet only turning over in their minds the possibili- ties of the system which they now control. Vet J ax- Gould, only a few months Hedged into a railroad manager, and manager of only a ridiculed and dis- credited railroad at that, had lain his plans to make that railroad the centre of a system that would virtually extend from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific. The Pennsylvania Central Railroad Company met Gould's negotiation for the Columbus, Chicago and Iiuliana Central Railroad by arguments with that Company so well backed bythe Pennsylvania's treas- ury that it broke its agreement with Gould and signed a ninety-nine-year lease in favor of the Penn- sylvania corporation. Put Jay Gould was not yet driven from the field. He purchased a majority of the stock of the Pittsbui . Fori Wayne and Chic Railroad Company, and at the next election would have gained control of that important line, and had .1 still more favorable Chicago connection than by the Columbus route. If the Pennsylvania Railroad had not been potent in the Legislature of that State, Gould would have gained his end. The famous sification Act, passed at Albany in April. 1S69, and which prevented the election of a Hoard of Erie Directors antagonistic to Gould, is popularly sup- posed to have been a shrewd and smooth bit of work originating with Jay Gould to sustain him in his manipulation of the Erie management to his own ends. This is not true. Jay Gould did not origi- nate that effective method of defying the opposition of rival interests, although such rival interest might hold a majority of stock. He came in contact with it himself, and to his discomfiture, in his efforts to secure control of the Fort Wayne route. He held a majority of the stock in that company. An election for directors was to be held in March, 1S69. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, seeing another railroad that was necessary to its peace, comfort, and profit likely to pass into the hand of this new and energetic rival, notified its legislative agent at Ilar- risburg that the danger must be prevented. In just thirty-four minutes, on February 3, 1869, a bill was passed by both houses and signed by the Governor, providing that the Board of Directors of the Pitts- burg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad Company should be classified in five classes, so that only those in one class or group should be elected at the next election, another at the next annual election after that, and so on for three years, thus preventing a majority of stock from obtaining a majority of the Directors in less than that time. Jay Gould was beaten. The Board of Directors then in office was not in favor of the Gould possession, and he could only hope to elect three new members in his inter- est. To wait three years to accomplish his purpose was out of the question. He sold his Fort Wayne stock to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and retired from the field. It is an interesting incident in Erie history, therefore, that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was forced into the securing of its present great system out of its own State to save it from becoming a part of the Erie system that Jay Gould had so boldly planned to establish. THE STORY OF ERIE i/5 With these efforts Jay Gould had for the time to rest content in the matter of a Chicago line. According to his report for the year ending Sep- tember 30. 1869, Jay Gould had not been idle or negligent in looking after the local interests of the Erie. He had purchased for the Company a half interest in Abram S. Hewitt's Trenton Rolling Mills, where steel-capped rails were being rolled by the thousands of tons, and which were to be put down on the road in place of the rotten iron rails. He had begun to do away with the old bridges along the line, all of which were of wood, and replace them with iron bridges. The worthless old locomotives of the Company were being consigned to the scrap pile, and new ones of improved make provided. Pal- ace or drawing-room coaches were being added to the day trains. A perpetual lease was made of th e Jefferson Railroad, between Hawley and Hone^dale, Pa., which brought the Erie system into direct con- nection with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- pany's coal road, insuring to the Erie a new coal traffic of about 2,000,000 tons a year. The Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company having defaulted in an agreement by which the Erie was to transport from Great Bend, Pa., to Buffalo, N. Y., large quantities of coal from the mines of that company, Gould had entered into an agreement with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company by which the Erie was to construct a railroad from Carbondale to Susquehanna, over which and thence over the Erie main line to Buffalo the Canal Company was to ship a large amount of coal at profitable rates to the Erie. Another coal connection had been made at Waverly with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, by which seventy-five cars of coal were being shipped over the Erie daily to Buffalo. The Pavonia Ferry had been doubled in capacity by the opening of its route between Twenty-third Street, New York, and the Jersey City terminus. River frontage of 2,000 feet and an area of 60 acres had been purchased at Weehawken, at a cost of Si, 600,000, for convenience in handling and storing coal and petroleum, and for elevator purposes. In the same vicinity So acres had been purchased, and a live-stock depot reestablished. Extensive machine shops were building at Jersey City, and large tracts of real estate had been pur- chased west of the Bergen tunnel, for the handling of crude oil in bulk. The Paterson and Newark- Railroad, which was begun in the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad, had been secured to the Erie, and it was to be extended from Newark to the main line of the Erie at the tunnel. The New burgh and New York Railroad, from near Turner's to Vail's Gate, where it joined the Newburgh Branch, was completed, giving the Erie direct and short connec- tion between New York and Newburgh. Thirty miles of new double track were completed and opened. Large car shops were erected at Buffalo. Wood had been discarded for coal as fuel, and the Company had an arrangement by which its coal was delivered at Waverly at cost. ' The dilapidated, unwholesome, insufficient quarters of the Company in the Erie building in West Street had been for- saken for the commodious and magnificent offices fitted up in the Company's Grand Opera House at Twenty-third Street and Eighth Avenue." The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad had been leased, and profitable traffic arrangements made with the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton and the Ohio and Mississippi Railroads, which gave the Eric direct and unbroken connection between New York and Cincinnati, Cleveland, and St. Louis. All the east- bound business of the Union Steamboat Company's fleet of twenty-two steamboats had been secured by connection at Buffalo. " Prior to my becoming executive officer," said President Gould in his report, " the Board voted to give the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Com- pany substantial aid in the shape of a purchase of $5, 000, 000 of their first mortgage bonds. Since I became President we have paid for and taken up the bonds. This road is a very important connection, as it will open to us the heart of the manufacturing district of New England." (Hut now. after a generation of patient waiting, the jilted Erie has yet to receive even one respon- sive throb from that $5, 000,000 heart.— A utlior.) " In the interests of the cotton traffic of the lower Mississippi," the report declared, " the Erie has made a close alliance with the Narragansett Steam- ship Company, whose fine steamships connect the l 7 6 BETW T.I.N I' HE OCEAN AND THE EAK1 S Eric with Fall River, the city of spindles, enabling the cotton from the South to be taken direct to the mills, an arrangement by which the Erie's cot- ton business is being largely and rapidly increased." It was also incidentally and calmly stated in this curing report that the outstanding stock of the Company was $78,536,910, being an increase since September 30, 1867 (one year), of nearly $53,- 500,000! But in spite of the rosy reports the Erie manage- ment made of its doings, of the increase in the Erie's business, of the surplus of receipts over expenses, and of the constant extending of the Company's field of operations, its stock was ridiculously low in the market, and its bonds of but little value. Stock- holders wanted to know why some of the surplus earnings were not turned into dividends. Between $50,000,000 and $60,000,000 had been added to the capital stock in less than two years. It was itemized in the Company's reports as " paid up." Where was the money that had been paid for it ? It had been used in betterments of Company's property, leasing new railroads, buying coal mines, rolling mills, etc., was the reply of the management, and the earnings of the Company were also invested in that way. This naturally set the dissatisfied to in- quiring and investigating, and brought forward the English stockholders with disturbing questions. Early in the Gould control, millions of the over- issued stock were purchased by English investors, the low price tempting them. But the price not only remained low, but became still lower, and the great foreign holdings that the management had wel- comed now returned to plague the Eric management. Foreseeing the possibilities of danger that lurked in a combination of the English stockholders and the dissatisfied ones at home, Jay Gould took advantage of the lesson he had been taught by the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company in the Fort Wayne trans- action, and, Vanderbilt agreeing, secured the passage by the Legislature, at the session of 1869, of the memorable Classification Act. This act authorized t'ne Directors of the Erie Railway Company (and of the Vanderbilt companies) to so classify themselves that one-fifth of their number should go out of office in each year. The Erie Railway Company had sev- enteen Directors, and they were classified under this law into five divisions, in groups of three or four directors each. These divisions were to go out of office at the end of one, two, three, four, and five years, successors to the retiring three or four mem- bers being elected immediately, instead of the entire Board going out of office at once and an entire new one being elected. The object of this plan was to prevent the possible election of a hostile majority to the existing management, something that could not well be done by the election of only three or four successors to a retiring group. It had the desired result, but aroused a feeling in the Gould opposition that started the bitter two years' fight, in the Courts and the Legislatures, which was still of doubtful issue in 1872, when treachery in the house of his friends accomplished in an hour what his enemies had striven for years to secure by open warfare — the downfall of Jay Gould as the Dictator of Erie. The first Board of Directors under the Classifica- tion Act was elected in October, 1869, as follows: Term to expire in October, 1870: Homer Ramsdell, Charles G. Sisson, Justin D. White. Term to expire in October, 1871: John Hilton, M, R. Simons, George C. Hall. Term to expire in October, 1872: John Ganson, O. \V. Chapman, Henry Thompson. Term to expire in October, 1873: Alexander S. Diven, Henry N. Smith, Abram Gould, Horatio N. Otis. Term to expire in October, 1S74: Jay Gould, James Fisk, Jr., William M. Tweed, Frederick A. Lane. The officers elected and appointed were Jay Gould, President and Treasurer; James Fisk, Jr., Vice-President and Comptroller; Horatio N. Otis, Secretary; Mortimer Smith, Assistant Secretary; Justin 1). White, Acting Assistant Treasurer; Fred- crick A. Lane, Counsellor; Thomas G. Shearman, Associate Counsel ; L. D. Rucker, General Super- intendent; J. W. Guppy, Assistant General Super- intendent; B. W. Blanchard, General Freight .Agent; W. R. Barr, General Passenger Agent; J. N. Abbott, Assistant General Passenger .Agent; J. C. Calhoun, Auditor; G. Morosini, C. W. Winslow, Assistant Auditors. THE STORY OF ERIE i77 III. BREAKERS AHEAD. It must be remembered that these events were occurring at a time when the condition of the coun- try was still to a great extent subject to the effects of many of those extraordinary measures which the Civil War had made necessary. The war had ended but four years before. Specie payments had not been resumed. Gold was still a speculative com- modity in the exchanges of the land, and was sub- ject to such fluctuations in premium as suited the manipulations of Wall Street. A certain moral lax- it}- in the conduct of business affairs, which the in- fluence of the war seemed to have induced, still balefully pervaded commercial and financial trans- actions. The moral wholesomeness of those walks in life is not to-day beyond suspicion, but it is safe to say that in these times quick destruction would follow any combination that sought to secure pos- session and control of a railroad or any other prop- erty by the methods that threw the Erie Railway into the hands of its new management in 186S. It was a matter of much wonder at the time, and it is no nearer an explanation to-day, why a man so reserved, and one whose private life was blame- less, should have remained passive in the matter of the grotesque, scandalous, mountebank-like doings of James Fisk, Jr., which kept the name of Erie unduly and in a questionable light before the pub- lic. The methods that had been thought necessary to gain control of the Erie were notorious enough, but they were of a matter which only enemies of the management had sought to keep in the public eye (and they were tiring of the task); but Fisk's theatric antics, his ridiculous masquerading, his pompous assumption of the title of Admiral, because of his connection with the Xarragansett Steamboat Line, his naming of himself the Prince of Erie, his dis- graceful orgies under the very roof of the Company's office building, his wild extravagancies, by all of which the name of Erie was dragged in the mire — these were inexcusable flauntings in the face of pub- lic decency and opinion of the power and license that control of Erie and its treasury had conferred. Un- doubtedly it would have been well for Jay Gould if he had stopped all this. It would not have pre- vented the ultimate wresting of Erie from his posses- sion, but it might have prolonged his tenure. Jay Gould's arrangements for connections that would lift the Erie from the position of a railroad that was practically merely local in influence to one commanding a place of general importance were so perfected by April, 1869, that the following official announcement, in bold display lines, appeared in the newspapers of the East and West: " Erie Railway — One Thousand, Four Hundred Miles Under One Management Eight Hundred and Sixty Miles without Change of Cars. The Broad- Gauge, Double-Track Route Between New York, Bos- ton, and New England Cities and the 11', st. ' This meant that the Erie Railway Company con- trolled its own line between New York and Cincin- nati, via the Atlantic and Great Western and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroads. It was a big step forward in railroad management, for, as we have seen, the New York Central was not yet in control of the system that gave it absolutely its own connection with Chicago, ami the Pennsylvania Cen- tral had been forced into acquisition of its Western lines by Jay Gould himself. This virtual extension of the Erie Railway had great effect on the travel- ling public. The people along the line of the rail- road felt that their deliverers had come. Put Erie stock did not show any inclination to rise. People who travelled over the Erie, and people who dwelt within its province, were loud in their praise of Gould and Fisk, but there were stockholders who were disagreeable in their persistence in wanting to know why there were no dividends. As the man- agement of Erie had expected, foreign stockholders combined with dissatisfied American stockholders and sent formidable agents to this country to force the control of Erie out of the hands of Jay Gould. The first Step they made looking to that end was the attacking of the Classification Act. and demanding its repeal by the New York Legislature, at the sion of 1870. A great deal of the time of the Legis- lature was occupied, during that session, listening to the reasons of one party why the salvation of Erie BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES l the repeal of the act, and to the reasons the other party why absolute ruin awaited Erie if the act was repealed. There had been politics, indeed, in the election of the fall of 1869. There were some able political managers in the Directory of Erie. It became evident that the interests of the Erie management had suffered nothing in that elec- tion. At any rate, after long and patient consider- 1 of the merits of the question of repealing the Classification Act. the law-makers decided that it .Id not be well to repeal that act, and it remained on the statute books. The defeat of the opposition to Gould in their attempt to secure the repeal of the Classification Act did not discourage them. The Englishmen had organized as the Erie Stockholders' Protective Asso- ciation, and were well reinforced by their American coadjutors. The combination was by no means a popular one here, as there was a strong feeling, even among people who did not approve of the Gould treatment of Eric, against the Company and its prop- erty passing into the hands of foreign owners. Soon after the immense holding of the stock was purchased in England, the new owners discovered that it was registered on the books of the Company in the names of the original holders, who, under the law, had the right to vote it until it might be trans- ferred on the books to some other name. The Eng- lish stockholders thereupon chose Robert A. Heath and Henry A. Raphael, two London bankers, a com- mittee to represent them, and gave them power of attorney to have stock transferred on the Company's books in New York in their names, the committee then to take out new certificates and send them back- to England. In the spring of 1870 the New York nts of the London Committee took 16,000 shares of this stock to the Erie Railway Company's office in the former city, and left it there for transfer. Lati r, 60,000 shares were left. Before it was transferred, J^lin Nyce, a rural lawyer, living at Milford, Pike County, Pa., 100 miles from New York and eight mil' the Erie Railway, achieved a sudden but tran ; nt fame by appearing as a complainant in a suit fa ni I'isk, Jr., Comptroller, and Justin D. White, Treasurer, of the Erie Railway Company. llr had by some occult means discovered that tl: trusted custodians of Erie's finances had conspired to transfer the 60,000 shares of stock according to the request of the parties presenting it, against the true interests of the Company! This suit was brought by Mr. Nyce to prevent such a heinous breach of trust. With strange coincidence, the suit was brought before Judge Barnard, who issued an order directing the 60,000 shares to be placed in the hands of one James 11. Coleman, as Receiver, and enjoined the committee of English shareholders from undertaking to get the stock transferred. The Re- ceiver was authorized to employ counsel anil pay him for his services out of the stock, which was ordered transferred in the name of the Receiver. The stock was worth $6,000,000 at par. The Re- ceiver's bonds for the safe custody of it were fixed at §100,000. This stock was voted on at the next election, but not against the Gould regime. The strange part of this suit, to the innocent and unin- itiated, was that Eisk and White, the alleged con- spirators against the well-being of Erie, remained as ever in the close counsels of the Erie management. This case, in the course of time, got into the United States Court, and March 11, 1871, a year after it was begun, Judge Blatchford ordered that the stock be restored to its owners. Before this was done Judge Barnard was called into action again. Judge Barnard was always loaded with in- junctions or orders, and he was ready for this emer- gency. He ordered that the stock should be placed in the hands of a new Receiver, Charles Robinson by name, who was authorized to take in possession all other stocks that might come forward for transfer in the name of Heath and Raphael. Judge Barnard overestimated even his power in this case, and found that he could not, legally, appoint a Receiver for property that was in the custody of another court. Consequently, the stock was restored to the agent of the London Committee, and, under absolute order of the United States Court, was transferred on the Company's books, ,1 year and a half after it had been presented, and at a cost of $25,000 to its owners. This contact with the Erie management in that line of procedure satisfied tin English committee that it was perhaps a trifle presumptuous for them to have THE STORY OF ERIE 179 thought to smash down at one assault the ramparts against which a Vanderbilt and a Belmont had battered and battered in vain, and they took their stock and went back home, where they sat down and pondered. The results of these efforts on the part of the Gould opposition was to strengthen for a time the management and increase its prestige. The Legis- lature of 1871 was kind and complacent. The Erie management passed through not only unscathed, but with a clean bill of health. But influences unseen and unknown were even then at work that boded it no good. First came the shock of the Tweed Ring exposures like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. Tweed and Sweeny were leading and influential Directors in the Erie Board. Tweed was one of the trusted majority of the Gould Executive Committee. Even the name of Erie could not help but be be- smirched by having such advisers in her councils. The annual election of 1871 resulted in the choice of a Board of Erie Directors substantially the same in their relations to Jay Gould as the previous Boards had been, with the exception, of course, of William M. Tweed and Peter B. Sweeny, who were then fallen and broken idols. To all outward ap- pearances, the year 1872 opened auspiciously for the management. It was well known that a new and stronger effort was to be made to secure the repeal of the Classification Act, but there was no reason to fear that the Legislature would so far forget it- self as to repeal it. But there were shadows falling. There had been much of comedy in the Erie drama. Now the brutal form of tragedy appeared. Fisk was assassinated. The " Prince of Erie " — the gay, deb- onair, grotesque, unscrupulous first-lieutenant of the Gould command — was dead at the hand of an as- sassin, victim of a wanton's smiles and treachery. After all else, now murder must come to further befoul the name of Erie. There arc those living who are strong in the belief that but for Fisk's untimely taking off the events of the next three months would have been entirely dif- ferent, and that Jay Gould would have laughed at the conspiracy that sought his downfall. But that is folly. Even if Jay Gould had been ignorant, almost up to the very moment that they struck, of the treachery of those who had been his staunchest friends, certainly James Fisk would not have been astute enough to discover it; and, when it was dis- covered, there was not time for even Fisk to have carried out any plan of his chief that might have prevented the result. But, as a matter of fact, Jay Gould was not ignorant of the conspiracy. He sim- ply misjudged it. The credit for the overthrow of Jay Gould as President of the Erie Railway Company, and the consequent radical revolution in the management of the Company and change in its policy (certainly not to its betterment), is popularly believed to belong to Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. That he figured more prominently than any other one person in the public eye during the exciting proceedings that precipitated the result, and that he was the recognized and ac- credited leader employed by the parties most in- terested in bringing the affair to successful issue, is a fact beyond dispute. But he had nothing to do with originating the plan of the campaign that overthrew the Gould management. If the methods he had set out to employ in ousting Gould had been alone re- lied upon by him to accomplish the purpose, the overthrow would have occurred, and a new manage- ment been installed, before his scheme had got fairly under way. Jay Gould himself became concerned in a movement to entirely change the personnel and character of the Erie management weeks before Gen- eral Sickles took his first regular step toward carry- ing out the programme he had decided upon. While Sickles's proceedings were yet without positive coherence, other forces were at work undermining the Gould stronghold, and were well on toward suc- cess. It was these forces that General Sickles was enabled to avail himself of and carry forward to cul- mination the plans that gained for him the credit that attached to the " Sickles Coup." In 1S71 William Butler Duncan, of the house of Duncan. Sherman & Co., was actively identified with the affairs of the Atlantic and Great Western Kail- road Company, and striving to effect some arrange- ment by which it could be relieved of its unfortunate complications and embarrassments. This brought . BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES him moi - into communication with the man- the Eric Railway Company. While in con- sultation with Jay Gould, one day in the latter part of November. 1S71, Erie's by no means promising situation came up as a subject of conversation, dur- ing which Mr. Duncan remarked, with much posi- tives " Gould, there is but one thine; that can help Erie out of its troubles, give it credit, and enable you to sell your bonds abroad, and get money.'' There had been an issue of $30,000,000 consoli- dated Erie bonds by the Company some months before, but, with the exception of $3,000,000 pur- chased by Jay Gould and others, at 60, no market had been found for them, as investors would not touch Erie securities while the Company's affairs were in the condition that public rumor insisted they were in. Gould was extremely anxious to have this loan placed. Therefore, William Butler Duncan's remark as to the only way it might be done instantly interested him. 'What is it that can be done?" was Gould's eager response to the remark. " Change the Board of Directors, and put in some strong names that people have confidence in!" re- plied Duncan. Gould agreed with Duncan that such a proceeding might have the desired effect. He thought so well of it, in fact, that he at once wrote to J. S. Morgan & Co., of Eondon, commending the suggestion. J. S. Morgan & Co. were the financial agents of the Erie Railway Company in London, and greatly inter- ested in its welfare. Gould also called at the office of Levi 1'. Morton in Broad Street to consult with him about the Duncan idea. Mr. Morton was promi- nent as a financier, but had not entered upon the successful political career that subsequently won him high and honorable place and distinction. The sug- 1011 i>f William Butler Duncan met with his ap- proval, and he mentioned the nanus of different men as desirable ones in any new Board of Directors. Soon afterward Gould mel I luni an at the latter's house, by appointment, to further discuss the sub- ject, and they outlined a programme for a reorgani- zation of the Company, and decided to submit it to the consideration of Levi 1'. Morton and S. L. M. Barlow. In this programme Gould insisted that in forming a new Board all th railway inter which fed the Erie Railway should be represented, and that especially the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and all the large coal interests, should have equal representation with the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company. This suggestion was agreed to at the subsequent meeting of Gould and Duncan, with others. No written agreement was made, but it resulted in the following communi- cation : Messrs. L. P. Morton and //'. Bntlcr Duncan. Gentlemen: — Acquiescing in the importance of a reorgan- ization of the Board of Directors of the Erie Railway by asso- ciating the best railway and financial talent in the country in its management, I propose as follows: First. — To procure the resignation of the present Board, and substitute tin Following named gentlemen: Jay Gould, August Belmont, J. S. Morgan, Erastus Corning, representing the New York Central; James F. Joy, representing the Michigan Central Railroad; Horace F. Clark, representing the Lake Shore Rail- road; William Butler Duncan, representing the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad; Levi P. Morton, Moses Taylor, Edwin Eldridge, John A. Stewart, Thomas A. Scott, John Jacob Astor, L. M. Yon Hoffman, E. D. Morgan; George Talbott Olyphant, representing the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company; John Ewen, representing the Pennsylvania Coal Company; Asa Packer, representing the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. In order to secure permanency to this Board, and to avoid merely speculative control, I would further propose that Messrs. Bischoffscheim, J, S. Morgan, and Sir John Rose bo a committee to procure irrevocable proxies from the owners of a majority of stock; or, if deemed advisable, said committee to receive deposit of the stock and issue receipt-, \,, be bought and sold in the market instead of the stock, said Trustees agreeing to vote at each election for such new Board, and any vacancies in the Board t,, be filled by the Board. The per- manent organization of the company to be selected by Messrs. William Butler Duncan, Levi P. Morton, and myself. Yours respectfully, New York, Dec. n. [871. Jay Gould. The idea of reorganization embodied in this Gould letter met with the approval of all concerned. It was agreed that Duncan should go to Europe to ui the plan to the representatives of the English stock- holders, who were Heath and Raphael, and Bischoff- scheim & Goldschmidt, the latter being in the Atlan- tic and Great Western interest also. Gould hail in his name and controlled stock to the amount of $24,000,000, all of which he gave Duncan irrevoca- THE STORY OF ERIE 181 ble power to act upon to consummate the agree- ment. He assumed that the existing Board would not offer any objection to resigning in the interest of this plan to help the Company out of its difficulties. If there should be any trouble of that kind, how- ever," said Mr. Gould, significantly, " I will facili- tate an act of the Legislature repealing the Classifi- cation Act, and order an immediate election." Of none of these transactions James Fisk, Jr., Vice-President of Erie, was cognizant, and it was not until Duncan sailed for Europe on his mission to obtain the approval of the reorganization scheme that Gould informed Fisk of what was going on. Gould always declared that Fisk approved of the plan and promised to aid in carrying it out. Friends of Fisk were equally as positive that he never knew of the agreement for reorganization, or, that if he did know it, his death alone prevented him from taking action that would have shown how little he approved of it. If his friends were right, they might have reflected more credit on the memory of the unfortunate Fisk by remaining silent, and assuming that he had knowledge of the entirely creditable and honorable transaction, and heartily approved of it. IV. THE SHIP OX THE ROCKS. Gould and James McHenry, of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, had quarrelled in 1871, and McHenry joined his forces in London with the organized English stockholders, who were biding their time to " pounce upon Gould and to throw him out of Erie." McHenry was not entirely disinter- ested in his desire. He had certain plans for com- bining the interests of the Erie with those of his bankrupt Atlantic and Great Western which were not satisfactory to Gould, and McHenry longed to have a management in Erie that might see things as he saw them. The Atlantic and Great Western had been built by McHenry, who received all its stocks and bonds in payment for the work. The proceeds of the bonds were not sufficient to complete the road, and McHenry hypothecated stock to a large amount, borrowing from individuals as well as from com- panies whenever he could. The stock of the com- pany was taken largely by small foreign investors, who believed it would give most profitable return. When the railroad was completed McHenry was practically its owner, but it was subject to the bond and stock debts of the company. His expectations were not realized, and in 1866 he could no longer sustain the burden he had taken. He defaulted on the interest due on the company's obligations, and on April 1, 1867, the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad passed into the hands of a Receiver. To add to McHenry's embarrassment, the Board of Directors he had created betrayed him and took from him all control over his own property. He suc- ceeded, however, in regaining partial control in Jan- uary, 1868. W. Archdall O'Doherty having been of great assistance in bringing about this result, he was made Secretary of the company, and subse- quently Vice-President. The Receiver still had possession, and McHenry was anxious to overthrow him. To do this, it was necessary to provide funds to the amount of $1,200,- 000 to pay debts the Receiver had incurred. In December, 1868, McHenry succeeded in making an arrangement with Jay Gould, by which the latter agreed to advance $1,500,000 to McHenry, or the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, and take a lease and mortgage on the railroad of that company to secure the amount. The Receiver was discharged, and the road passed again into the con- trol of McHenry. Jay Gould, becoming satisfied that he had made a bad bargain in his arrangement with McHenry, threw up the agreement. Litigation followed, but it was finally compromised by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad being placed in charge of a joint Receivership, the Receiver being Jay Gould in the interest of the Erie, and W. Archdall O'Doherty representing the Atlantic and Great Western inter- ests. Subsequently S. L. M. Barlow was employed as counsel by McHenry, and in the course of the putting in shape of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company's affairs according to the ideas of Barlow, both Gould and O'Doherty were ousted from the Receivership, and the road was leased to the Eric in December, 1869. Jay Gould subse- quently discontinued this lease, and cut loose from BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES McHenry. This caused a relationship so strained between the two that McHenry joined eagerly and earnestly in the warfare against the Gould manage- ment of Erie. In the fall of 1871 Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, who was then United States Minister to Spain, was in London, and met at a public dinner one day James McHenry and a number of distinguished foreign General Sickles was no stranger to McHenry. Some rs before he had been associated with McHenry in the affairs of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, and in 1869 was McHenry' s choice for President of that company. This was opposed so strongly by W. Archdall O'Doherty, who then had much influence in the management, that McHenry withdrew Sickles's name. At the dinner referred to above, McHenry and others, smart- ing under defeats in the courts of this country, were led to give utterance to their opinions. General Sickles found these gentlemen so offen- sive by reason of their abuse of the judicial system and code of procedure in the United States, having for their text certain Erie Railway litigation, that he remonstrated with them, and told them flatly that any man who went to work with honesty and vigor could be sure of having every wrong righted in the United States. Impressed with this declaration, McHenry assured General Sickles that if he could in that way secure the ousting of Jay Gould from the Erie management, the interests desirous of such a consummation would pay him $100,000. General Sickles thought so well of this that he applied to his Government for release from his post of duty for three months, which request being granted, he made an engagement with McHenry and his associates to go about the task that had been suggested. General Sickles arrived in this country about the time that Jay 1 iould and William Butler Duncan were busy at their plan for a reoi 1 Erie, with full author- ity from Henri L. B cheim to act. General Sickles beg in hi campaign by recourse to the legal procedure which he had so warmly defended against its critics in London. That he did not have the opportunity to endeavor to make good his indignant declaration to McHenry that " any man who went to work with honest}- and vigor could be sure of hav- ing every wrong righted in the United States " was the fault of others, not his. He began with the law. The Heath and Raphael party had already in con- templation proceedings against Gould and others, with the same purpose in view. This suit was in charge of the Attorney-General of New York, as was necessary under the act of 1S70 governing such cases. The object of this suit was to remove the officers of the Company then in power, and to call them to account for alleged misuse and application of the property of the corporation. General Sickles wrote to Attorney-General Barlow December 30, [871, that he was authorized to proceed with similar legal measures, and at his request that the Attor- ney-General should name associate counsel to con- duct such proceedings, the Attorney-General named Messrs. Lyman T remain, Matthew Hale, and Henry Smith, of Albany, and William Wallace MacFar- land, and James C. Carter, of New York, as such associates. These legal gentlemen were paid retain- ing fees out of a fund of $12,000 placed in the Attorney-General's hands by General Sickles for that purpose, to which fund was subsequently added $1,500, contributed by the Heath and Raphael party, who had joined the Sickles movement. It being deemed advisable to obtain an act of the Legislature authorizing the suspension from office of the officers of the Company while the suit was in progress, the proceedings were delayed, pending such hoped-for legislation. A bill to repeal that long- standing obstruction to the plans of the anti-Gould element in Erie, the Classification -Act, was also introduced as an important aid in the campaign against the Gould regime. Matters were in such situation when, toward the middle of February, 1S72, General Sickles became interested to such an extent in affairs about the Erie Railway Company's offices in New York, that on February 27th or 28th Homer Ramsdell of Newburgh, an ex-President of Erie, and at that time a prominent member of the Board, received a telegram from George Crouch, requesting his presence in New York on very im- int business. George Crouch, in 1 869, was a journalist in New THE STORY OF ERIE 183 York City, and through his duties in Wall Street work he became interested in the Erie problem, and resolved to make its solution a study. To have more time and better opportunity to do this he abandoned journalism. By close observation, and being a shrewd and talented observer, he in a few months mastered the Erie situation. He made him- self not only familiar with its financial condition and the methods of its managers, but obtained accurate knowledge of its operative departments, its railroad, and the condition it was in, its rolling stock, shops, machinery, and every detail of its practical opera- tion, everywhere along the line. He also made him- self master of the affairs of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in the same way. Acting upon the information he obtained, he made a report on the condition of the Erie, its prospects and its management, and the report was a showing so favorable to the popularly-discredited Gould and Fisk control, and presented those individuals and their methods in a light so new and different from the accepted one in which they had been revealed to the public gaze, that people wondered how they had been led into the holding of such erroneous beliefs regarding the Erie rulers and their railroad. The result of this work was the calling of Crouch by Gould into the service of the Company; or, rather, to a highly confidential place in the personal service of Gould and Fisk. The ambition of Crouch seems to have been the settlement of the long-standing difficulty between the English stockholders and the Company. A plan with the accomplishment of that end in view was formed early in 1870, and Crouch was on the point of sailing for England to endeavor to carry it out, when the war against the Gould management was begun by the English stockholders, under the lead of James Burt, of London. Crouch took a promi- nent part in defeating that effort, but subsequently turned against Gould and Fisk. He resigned from their service, and went to England to help the for- eign shareholders formulate a plan to oust the Gould management. He returned to this country early in 1S72, and, as General Sickles subsequently gave it out, was here to act as a " go-between " for Sickles in his campaign against the Erie management. That Crouch claimed, with apparent good cause, to be something more than a subordinate in the fight will appear in its proper place in this narrative. In response to the Crouch telegram. Director Ramsdell went to New York on March 1, 1872. Crouch informed him that at the next meeting of the Board of Directors several members of the Board had agreed to resign, the object being to have their places filled with new men, antagonistic to Gould, who was then to be deposed. In this work the aid of Mr. Ramsdell was necessary, Crouch said, and he placed Ramsdell in communication with General Sickles. ' ' The general idea entertained by General Sickles, said Mr. Ramsdell, in giving his account of the in- terview, " was that the Erie Railway was a very corrupt affair, and that everybody connected with it was as corrupt as the institution. But he was very desirous of giving absolution to even-body, and in- demnity as well, and it was a little difficult to resist his overtures. I told him that I neither asked abso- lution nor indemnity, and so far as compensation was concerned, I calculated to have my full satis- faction in doing my duty. It was hard to make him believe this, but he acknowledged my position finally." The result of the interview between Director Ramsdell and General Sickles was that the latter consented to undertake to further the change in Erie management. Gould's long-time and trusted friends and supporters in the Board were Frederick A. Lane, Henry Thompson, John Hilton, M. R. Simons, Justin D. White, and Horatio N. Otis. White was Treasurer of the Company, having succeeded Gould himself. Otis was the Secretary of the Company. The Vice-President was Oliver II. Perry Archer, who had long held a profitable contract with the Com- pany for transferring and delivering its freight from Jersey City to New York, and vice versa. He had succeeded Fisk in the office of Vice-President. Late in February. 1S7J, Jay Gould had occasion to meet by appointment Col. Thomas A. Scott, Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, at the Brevoort House, New York City. This interview was on the subject of the importance of a meeting between Gould and a person who repre- sented himself to be Lord Gordon, Earl of Aber- 1 84 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES n. and who, as the reputed owner and controller of S6o.OOO,000 in Erie stock, was a man of impor- tance to Gould just then. The story of Lord Gordon Gordon, bearing as it •does directly on affairs pertaining to the Erie Rail- wax- at that time, may well be told here, although the relation requires a divergence for a time from the regular thread of the Erie narrative. In the fall of 1871 Mrs. Belden, of New York, being on a pleasure trip, spent some time at Minne- apolis, Minn. Mrs. Belden was the wife of William Belden. then of the Wall Street house of Fisk, Bel- den & Co., the senior partner of which was James Fisk, Jr., then Vice-President of the Erie Railway Company. About that time social and business cir- cles of Minneapolis were somewhat moved over hav- ing made the discovery that they had among them a member of the British aristocracy in no less a person than Lord Gordon Gordon, of the almost royal blood of the Gordons of Scotland, if he were not, indeed, the Earl of Aberdeen himself, of that ancient line- age. Gordon Gordon had not made personal procla- mation of his nobility. He had come quietly to Minneapolis and registered at the hotel simply as G. Gordon. His manner was unostentatious, but his distinguished bearing and evident superior birth and breeding soon drew attention to him as some one not of the ordinary. In his quiet way he, after a time, talked of his purpose of purchasing 50,000 acres or so of land in Minnesota, or along the North- ern Pacific Railroad, for the colonizing of English and Scottish tenants of his. Then a letter with a coronet on the envelope, and addressed, " Lord •Gordon Gordon," came with his other mail one day. After that he was no longer incognito. lie was charged with his nobility. He did not deny that he was a person of title, neither did he admit it. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company took charge of him. and sent him in grand style all along its line and its proposed line, that he might see the land the com], any possessed, from which to select the terri- lor his colony. The exclusion occupied two months, and cost the railroad company si 5.000. Lon I on selected his land, hut, for reasons that will appear, he never perfected title to it. Mis. Belden met Lord Gordon in a social way, and he showed her many courtesies. He was pleased to learn that she was the wife of a gentleman so closely allied with a high officer of the Erie Railway Com- pany, he said, as he himself was a large stockholder in that Company, and part of his business in the United States was in connection with Erie affairs. Whether he had before that thought of the scheme which he subsequently engaged in, or whether his meeting with Mrs. Belden and incidentally learning the rela- tion her husband bore to the Erie through Fisk, suggested it to him, is not known; but in January, 1872, he left Minneapolis and went to New York. There he engaged fine apartments at the Westmin- ster Hotel, at Sixteenth Street and Irving Place, but subsequently removed to the Metropolitan Hotel, on Broadway, the proprietor of which at that time was William M. Tweed's son Richard. In the mean- time Mrs. Belden had returned home, and informed her husband, as a pleasant incident of her trip, of her meeting with Lord Gordon, and incidentally spoke of his large holding of Erie shares. Belden called on Gordon at his hotel, introduced himself, and the two became well acquainted. This was at the critical time of the existence of the Gould con- trol of Erie. Gordon told Belden that he owned and controlled 60,000 shares of the Erie stock held in England. Gordon had also made the acquaint- ance of Col. Thomas A. Scott, Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company; Horace Greeley, Horace F. Clark,' financier, anil son-in-law of Com- modore Vanderbilt, and other prominent men, all of whom became on terms of close intimacy with him. Belden, seeing the importance of having in the Gould interest the holder of so much Erie stock, reported to Jay Gould the presence of Lord Gordon in New York, and was anxious to bring the two men to- gether. Gordon haughtily declared that he did not care to meet Mr. Gould; but on March 8, 1S7J, Col. Scott, not long after his Brevoort House interview with him on the subject, telegraphed Gould that he thought it would lie greatly to the benefit of his interests to call on Gordon. With that telegram as his introduction, Gould went to the Metropolitan Hotel next day and met Gordon. According to the tory of the latter, he told Gould plainly that he THE STORY OF ERIE 185 controlled 60,000 shares of Erie, which were not on the books in his name, and that he had made a com- bination with other stockholders by which the man- agement of Erie must be changed. He had no objection to retaining Gould in the management, but only on condition that all opposition to the repeal of the Erie Classification Bill by the Legislature should cease; all the entangling Erie litigation be brought to settlement and discontinued; and that Gould should renounce his Wall Street connections and operations. Gould agreed to all these conditions, and, as an evidence of his good faith, wrote and gave Gordon the following: I hereby resign my position as President and Director of the Erie Railway Company, to take effect on the appointment of my successor. Yours, etc., New York. March 9, 1872. Jay Gould. Horace Greeley was present during the interview, and, in a subsequent affidavit, corroborated Gordon's statement. Jay Gould's account of the interview was that he had been told in February by William Belden that Lord Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, was in New York, claiming to be in this country in the interest of the English stockholders of Erie. He subsequently met Gordon at the Metropolitan Hotel, Horace Greeley being present. Gordon assured him that he owned $30,000,000 of Erie stock, and con- trolled $20,000,000 more. He had been investigat- ing the condition of the Company and its property, and had originated the legislation then pending in the New York Legislature (for the repeal of the Classification Act), and of the Heath and Raphael litigation, in the interest of the English stockholders. He was satisfied that Gould's management was all right, but the existing Board of Directors must go. Gordon said he had already arranged with the Direct- ors that they should resign. He and his friends controlled a majority of the stock, and they would elect a new Board made up of men approved of by himself, Horace Greeley, and Gould. He said $30,000,000 in certificates were then on their way from London which he had the power of attorney to transfer. His investigations, he said, had cost him $1,000,000, and he thought the Company should reimburse him to the amount of at least half that sum. Gould, taking all the circumstances together, with Gordon's intimate knowledge of the Erie situation, and having no doubt that he was in reality Lord Gordon Gordon, agreed to the plans he proposed, and deposited with him $500,000 in money and secu- rities as an evidence of good faith. Three days later the " Sickles Coup " revolutionized Erie affairs as in a trice, and the Gordon plan of procedure came to nothing — as it would have done in any event. From March 9th until March 23d Gordon had in his possession the $500,000 Gould had delivered to him, nearly $200,000 of which was in greenbacks. During that time, had he so chosen, he could have taken himself off to the other side of the world with the wealth thus almost thrust into his hands, and that he did not do so was then, and will be as long as any of them may live, a wonder of wonders to all who were conversant with the Gordon-Gould affair. But he made no move to abscond. He did not even remove the money or securities from his apartments at the hotel, with the exception of some shares of stock in the Alleghany and Oil Creek Railroad Com- pany, which he sent to his broker in Philadelphia. In the forenoon o"f March 23d, Jay Gould stepped into the office of William M. Tweed, at 85 Duane Street. Tweed," said he, " I've made up my mind that Gordon is a scoundrel, and I think I'll make him give back the money and securities I gave him, or have him arrested." " You had better see Judge Shandley about it," replied Tweed.. " He's in the next room." The result of the conference with Judge Shandley was that about half-past one in the afternoon Gould, Judge Shandley, William Belden, and John J. Kel- soe, Superintendent of Police, were in parlor 112 al the Metropolitan Hotel. A few minutes later Belden sent his card in to " Lord " Gordon, and was mitted. Gordon's subsequent story was that Belden said to him: " Jay Gould, with Judge Shandley and Chief of Police Kelsoe, are in Tweed's room. Unless you return at once the money ami the securities that Gould left with you, they will railroad you to prison before any one knows where you are! " Fearful of what might happen to him, Gordon gave i So BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND ["HE LAKES den the $200,000 in cash, 200 shares of National ck Y.ird stock, I0O shares of Brooks Locomotive Works stock, and 20 Northern Railroad of New bonds. Belden took it all and went away. Presently he returned and said Jay Gould demanded the iny and (Ml Creek shares. Gordon wrote an order on his brokers for the shares and delivered it to Belden. An hour later Belden called on Gor- don again and said that Gould was surprised that " he had given up so easily." " lie didn't expect to get more than $100, ooo," said Belden, " and would have been glad to settle for that!" ' Then I sent a messenger to Philadelphia and notified my brokers," so Gordon's story ran, " not to honor the order I had given for the Alleghany and Oil Creek stock." April 9. 1872, Gordon was arrested on complaint of Jay Gould, charged with misappropriating securi- ties in his possession. A. F. Roberts and Horace F. Clark became bondsmen for Gordon, Clark getting out of bed at midnight to qualify, so great was his confidence in " Lord " Gordon. Following this pro- ceeding, Gordon brought suit against Gould to re- cover the money and securities he had got back from him. Such lawyers as ex-Judge James K. Porter, John Graham, and James H. Strahan had confidence enough in Gordon to defend him in the criminal suit, and to conduct his case against Gould. After vari- ous adjournments, the case of Gould vs. Gordon was set by Judge Joseph F. Brady for final hearing on September 20, 1872. A day or so before the trial came on " Lord " Gordon Gordon disappeared, leaving his bondsmen in the lurch to the amount of .OOO, and his lawyers humiliated and discomfited. No trace of Gordon was discovered until early in the summer of 1873, when word was received in New York that he was in Manitoba. Two Minneapolis detectives were employed by his New York bonds- men to capture him. Armed with papers supposed to be sufficient, they went to Manitoba and attempted to fetch Gordon back to the States. They were themselvi ted on a charge of kidnapping, and were thrown into jail without bail, to await trial. Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, endeavored to make an international affair of it, and requested the United States Government to interfere, but without success. The detectives lay in jail three or four months, when they were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to twenty-four hours' imprisonment. After this episode Gordon retired to Headingly, an isolated place in Manitoba, where, on the evening of August 1, 1874, two officers arrested him on war- rants purporting to be issued at Toronto, charging him with larceny and forgery committed in England and Scotland. You won't take me through the States, will you ?" Gordon asked the officer. They assured him that they would not. " Then I ' 11 go," said he. Gordon stepped over the threshold of a door lead- ing to another room, and drawing a revolver, blew his brains out before an officer could reach him. After his death it was learned that the warrants on which he was arrested were bogus. They were part of a scheme of his bondsmen in New York to get him back to that city. He had swindled con- fiding Englishmen and Scotchmen out of $50,000 before coming to this country, and he evidently believed they had sent for him at last. In Great Britain he had passed as Lord Glencairn. He was actually the son of poor Scotch people, although in one of his affidavits in the Gould suit he declared he was " the son of his mother and a Scotch Duke." Whatever and whoever he was, he had genius enough to deceive the shrewdest financiers, the greatest editor, and the most brilliant lawyers of this coun- try, and must, forsooth, drag poor Erie into contact with his rascality. Gould recovered the value of the Alleghany and Oil Creek Railroad bonds, they hav- ing been placed in the custody of the Court pending the litigation against the fraudulent Lord Gordon. Before Jay Gould had left the Brevoort House from his interview with Colonel Scott that evening in February, 1872, Erie Director Frederick A. Lane called on him. " There is a great conspiracy against you," said Lane to Gould, " and you arc being sold out of the Erie management." " What do you mean ?" asked Gould. " General Sickles has been ordered home from THE STORY OF ERIE 187 Europe," replied Lane, " and is in New York amply supplied with money and official backing, including a force of United States Marshals, to unseat you. A majority of your Directors has been purchased." Then, in response to questions from Gould, accord- ing to the subsequent story from the latter's own lips, Lane exposed the whole plan of the conspiracy. " The road is to be handed over to the Atlantic and Great Western," said he. "A meeting of the Erie Board is to be called ostensibly to fix up some Atlantic and Great Western matters. Everything is to be kept secret until the meeting. Then a motion is to be made to fill the two vacancies in the Board, and the men selected will be representatives of the Atlantic and Great Western interests. That will give a working majority in the Board in the interest of the new part}-. Then the retiring Directors will resign one by one, and their places be filled by names designated by the Atlantic and Great Western. Simons, Hall, White, Hilton, Thompson, Otis, and Ramsdell are to receive a price for resigning." "Ramsdell!" exclaimed Gould. "I don't be- lieve Ramsdell will take money! " " He is the very hardest one they have had to bargain with," replied Lane, which surprised Gould exceedingly. ' The money is to be paid by Bischoff- scheim and McHenry, in the interest of the Atlantic and Great Western. They are counting on me, but I shall remain true to you, and they have not money enough to change me." "All of which," remarked Mr. Gould dryly, in giving this narrative, " I took with a slight discount, knowing Lane very well." The pretext for calling the meeting, Lane said, was to be an alleged necessity of the acquiescence of the Erie Board in the consummation of a general settlement that had been agreed upon between the Erie and the Atlantic and Great Western. The " conspirators " were to claim that the Ohio courts required the seal of the Erie Railway Company upon one of the articles of this agreement, to be placed there by order of the Board of Directors. " And," said Gould, " they were going to make- that the pretext for my calling the meeting and step- ping into the little trap." Some time after this information was given Gould by Lane, the former was visited by E. K. YVillard, a broker, who said he had authority to say that if Gould would pass the control of the Erie Railway Company over to the parties YVillard represented, a credit for $500,000 would be placed to his name in any bank or trust company he might designate. " I don't care to sell out," said Gould, and he declined the offer. True to the declaration of Lane, a request was made for a meeting of the Executive Committee to dispose of the Atlantic and Great Western matter. Gould called the meeting early in March. Rams- dell, Lane, Archer, and Gould were the Executive Committee. " The programme was," said Gould, " as soon as this meeting was called to order, at which I would preside, to bring up a resolution calling a meeting of the Board. I had the resolution confirming the Atlantic and Great Western settlement ready, called the meeting to order, put the resolution, passed it, and adjourned the meeting so quickly that before they could get their resolution ready the meeting was over and I was off; so the effort failed. I don't know who made the motion to adjourn. I thought I heard it. Then I thought I heard a good many ' ayes,' and declared it carried." Gould always insisted that he was not requested to call the meeting of the Board in question, although it is in evidence that a letter, signed by nine of the Directors, was sent to him for that purpose, March 8, 1S72. If he did receive the letter its contents could not have been — as all published 'accounts of the Erie revolution record that it was — in any way a surprise to him, for he was in daily expectation of it. The probable truth is that the letter was placed upon his desk, but, divining what it was, he did not open it. But whether he received it or not, there was no response to or recognition of it. Then the signers of the letter communicated formally with Vice-President Archer on March 9th, requesting him to call a meeting of the Board for Monday. March 11, 1872, and he instructed Secretary Otis to make such a call, which was done. That President Gould was not taken by surprise by all this is plainly shown by the fact that he had already at hand his former reliable and willing old 1 88 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES friend, an injunction. This had been obtained by his attorneys. Field & Shearman, from Judge Ingraham of the New York Supreme Court, on the complaint of Jay Gould that the move on the part of Vice- President Archer and the others was in pursuance of a conspiracy with agents of the English stockholders to get i ■■! of the Erie property through brib- ery, and that White. Simons, Otis, Hilton, and Thompson had been, or were to be, paid a large sum of money to resign one by one from the Board, so that their places might be filled with men elected by the conspirators. The injunction was granted, but the Archer meeting was held in spite of it. Jay Gould was not in his place in the President's chair. Great excitement prevailed. Superintendent of Po- lice Kelsoe, who was friendly to Gould, was present with a large force of police, under command of Cap- tain Petty. There was also present a posse of Erie Deputy Sheriffs, in charge of the redoubtable Tommy Lynch. Thomas G. Shearman, of Erie counsel, made excited protests against the legality of the meeting, and for a time it seemed as if it would ter- minate in violence. Through the efforts of General Sickles and others the police were induced to leave the room, and the business of the meeting proceeded. The vacancy in the Board caused by the death of Fisk had not been filled. On motion of Director Lane, seconded by Director Ramsdell, this vacancy was filled by the election of Gen. John A. Dix. Then Director Sisson resigned. Gen. George B. M Clellan was chosen in his place. There was a long existing vacancy in the Board, which was filled by the election of William Watts Sherman, of the house of Duncan, Sherman & Co. Director Hilton resigned, and S. L. M. Barlow was elected to his place. Thus, at the same time, Directors Simons, Otis, Thompson, White, and Lane resigned. Will- iam R. Travers, Col. Henry G. Stebbins, Charles Day, Gen. A. S. Diven, and Charles Drake suc- ceeded them. The new Board then organized by electing General Dix President in place of Jay Gould, and William Watts Sherman, Treasurer. The rest of the Board remained unchanged — Direc- tors Ramsdell, Dr. Edwin S. Eldridge of Elmira, John Gansen of Buffalo, Jay Gould, Henry X. Smith, Henry Sherwood of Steuben County, and Charles Drake. Of all the old Directors only two, Eldridge ami Sherwood, remained true to Goidd. Jay Gould had locked and entrenched himself in his stronghold; the President's room. When the new Board of Directors had finished its business and started to take a look about the premises they had been chosen to have control of, they found that they were locked in, and that the doors were guarded by a strong force of Erie Deputy Sheriffs. General Sickles — who had left the building after the election — says that he was sent for in this emergency, and that he went back and, with the aid of United States Marshal Kennedy, overawed the Erie guard, forced the door with a crow-bar, and freed the imprisoned Directors and officers. Then the Marshal took the papers notifying Jay Gould of his removal as Presi- dent, and the election of General Dix as his succes- sor, and demanding surrender of the building and all papers and documents, and started to serve them. 1 Ie was accompanied by General Sickles and the new Board of Directors. The door of the President's room being locked and barricaded, it was necessary to force it down. Gould was in the room, but by agile leaping over chairs and tables and other furni- ture, and the aid of his bodyguard of Erie police, he avoided the service of the papers, and escaped to the room occupied by his counsel, Field & Shearman, his bodyguard following him. The door of this room was locked behind him. Then the Marshal's mes- senger, a boy named Thomas Crowley, was hoisted over the transom of the door with the papers, and Gould accepted their service. Field & Shearman excitedly advised the forcible ejection of the new officers and Board and all who were with them. Gould, who seemed to be the only calm man in the group, said: ^ " \'i>! Nothing of the sort! This must be done legally or not at all." Gould had caused during the day notices to be posted about the building declaring that he still retained his place as head of the Company, and ordered all clerks and employees to receive no in- structions from any one but him or persons holding his written authority, and forbade them to interfere with any of the business of the Erie Railway Com- pany except under his authority and direction. THE STORY OF ERIE 189 Vice-President Archer ordered that these notices, and all others similar to them that might be posted, be torn down, and the nature of the feeling among the employees as to how the contest would end was quickly demonstrated by the Vice-President's order being promptly obeyed. The excitement among the numerous employees of various departments of the Company was intense. The corridors of the great building were crowded with policemen and Deputy Sheriffs, and Twenty- third Street and Eighth Avenue were thronged with excited people, awaiting the bloody contest they believed was preparing within those marble walls. The police force and its officers were plainly favor- able to the Gould side of the controversy, and at a word from him would undoubtedly have cleared the building of all who opposed him. Gould remained entrenched in the law room until the morning of March 1 2th. All officials of the Com- pany, with the exception of General Superintendent Rucker, had transferred their allegiance to General Dix. Superintendent Rucker soon reconsidered his action and went over to the enemy. Diplomacy was now brought to the settlement of the difficulty, and by it Gould plucked victory from the very jaws of defeat. The Dix party could not claim that the law was with them, but they loudly assured the public that they had justice on their side. They had routed Gould, horse, foot, and dragoon. He had positively no foothold in the Company, except that he was still a member of the Board of Directors. If the charges these men had so freely made against him as to the way he had dealt with and used the property of the Erie Railway Company were true, he was not a man to be among honorable trustees of a great corpo- ration. His place was among malefactors, or his accusers were false accusers and slanderers. This man that the newspapers and rival stock speculators and railroad managers had so long hounded as a criminal was brought to bay at last. Surely his pun- ishment would be the severest ever known. Just men had to deal with him now. His transgression had come to plague him. Did the men who had run him down hurl him out of all connection and associ- ation with the corporation he was charged with de- spoiling, and hold him to answer for his crimes ? There is no record that they did so. With all the power they had so suddenly acquired, these bold men were afraid of the man they had stripped of all his consequence in the Erie Railway Company — he, with but a handful of friends and supporters left, among the hosts that had been wont to do him homage. The}- dared not remove him from his place as Director, for they feared him yet, and knew he could make them trouble. General Sickles being a diplomat, he was deputized to confer with Mr. Gould and his counsel, Field & Shearman. The result of this conference was that General Sickles agreed to the proposition that Jay Gould should hold a formal meeting with the Directors, and that at this meeting the new Directors should be reelected. Then Gould was to resign as President, and Qeneral Dix was to be elected to succeed him. This childish and farcical proceeding was carried out, thus destroy- ing the moral force of the deposing of Gould, and leaving him, in reality, victor over his conquerors. He remained in the Board with as much voice in the management of Erie affairs as any other member had. His counsel, Field & Shearman, were retained as counsel by the new Board in cases then on hand — a rich legacy from this Gould whom the reformers had set out to punish so terribly. The Legislature was heard from on March 13th. The Classification Act was repealed on that day in the Senate, and on the 14th in the Assembly; but Jay Gould was not worrying about classification acts an)- more. On March 15, 1872, he resigned from the Erie Directory without giving any explanation lor his act. General Sickles, being a diplomatist, counselled Gould to this course. " If you resign," the General suggested to Mr. Gould, " it will send the price of Erie up fifteen points. You can make a million dollars." Gould, acting on this counsel, quickly purchased all the Erie stock he could get for the next two or three days, and then resigned. The stock advanced twenty points instead of fifteen, and the deposed Erie magnate presumably made more than the $1,000,000 that General Sickles had so kindly shown him the way to make. Such was the beginning, the course, and the end 190 rWEEN rill". OCEAN AND Fill-: LAKES of Erie's career under the management of Jay Gould, jay Gould, even, did not know then the extent of the duplicity and treachery of those he had trusted, and how deep-laid the plot for his dethronement was among them, in complicity with his enemies. He perhaps never would have known it but for the exposures made long afterward by persons who were still smarting from pique and disappointment over what small recompense the manipulation of the cam- paign against him had brought them from men who had climbed to power through his defeat. And her» is the almost incredible story of it all: V. THE DOCUMENTS IV THE CASK. Frederick A. Lane was in London in September, While there (according to his own statement) he found that a large number of claims had been presented to the representatives of the English stock- holders for services rendered in the overthrow of the Gould management of the Erie Railway Company. " A number of my friends in London" (these are his own words), " aware of the prominent part I had played, urged me to make a statement of the ser- vices I rendered. It was proposed that a select din- ner should be given, to which I would be invited, and that I should deliver an address on the occasion. I did not like this method of making an exposition, being averse to after-dinner speeches. Desirous, however, of acquainting those who were the most concerned with the facts of the transaction, and of defeating the bogus claimants in their unjust de- mands, I ventured to make a statement that would cover the ground full} - ." This seemed to have been satisfactory to those concerned, and Mr. Lane wrote his narrative, and had it printed for exclusively small circulation. Only five copies were given out in London of the edition of fifty printed. All except three of the remainder were destroyed by Mr. Lane himself. When he returned to New York he brought these three with him, and confided them to the reading of close friends, one of whom was W. Archdall O'Dohcrty. the three copies, two were returned to Lane. The third and last copy of this edition de luxe of Erie secrets never came back to him. This one was the O'Doherty copy, and this is it verbatim, as ( I'Doherty furnished it for publication : Till! STATEMENT. London, Sept. 22, 1872. Gentlemen: — It has been suggested to me that a narration of the different steps which brought about the Erie coup d'ttat last Spring would be beneficial to the interests of the stock- hi ilders, and, at tin- same time, v. 1 mid place mj c< mnection with that event before the public in a proper light As yon are aware, various persons have laid claim to producing the result which placed Gen. Dix at the head of the Erie Railway Com- pany, and large -urns of money have been paid to those who were not in the smallest degree entitled to remuneration for any services performed in this matter. Whatever steps may have been taken by them in the way of procuring legislative interference or action by the courts, these had resulted prac- tically in nothing, until I myself originated and carried out the plan which resulted in suc< ess I should not at this late hour put my name to paper to claim this, unless I had found certain parties absolutely ignoring me and putting themselves forward as the originators, promoters, or chief generals of the attack. I had for a long time contemplated resigning my position as a Director of the company, believing that the interests of the Stockholders would be best served by an entire change in the Board, and I so advised, repeatedly, the late President, Mr. Gould. The idea finally struck me that the majority of the Board might, for a small consideration, be induced to resign, and with this view I casually mentioned the matter one morn- ing to a member ot the Board. Henry Thompson, feeling sure that with his known resolution and active cooperation I should succeed. The amount we fixed upon was $500,000, and imme- diately after I commenced the negotiation. I proposed the plan to Mr. Olyphant. of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. He thought that he could arrange it, and con- sulted with some members of his Hoard in reference to it. However. I opened my plan to Mr. \V. A. O'Doherty. a par- ticular friend of Mr. James McHenry, and after a brief inter- view it was considered that the Atlantic and Great Western Railway parties could afford to pay more for the position than any one else. A cablegram was. therefore, forwarded to Mr. McHenry, and thus the negotiation commenced. Copies of all this cable correspondence were retained by Mr. O'Doherty, and can be furnished by him. After a little while the negotia- tion with Mr. McHenry seemed to halt, and I was about to carry it through with other parties. Hut Mr. O'Doherty was so anxious that Mr. McHenry should not let slip this oppor- tunity of controlling the road that, at this juncture, he urged me to see Mr. Barlow. This I was exceedingly loth to do, as I felt confident that Mr. Barlow would wish to get a large fee for himself, and that he would not lit me have the credit of tin transaction, Finally, I consented to see Mr. Barlow with Mr O'Doherty, and then followed several cables from Mr. Barlow to Mr. McHenry. in which I myself inserted the amount to be paid. In my preliminary conversation with Mr. Barlow. I had made it a riw qua non that Mr. O'Doherty and Mr. I". Graham Gardiner, both friends ol mine, should have in the new Board, which was agreed to. Let me say here, how how perfectly the whole thing was in my hands, that when it « quently found that there were objections to Itli men I dictated a settlement with them by which each of them received $25,000 for allowing their names to be THE STORY OF ERIE 191 taken off the new list; so much for my power in that respect. But to return to my narrative. .Mr. Barlow urged the importance of a communication with Gen. Sickles, and I finally assented to a meeting between Mr. Henry Thompson (late Erie Director), Gen. Sickles. Mr. Barlow, and myself, at Mr. Barlow's house. Here the amounts to be paid were talked over. After this time we had various interview;, and we endeavored to have a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Erie Company, for the purpose of calling a special meeting of the Board, at which the overturn was to take place. This was found to be impracticable, as Mr. Gould was a member of that committee. The tirst Utter sent to Mr. Gould was on the Friday before the meeting, as follows: Erie Railway Company, Xew York, March 8, a.d. i8;j. Mr. 'Jay Gould, President Erie Railway Company ; Sir: — The undersigned. Directors of this company, having witnessed with deep regret the growing distrust which per- vades the community in regard to its management, deem it their duty to request you to call a meeting of the Board, with a view to the consideration of such measures and to the trans- action of such business as may be deemed necessary I' nent among the embarrassments are it- finances and a g< want of confidence in the credit of the company. Impressed with the responsibility which rests upon us. we regard this call for a meeting as an imperative duty, and therefore respectfully t that, in compliance with our by-laws, you com cue the Board at a meeting to be held on Monday, the nth day of March, at \2 o'clock. Respectfully yours. Frederick A. Lane. O. II. P. Archer. M. R. Simons. John Hilton. Henry Thomp H. X. Otis. George C. Hall. Homer Ramsdell. Justin D. White. Finding that no notice was taken of this request, on Satur- day, the 9th of March. I proposed to throw off all reserve, and have the meeting called for the Monday following, at all hazards. I therefore drafted this letter, to which the assenting members signed their names, my own being signed first on the list, as on the other. Erie Railway Office. March 9. 187^. Mr. 0. H. P. Archer, Vice-President Erie Railway Company ; Dear Sir:— The President of this company having been requested to call a meeting of the Board of Directors of the company at an early day, and not being able to communicate witli him— though we have endeavored to do so— we hereby request you to issue a call for a meeting 01" the Directors of this company for Monday, the nth day of March, at noon, at the office of the company in Twenty-third Street. Xew \ ork. Yours respectfully. Frederick A. Lane. Henry Thomi O. H. P. Archer. H. X. Otis. M. R. Simons. George C. Hall. John Hilton. Homer Ramsdell. Justin D. White. Mr. Vice-President Archer then directed the Secretary to issue a call for a meeting, which was accordingly done as follows: Office Erie Railway Company. Xew York, March 9, 1872. //. .Y. Otis, Esq., Secretary: Dear Sir: — Having been requested by several of the Direct- ors to call a meeting of the Board in the absence of the Pres- ident, it becomes my duty to request and instruct you to that effect. You will e, immediately -.end proper notice to tin- several Directors, requesting them to meeting to be held on Mondaj next, tin- 11th inst, at 12 o'clock, at the office of the company. Twenty-third Street and Eighth Avenue. Yours respectfully, O. II. P. Archer, Vice-President. This, of course, allowed Mr. Gould in a measure to know our plans, and I immediately took myself off to a neighboring city, lest some legal papers might be served on me, and re- turned to town early on Monday morning. I then went to Mr. Barlow's house to meet the incoming members of the pro- posed new Board, and remained there (with the exception of a short walk with Mr. O'Doherty) until a few moments before the time fixed for the meeting of the Board, when we all started for the Eric building. I arranged that I should keep a little ahead of the new members, who followed in a body, so as to be ready to take their seat ley were chosen. 1 hi arriving at the I . Mr. Thompson met me and said that the building was in charge of the police, and that orders had been given to admit no one except the members of the Board and officials. I saw that prompt action was necessary, and I immediately gave orders to the ushers as follow^: " Mr. Hicks, you will go to the entrance ami ask Gen. Dix to send me his card." On the coming up of his card I said. " Say to Gen. Dix that the counsellor of the company will be glad to see him in the Directors' room." I knew that an official order like this would be obeyed, and so it was. for in a few moments Gen. Dix made his appearance. I pursued the same course with the others, one after another, until all had been admitted except Mr. Chas. Day and Mr. Henry G. Stebbins, when the usher returned and said that Mr. Rucker, the General Superintendent, had given orders that no more should be admitted. I then turned to another usher and told him to obey my orders at all hazards. In a few moments both of these gentlemen came in, and I felt that the battle was won. Immediately the meeting was called to order by the Vice-President, and after the reading of the minutes of tl ng had been dispensed with. I moved a resolution that all the attorneys and counsel of the company should he dismissed, and Messrs. Barlow. Larocque. and MacFarland be the only authorized counsel to appear for the corporation. I did this to prevent any action being brought by Messrs Field iS; Shear- man in the name of the company, by direction of Mr. Gould. I then moved that Gen. Dix should he elected a director in place of the deceased Col. Fisk. which was carried unani- mously. Then Gen. McClellan was elected to fill another vacancy. About this time a messenger appeared with a bundle of papers, and was directed to serve one of them on me. He handed me a copy of an injunction, when I demanded to see the original signature of the judge who had issued it. other- wise it would not be a legal service. The instant he opened the original to show it to me I seized that with most of the be had to serve on the other members and put them in my pocket. In the mtlie which ensued, the original injunction was torn After I had put the papers in my pocket, we went BETWEEN l'HE OCEAN AND THE LAKES on with the election of the new members. The " conspira- ! in turn, ami the new members were chosen, after another, in their places. " Last, though not least," the author of this tendered his resignation. Almi :> as the meeting had been organized, as be- 1.1 was informed by Mr. Barlow that Mr. Gould had n orders that himself and his friends should be put out of the building. I invited them all into the Directors' room and In a moment we heard the advancing steps of a captain, with about live hundred of the worst specimens of New York rowdies and vagabonds at his back. But I was not to be intimidated even by these, and told Captain Petty, the police officer, that I would hold him strictly ac- countable lor any harm that might come, and before he could tell who bad been and who had not been chosen Directors, we had all the new members elected, and he did not dare to lay hands upon them. Many of those rowdies were thoroughly armed, and if there had been any melee, 1 should have been singled out as being evidently the leader in the matter, and my life would, no doubt, been endangered. So great was the feeling against me that night that, by urgent solicitation of my frien Is. I kept away, and put myself in charge of a marshal. After 1 had tendered my resignation, the Board, as reor- ganized, proceeded to pass a resolution removing Mr. Gould and placing Gen. Dix at the head of the company as its Presi- dent. I leave it to others to tell what took place afterward. J assert deliberately, and without fear of contradiction, that I originated the plan which was so successfully carried out, and that without my assistance it would not have been car- ried out at all. Very respectfully yours, Frederick A. Lane, Late Counsellor of the Erie Railway Company. Mr. O'Doherty made this circular public in Feb- ruary, 1873, and it caused such excitement not only in New York City and along the line of the Erie, but throughout the entire country, as no event in the history of the railroad or Company had yet created. Not even the tumultuous and well-nigh bloody days of the Gould revolution, a year before, had been so fraught with material for public perusal as came on the heels of this astounding revelation. That money had been used to turn Gould out of the Erie man- agement had always been believed, especially by men in the circles of finance everywhere, but up to this time there had been no positive evidence that such was the fact. Many found it almost impos- sible to believe the damaging statements made in the circular, hut they were true. And they v the means of bringing from their long hiding place much more of strange conduct on the part of custo- dians ( ,f Eric, past and pr< uch .1, dwarfed ry other subject then uppermost in the public mind as enthralling topics of the day. Mr. Lane professed surprise and indignation that the circular should have been made public, and charged O'Do- herty with a breach of confidence in having brought the exposition about. O'Doherty, on the contrary, declared that it had been given out not only with the full knowledge of Lane, but at his persistent solicitation. O'Doherty had been associated with Jay Gould as Receiver of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, and had been removed as such, with Gould, through the instrumentality of S. L. M. Bar- low. He retained no warm personal feeling for Bar- low, but still had the confidence and esteem of James McHenry. To substantiate the statements made in Lane's circular that he " had copies of all the cable correspondence and could furnish it," O'Doherty followed the making public of the circular, and added interest and importance to this latest sensational chapter in Erie, by furnishing that correspondence. He and Lane, it seems, had agreed upon their pro- gramme February 10, 1872, and on the evening of that day the first dispatch was cabled to London. THE STORY THE CABLE TOLD. New York, Saturday, 10//1 February, 1872, 10 o'clock p.m. fames McHenry, Oak Lodge, Kensington, London : Will you lodge one and a half million dollars in a trust com- pany here or in Philadelphia, payable only on condition that you shall nominate a majority of Eric Board, and have them elected within a week of deposit? I guarantee success, and know that your present plans will fail. Inform no one but Bischoffscheim. Answer me immediately to No. 77 Clinton Place (Eighth Street), but communicate with no one else here. If you say " Yes," a special messenger shall have lure by steamer on Wednesday. O'DOHERTY. General Sickles being then in this country, eng: in his quiet and entirely conventional campaign to accomplish the same end, as the duly authorized agent of James McHenry and Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt, and George Crouch having but re- cently landed here on a similar errand, O'Doherty's dispatch was not only a surprise- but .1 mystery to McHenry. He consulted with his associates in the anti-Gould movement, and it was decided that it would be well to learn more of the O'Doherty plan. Early on Monday morning, February 12th, this dis- patch came from McHenry: THE STORY OF ERIE i93 London. Monday, 12th February. 1872. W. Archdall O'Doherty, 77 Clinton Place (Eighth Street], New ] ork : Do you propose Gould and friends shall remain in Board? Reply. . McHenry. The meaning of this was plain. Upon a satisfac- tory reply to it depended all hope of future nego- tiation. McHenry was answered the same day as follows : No compromises to be made with any one. With majority of Board your first act may be to remove, or force, resignations of all opponents. You will find four millions in bunds, etc., in treasury, and stock will jump up. Your final decision must be made at once. Information to any one here will ruin all. Gould and friends powerless. If action is immediate, success is certain. Can you suggest cipher? O'Doherty. This was an apparent deliberate throwing out of the Erie treasury as a bait. Fears that " others" might become aware of the scheme and thwart it, or come in for a division of the prospective spoils, were plainly agitating the schemers, and the answer to this last dispatch was by no means reassuring. It came on the 13th : We require to know purpose of deposit, and how amount is to be reimbursed. Agent should come here with serious plans, and able to give explanations, and business may be done. McHenry. This was alarming. The sending of an agent abroad meant the using up of a month of time and the absence of O'Doherty from the scene of action, for Lane was persona non grata with McHenry and Bischoffscheim, and it would not do to entrust the delicate mission to a third party. Hence O'Doherty became positive and decisive in his tone. He re- plied to McHenry as follows, on even date: You mistake plans and position of affairs. The $1,500,000 bonus to be paid for control, and can only be got back by profit on stock. No explanations of mode of proceedings shall be asked, or will be given, as you are asked to pay nothing until you get what you want. You must decide at once, or control will pass from you forever. Others would grasp eagerly at your chance. Even if proceedings at Albany succeed, they might serve Heath and Raphael, hut will ruin you. The deeper you and Bischoffscheim are committed in Atlantic, and the blacker things look, the more vital to you is the con- trol of Erie. If you cannot trust my judgment and sincerity you had better give up negotiations. You owe it to me to be frank. Unless you answer explicitly and immediately I cannot keep offer open. I have seen Crouch. O'Doherty. He had "seen Crouch." The seeing of Crouch did not tend toward strengthening the hopes of the O'Doherty-Lane combination. Crouch had just arrived in New York from London. There was 110 doubt in the minds of the dickerers for the sale of Erie that he was in New York either charged with a mission of some kind by the English stockholders or with a scheme of his own for changing the control of Erie. The reply sent by McHenry to O'Do- herty's long and warning dispatch was brief and bore no burden of encouragement. It also came on the 13th, and read: Your dispatch under consideration for definite reply. McHenry. Three days passed without the definite reply from McHenry, and the}- were days of painful suspense to Lane and O'Doherty, and at last, when the reply came, on the evening of the 16th, its definiteness was by no means agreeable to them. It brought one of their worst fears to realization. A third party must be taken into their confidence, and that third party must be one whom they least desired to share their secret — S. L. M. Barlow. This was the reply from McHenry: I have complete confidence in your loyalty to my interests, but my friends decline association with Gould on any terms. But for the lease of the railroad ami resignation of the whole Board, or for placing property in the hands of Receiver, ar- ranged with my agents in New York, will pay amount required. McHenry. The " lease of the railroad " meant the securing and insuring the lease of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad to the Erie Railway Company. S. L. M. Barlow, counsel of the latter Company, was the only agent of the English syndicate with whom Lane and O'Doherty could consult in this mi and they sought him with anything but sanguine expectations for the future of their negotiations in regard to profit. At the interview with Harlow on the 17th, before exposing their plan to him, O'Do- herty, according to his own subsequent statement, but Lane, according to Barlow's declaration, said: " I shall insist on three preliminaries from you. First, that you will not speak of the matter to any- body; second, that you will not ask any part of the 13 194 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES kv to be made out of it ; and, third, that you will not seek to reduce the amount of my compensa- tion and that of my associate-." Barlow demurred to the second preliminary, " jok- ingly," he said (which was not the opinion of O'Doherty), but finally agreed to all three. Then the plan they had formed of inducing the resignation of certain Director-, .is stated in Lane's circular, was revealed to Harlow. lie pondered over it a day or and on the 19th concluded to take a hand in the negi -. He answered McHenry's last dis- patch to O'Doherty as follows: i >'Doherty. Receivership, through action of the ■•!. impolitic, useless. Lease now equally so. In future this may be arranged. What is offered is ten members the present Board named by yon. Immediate withdrawal ower. His resignation to be forced afterward. Lam tion given. Vastly important if money can be raised. No payment until majority oi Board elected bj you. Barlow. To this McHenry responded next day, the 20th: If McClellan is made President we may arrange it. Im- • le to negotiate, leaving Gould in. McHENRY. The cable was kept hot all the rest of the day as follows : Scheme entirely without knowledge of Gould. If McClellan 1- put in his place, with Treasurer and majority of Board, can money be put up at once, subject to payment when accom- plish. Barlow. Addendum — Your last chance. To this the response came: O'Doherty. Translate your telegram to mean Gould resign with nine director-, and that we nominate ten. including President. On this basis we arc ready to act. but if ma tent with your negotiations, would like to have Sickles's opinion. Mi Henry. The above message was addressed to Barlow, but it aroused O'Doherty, who answered it thus: I will not communicate, or allow of communication, with Sickles. Day knows all. O'Doherty. Day, who "knew all," was Charles Day, who expected to be in the new Erie Director)'. This utterance from O'Doherty called for conciliation on the part of McHenry, and he hastened to cable it in these agreeable words: 1 have too much regard for you to communicate directly, or indirectly, with any one against your opinion. M< Henry. During this time, and up to the 22<\ of February, Barlow must have been corresponding with London on his own responsibility, for he telegraphed O'Do- herty from Washington, D. C, on the latter day as follows: London entirely confident of success. I am perfectly satis- fied we can arrange to your satisfaction. Will be home to- morrow night. Barlow. Then O'Doherty heard no more from London for several days. He discovered, in the meantime, that General Sickles had transferred his attention from Albany to New York, and that Crouch was sus- piciously active in Erie affairs. Both were evidently on the ground by authority, and on March 3d, 1 >' 1 toherty cabled these ominous words to McHenry: Beware Present plans will result in loss of money and disgraceful failure. Save yourself. O'Doherty. It did not seem to be exactly clear to the London negotiator as to what O'Doherty meant, and he cabled on the 4th as follows: Further suggestions will be gladly received. McHenry. In his response to this O'Doherty was firm, but cautious : Opinion unchanged. Choice of agent and present pro- gramme ruinous. Cannot cable particulars. O'Doherty. McHenry pondered on this for three days, and then cabled on the 8th : Your advice much appreciated, but depend on you aiding Sickles's campaign, for whose success I am responsible. I arranged programme after serious survey of the whole field, and will take care of your interests. Mi Henry. This seemed to be satisfactory to O'Doherty, and the events of the approaching crisis and its brilliant climax were tersely recorded in the appended cable bulletins of March 9th, 10th, nth, and 12th: Board meeting is arranged for next Monday. By 1 o'clock 011 that day you shall have your wish. All now depends on h0W wisely you Use your victory. O'DOHERTY. Thanks for your dispatch. You may depend on out appre- ciation of such momentous evi Mi Henry. THE STORY OF ERIE 195 Complete victory. Nine of your men elected: Dix, Mc- Clellan, Stebbins, Barlow, Diven, Day, Sherman, Travers, and another. Gould removed. Dix, President. Sherman, Treas- urer. Barlow. Counsel. Gould shows fight. Office full of police, but Gould utterly routed. Lane, before resigning, be- haved splendidly. I congratulate you. O'Doherty. Thanks for brilliant victory. McHenry. DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPOILS. Yet for all this" brilliant victory," thus gracefully acknowledged by McHenry, when the distribution of the reward for it came O'Doherty found that the price of it all had been cut down to §300,000 by Barlow, and that he himself had not come in for one penny of the recompense. According to a state- ment of Lane, O'Doherty would not have received anything at all but for his (Lane's) intervention with Barlow, who consented to a payment of §25,000 to him, a sum no more than Lane's friend, J. Graham Gardiner, who had not appeared anywhere in the proceedings, received. This $50,000 was paid by McHenry on the request of Barlow. The §300,000 was distributed as follows: Frederick A. Lane and Henry Thompson, §67,500 each; M. H. Simons, $40,000; O. H. P. Archer, Vice-President, §40,000; H. N. Otis, the Secretary, John Hilton, and Treas- urer Justin D. White, §25,000 each; George Crouch, §50,000. General Sickles was paid his price out of another fund furnished by the Englishmen. Be- sides that payment, General Sickles put in the fol- lowing bill, which was paid from the Erie Railway Company's treasury: "The Erie Railway Company, Dr. to Daniel E. Sickles. April, 1872.— For disbursements to the several individuals named below, for their services and expenses in the contest to wrest from the recent man- agers the control in the interest of the stock- holders of the road, as follows (by resolution of the Board) : No. I. Francis Barlow. Attorney-General. scrviccs.$10.000 00 No. 3. Gen. George H. Sharpe, services and ex- penses 1.25000 Xo. 4. Silas Seymour, services and expenses 1. 000 00 No. 5. James Thompson, services and expenses... 5,000 00 No. 7. John II. Parker, services and expenses 2,000 00 No. 8. T. L. Nichols & Seymour, petitions 1,627 00 No. 9. Messrs. Barlow, MacFarland & Larocque, services 5' 000 °° No. 10. Simon Stevens, services $2,500 00 No. 11. Benjamin Field, services 1.00000 No. 12. C. P. Shaw, services and expenses 1,250 00 No. 13. Thomas E. Stuart 500 00 No. 14. J. II. Ramsey, for sending retainers 1.800 00 No. 15. George Crouch, services 1.29500 No. 16. Hale & Hand, fees and disbursements 11.500 00 No. 17. P. Willard Bullard, services 1.50000 No. 18. Wheeler H. Peckham 1,00000 No. 20. C. Day. cablegrams and expenses 1.215 27 No. 21. Western Union Telegraph Co. Acct. and Sundries 28086 No. 22. United States Marshal's services 35000 No. 23. Incidentals, such as board bills 3563 96 No. 24. W. E. Chandler 50000 No. 25. C. Day. services 5.000 00 No. 26. W. H. Morgan, services 25000 No. 28. John E. Kennedy, services 250 00 Total $59632 19 THE DRAMATIC STORY OF CROUCH'S LETTERS. The revelations made by Lane and O'Doherty brought out another claimant for the "honor" of having originated the plan of campaign that resulted in the revolution of 1872. This was George Crouch. The following, which are copies of letters written and cablegrams sent by him to James McHenry during the anti-Gould campaign, tell his significant story, and reveal, more than any other record of the event, the true inwardness of the motives actuating the prime movers in the revolution. These docu- ments are by far the most instructive and entertain- ing of all the literature of that stirring epoch in the history of Erie. Hoffman - House. New York, February 20, 1872. James McHenry, Esq., Westminster Chambers, Victoria St-- London : Dear Sir: — A few hours after landing. Lane was at me, offering me "any terms" if I would work with him. He " pumped '* me desperately but I tired him out. Before apply- ing to you for $1,500,000, he sounded some of my men in the Directory, but they knew he is not to be trusted. He finally declared himself altogether hostile to Gould, and I am inclined to believe that he is willing to turn against him 11' satisfied that there is a good prospect of success. I hear that Gould is very anxious to see me. bnt I am not quite ready for him. Gen. Diven is now out of the Directory, but he is bitterly opposed to Gould. Henry Thompson and Hilton can he de- pended upon. Fisk's friends. Simons and Hall, would gladly see Gould overthrown. Ramsdell is firm. Si--'>:i is d ously ill: not expected to recover. White will obey the " powers that be." The new men. Drake and Sherwood, are under the control of Eldridge. of Elmira. The most important man just now is Otis, the Secretary. 196 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES As I told you, his record is clean. He has protested against GouK: rities long, and would ha- but his position i? bread and butter to him, and he has seeing the end of Gould's management < men are ripe (or revolt, but want to be pretty certain of sin- they strike. It's no use letting Harlow and Sickle- waste money on the law and the Legislature. les has been absent since my return, but I learn that he ne nothing. He is taking a holiday at Niagara during the recess of tin- Legislature, but 1 have asked Day to tel( him. and he will be here to-morrow. Truly yours, George Crouch. man House. New York. February 23, 1872. James McHtnry, Esq.: I>k\r Sir: — I told you when I was in London that Sickles many respects, an unhappy selection as leader of your lent to obtain legislative support against Gould. Here, on the ground, my impressions are confirmed, but after seeing the General, and finding that no one was more aware of this than himself, and that consequently he has been politic enough to deny being in any way concerned in Erie matters, and. further, finding that he acknowledged that he can do little or nothing in Albany. I decided to let him into my scheme. At first he considered the thing utterly impossible, but when I named the men I had secured he was astonished and delighted. The Legislature has adjourned until the 26th. The fate of the classification bill will be decided soon after they reassemble. but if everything works well I think Gould will be abolished first. I have now discovered beyond doubt that Lane came to me in Gould's interest. The fact is. Lane is smart enough to real- ize that he has been too badly tarred by contact with Gould to expect anything from a new management, and consequently he is now making a desperate attempt to get something out of him before he is ousted. Finding Lane could not get into my confidence. Gould set other agents to work. Would like me at his house in the evening. I refused to put my head in his no er. No further evidence is needed to show that he is feeling decidedly uncomfortable. The handwriting is on the wall. The work of undermining the Erie citadel is going on rapidly, and I am confident of bringing Gould down with a crash before long. Some of the Directors I have mentioned will be worth retaining, and Gould once gone, it will be an atter to weed the others out. one by one. At present it will not do to talk of making a " clean sweep,'' as that will free some to stand by him. Hoffman House, New York. February 28, 1872. James Mel fcury, Esq.: Sir: — Since writing you last, much has been accom- plished, and I am now confident of success. I am in hopes that 1" 11 will have been advised by cable of Gould's removal. tting that I h ■ give you details of oper- ations, I hasten to ri llts. Notwithstanding the vigi- lance of the detectives Gould has put on my track, I have Ltion with my friend- in the Directory. interview with Otis, he gave me the inclosed statement of the finances of the company and you may rely on its accuracy. All information obtained which might be useful to you I have immediately communicated to Mr. Day. in order that he might cable you in cipher. Oti- is now in constant communication with me. and posts me a- to Gould's every move. Introduced Thompson to Sickles on Monday la-t. lie 111.111 -elected to lead the revolt in the Hoard. 1 know Thompson thoroughly. His record in Erie is clear, and all the good men will stand by him. The General at once ap- proved of the selection, and a satisfactory arrangement was made as to funds. Since writing last I have had an interview with Hilton. A thorough understanding resulted. 1 told you I could answer for him. He gave me his views of Gould twelve month- ago. George C. Hall was the next to sign articles, and we now count on Simons, Ramsdell. Sisson, and White besides, making eight out of fourteen. We now cal- culate on electing three good nun to till existing vacani thus getting eleven out of seventeen. The re-t will be easy. As it is, Gould dare not call a meeting. He " smells a mil but can't ferret it out yet. As to Lane, I need say nothing. You know him as well as I do. He is of no further use to Gould, and we can use him if necessary. Consider him muzzled. March 10th. James McHciiry, Esq.: Dear Sir: — Just a few hurried lines on the eve of battle. Up to this time my labors have been entirely successful, and to-morrow I am confident we shall put Gould's forces to rout. We have moved against the enemy in three columns. One, headed by Sickles, has been diverting him in the I., gislature; another, under the Attorney-General, has been threatening a think movement in the court-: and the third, under yours truly (composed principally of sappers and miners'), has succeeded in undermining the very citadel of Erie. In order to cover my mining operations, I kept up an incessant bombardment through the pre--, as you will see by paper- forwarded. To- morrow the mine will be fired, and the forlorn hope will it the bi each. I worked night and day until I had secured a majority Direc - ory. We now have under our flag, Hilton, Simons, Hall, Thompson, Otis. Archer. Ramsdell, Sisson. White, and Lane, making ten. On the other side are Gould, Sherwood, and Eldridge. Lane ha ourse, tried to be tricky again, but Thompson is holding him by the nape of the neck and he can't wriggle away. Yesterday our men met. headed by Ramsdell, Thompson. and Archer, and called a meeting in spite of Gould's opposi- tion. To-morrow the first thing will be to fill the existing vacancies. That done, Hilton, Simons, Thompson, Otis. Sisson. White, and Lane will resign in turn in favor of the new men, and the first act of the new Board will be to depose Gould. \\ e have calculated that Gould will not stick at anything to-morrow when he finds himself doomed, but have taken all possible precautions against any mischief. Erik BUILDING, I'm -mixi's Offn e, March n, 1872 — u'j r.w. James McHenry, Esq.: Dear Sir: — I telegraphed you on the eve of the battle that success was certain. To-night I sit at Gould's desk, and have the pleasure of penning this brief di-patch on official paper. I am too tired to give you an account of to day's lighting. You will see it in the papers. Archer and myself volunteered THE STORY OF ERIE 197 to bivouac on the field, knowing that Gould would invent some new deviltry as soon as 11 became dark. We arc hold- ing the Eighth Avenue line from the President's office to the dining room. The enemy holds the Twenty-third Street line. We also hold the safes and the treasury down stairs. Gould has his headquarters in the counsellor's room with Field. Shearman. Tweed, and other "glorious remnants" of the ring. Ah. nit two hundred of the worst desperadoes in New York are massed against the doors we have barricaded. Since writing the above, the enemy has attempted to break into the safes. By making a bold front with our small force we drove them off. Have sent for Sickles and Barlow for reinforcements, but two hours have elapsed since the mes- senger started, and we have now abandoned all hopes of aid from the outside. Gould's fellows hold all the outside doors, and we are completely isolated. Unless we hold out, Gould will sack the safes and the treasury and clear out for Jersey. Our people almost deserve to lose the fruits of the victory for their folly in not helping us to get a sufficient force to keep the field. The new policemen have been won over by Gould, and our position is extremely unpleasant. If Gould lets his gang loose there won't be much left of us in the morning. 3 a.m. — The enemy have just crashed through Rucker's door into the President's room. We only snapped the sliding doors together and fastened them in time to prevent their sweeping clean through on us. Situation desperate, but at critical mo- ment managed to get a parley with Gould's lawyer. Shearman finally convinced that game was up. Hostilities suspended. Shearman goes back, and Gould breaks at last — is completely unmanned, breaks into tears, and sends out to ask terms of surrender. Daybreak.— All settled. Off to bed. " Good night." CROL'CH'S CABLEGRAMS. Feb. 15.— Progressing well. Buy all you want and hold confidently. Feb. 24. — Gould's removal inevitable. Feb. 27. — Majority of Erie Directory with us. Gould power- less. Have loaded up in this market at thirty. Feb. 29. — Gould completely tied. Keep secret. Every pre- caution taken. Failure impossible. Have you bought all you want? March 8. — We are ready to fire the mine. Keep cool and confident. March 10. — All satisfactorily settled. Shall get control at meeting to-morrow. March 10. — Eve of battle. Victory certain. March 11. — Complete victory. We are in possession. Hold for further rise March 18. — Situation satisfactory. Don't sell a share. March 2.3. — Leaving by steamer Italy, to-day. Hold on to Erie on your side, but keep fingers on trigger. Have left orders to sell here at sixty. Gould trying to make a deal with Barlow. Barlow will bear watching. Crouch also made an explanatory statement before the Legislative Investigating Committee of 1873, from which the following is extracted as appropriate to the story of Gould's overthrow: 1 Wi I to investigate the affairs of the Gould ring, and thus made the acquaintance of Fisk and Gould. While thus engaged, 1 was asked by friends in England to report the state of the road, and went over both the Erie and Atlantic and Great Western roads to make an examination. I drew up a report and sent it to the Stockholders in London, showing that the Gould management had greatly improved the road. Gould was much pleased with thi ntly I made the acquaintance oi other Directors. These l> greatly condemned Gould, but felt hound to remain at their hoping one day for a change. Fisk found out that Gould intended to get rid of him and the Din were in his confidence, and he was il.-Mmih of coming to terms with the English stockholders, in order to protect himself. Fisk told me that if I could come back from England with sufficient English proxies, he would cut loose from Gould. I went to London and. while there, learned of Fisk's death. The majority of the Erie Board were favorable to Fisk and against Gould, and I. therefore, consulted with the English stockholders for a change in the Directors. While I was so engaged, a modest proposition came to England from Lane and O'Doherty. the proposition being that $1,500,000 should be placed in their hands, and tin I nglish stockholders should shut their eyes and ask no questions. The proposition was shown to me. and although the amount was absurd, I advised McIIenry to keep l.ane in play, or he certainly would turn over to Gould. I then started for New York. Bischoffscheim had engaged General Sickles, who said that as Tammany was overthrown, he could accomplish a great deal in Albany by his influence. I knew nothing of Sickles, and did not at first feel inclined to open my plans to him. When I arrived in New York. General Sickles was at Niagara. Some of the old Directors, who opposed Gould, agreed to resign without remuneration. Others, however, wanted recompense for the loss of contracts and positions, among whom was Simons, the manager of the Narragansett Steamship Company. Having obtained a majority of the Board for my project, I telegraphed Sickles, and met him in Mr. Day's office. Sickles said he had not communicated with Kngland, as he had accomplished nothing, but he had been to Albany and laid his pipes. After conversing with him, I thought he would make a good figure- head to impress the doubtful Directors, and I told him that I had a mine that would upset Gould's citadel. Sickles tli the plan too good to live. Sickles made the arran pay the retiring Directors, and assisted to put in the temporary Board nominated by Bischoffscheim & Co., who had furnished the money, which was distributed by Sickles and S. L. M. Harlow. The JsO.ooo paid me was a bonus from the English stockholders for services rendered. According to the tale which Crouch's bulletins to McIIenry so graphically and dramatically tell, and to his statement before the Investigating Committee, Crouch would appear to be really the one who was the originator of the movement that led to the un- seating of Gould and the turning over of the Erie to the new management, and that all others were sim- ply insignificant accessories before and after the fact. But O'Dohcrty's explanation of the presence of Crouch would seem to warrant the inference that BE fWEEN i in: OCEAN and i in; l AKES uch was only in the affair by O'Doherty's suffer- ance. O'Doherty's statement, also, relegates Gen- eral Sickles and S. L. M. Barlow to a position of eleventh-hour abettors, jealous of the prominence and importance of O'Doherty in the movement, thus : THK NARRATIVE OF O'DOHERTY. t to the L tting Committee of '1873.) Mr. McHenry had sent out a man of the name of Crouch, with a letter of introduction to me. Crouch was placed at my disposal for any operation 1 might recommend against Gould. Not thinking that this man was ol an) use to me. 1 introduced him to Charles Day and S. L. M. Barlow, recommending them ise him in connection with General Sickles in the lobbyist operations at Albany, which were at that time being carried on. Crouch was so employed, but having been at one time in the service of the Erie Railway Company as a sort of newspaper clerk, and having appeared at Albany in the capacity of a great . nerican stockholder, supporting Gould's administra- tion, he put himself in communication with the old Directors, all of whom he knew, and through the blabbing of some of these Directors he discovered Lane's plans and heard of the intended coup d'etat. He communicated this information to General Sickles, from whose knowledge I had carefully ex- cluded our plans. General Sickles, naturally nettled at being kept out of our confidence, set Crouch to work to make ar- rangements with our Directors to give their resignations in consideration of sums to be paid by him instead of Lane. Sickles proposed the same arrangement to them that Lane had originally made. Of course it didn't matter to the Di- rectors from whom they received the money. The funds were in the hands of Bischoffscheim & Co. of London. We only had the promise of them. Lane was carry- ing the arrangement on. Sickles was carrying on the same thing, without Lane's knowledge at this time, although Sickles knew Lane's plan. On his own account. Sickles set the same negotiation, afloat through Crouch. Sickles then communi- cated with McHenry, and alter figuring up how little he could ' for. offer omplish the same result that I had pro- 1. lor $,?oo.ooo instead of $1,500,000, which I had asked. McHenry and Bischoffscheim failed to keep their agreement with me. Sickles made known to Lane what he had heard, and told him that unless he consented to accept the smaller amount, his services would be entirely dispensed with, and the nations would be obtained without his intervention. By other representatioi was so frightened that he . 1 the $300,000, and himself put that amount in or. ims. McHenry and B heim in breaking the agreement made with us. Everything was now fixed except the 1 Barlow i> legraphed to have it sent on ■ .11 . ni losuri "i : , credit to Barlow in favor of Daniel I-'.. Sickles. This, naturally, exasperated Barlow eery much, and annoyed me s,, greatly, for I was then on fi rms with Barlow, thai on Sunday, March .1.1. I telegraphed McHenry: "Beware! Present plans will n on eful failure! Save yourself! " I had made up mj mind to go iould and disclose the plot to him. I wa nl at the way Bischoffscheim had ted Barlow. McHenry then telegraphed for further siig- ..ns. and on March 5th. I replied: "Opinion unchanged. Choice of agent and present plan ruinous. Cannot cable par- ticulars." Barlow, having his own plans [or revenge, took great pains to soothe my irritability, and I got Lane to go on with the plot. After reading O'Doherty's own narrative of the part he and others played in the Erie drama of the winter of 1S72, it would be difficult for any one to draw any other conclusion than that to O'Doherty belonged all the credit of its production. Hut Bar- low contributes a chapter of personal reminiscence of the affair, and in it the name of O'Doherty does not appear at all as having been in any way con- cerned in its inception, progress, or consummation. BARLOW'S STORY. {Told to the Legislative Investigating Committee of 1873 Some time in February, 1872, Mr. Lane came to me and said it would not be difficult to secure the resignation of a majority of the Directors of the Erie road and the election of proper men in their places. He showed me a series of cablegrams which had passed between himself and McHenry on that sub- ject. Before doing SO he had insisted on three preliminaries — that I would not speak of the matter to anybody; that 1 would not ask any part of the money for myself: and that I would not seek to reduce the amount of his and his asso- ciates' coi on. 1 assented to the lirst preliminary, and the second, with a joke that 1 thought it was hardly fair I should engage in a thing and not have any chance to make money. But to the third 1 said: " I cannot assist you in obtaining a particular sum of money in a matter of which I know nothing, and about which my opinion or judgment may be asked by my friends on the other -nil. I will not go out of my way, though, unless my opinion is asked, to cut your compensation down." in 1 1 ] i — he assented,. and then told me that hi- plan proposed the sum of $1,500,000. After this had been all done, and the Board had been w upon, and all the preliminaries to the proposed changes had been assented to. I told Mr. Lane that as General Sickles was here seeking legislation at Albany for a repeal of the Class, tication Act. and as 1 was holding relations with him as joint Counsel lor the foreign Stockholders, I must be permitted to tell him. Lane refused to assent to this. Three or four d afterward, when General Sickles came I" consult with me about the preliminary litigation. I told Mr. Lane again that unless he gave me permission to explain to General Sickles the ii i o 'us combination, 1 could go no urther in it. 1 nded with my friends on the other side and obtained their assent to the proposed bargain. Even the large amount demanded by Mr. I. am- was not special the stoi I m the other side, provided that wi i tire the result sought. Without admitting I t I could pay this large amount. [ finally prepared a statement to be sent to ill' other side, naming the proposed new Board substantially, and leaving the amount of compensation to be put in. and that blank Mr. Lam filled up himself at $300,000 THE STORY OF ERIE 199 instead of his, as I told him that unless lie made this pro- posed change I would refuse to have anything to do with him, as it was placing me in a false position with my a- counsel. Then he authorized a statement of the facts to be made to General Sickles. This statement 1 made to General Sickles in the presence of Mr. Day. This was the first intima- tion the General had of it, and he opposed it on the ground that the legislation at Albany was certain, and that the stock- holders would have, within three months, an opportunity of voting, and he preferred that means. Upon the considi and assumption, however, that he should have the management of the movement from that time forward, and not only have tin- charge of it, but. I assumed, the credit of it. he consented to forego his plan in favor of this one. From that time Gem ral Sickles took an active part, in conjunction with myself, in consummating the plan. When the $300,000 that had been agreed to be paid for the change was about to be forwarded in answer to my cable. General Sickles, as 1 have been informed, cabled to Mr. McHenry and asked that the money should be sent to him and not to me. McHenry cabled me to know if there was any disagreement between me anil General Sickles, and I replied that there was none. Very much to my satis faction, the final credit came to General Sickles and not to myself. It was claimed by Mr. Lane that this money was not a payment for resigning and putting others in their places, but that they having, as Directors, incurred personal responsi- bilities by becoming sureties on bonds, and that they antici- pated serious litigation on the part of Gould, they looked upon this as rather an indemnity than a payment for resigning. Without assenting to that, and discussing it, it was agreed that the total sum of $300,000 should be paid whenever a majority of the existing Board should resign and the nominees named by myself should be legally appointed. The agreement was not in writing. General Sickles told me who were to receive the money and the amount to each. I agreed that I would see that the money would be paid. They preferred this rather than the assurance of General Sickles on the subject, as he was not likely to remain here a great while, or for some other reason. General Sickles transferred the credit at Duncan, Sherman & Co.'s for the $300,000 from his name to mine. When the change was made 111 the Board, and Gould's resignation obtained. I disbursed the whole amount, paying $67,500 each to Lane and Thompson; $50,000 to Simons; $40,000 to Archer, and $25,000 each to Otis. White, and Hilton Just before this consummation, on the Saturday before. 1 think. Lane informed me that the agreed sum of $300,000 was not large enough to divide with all the people he wished to indemnify, and that the whole plan would fail miles, I paid O'Doherty $50,000 and another $50,000 to J. Graham Gardiner. I objected, but finally, to save the plan, agreed to see that these men received $25,000 each. Gardiner had been very useful as a go-between for Lane, myself, anil others. These sums were subsequently paid by Mr. McHenry on draft made by me upon him. making the total cost of the matter $350,000— salvage, in the estimation of everybody concerned, paid b> the owners of the property to secure control of it themselves, and a much cheaper way than litigation. The only other sum I ever knew to be expended by the stockholders was the amount disbursed by General Sickles, or paid him for services during the three or four months previous to the nth of March, 1S72, and $50,- 000 to George Crouch. At the election in July. 1872, it was represented on behalf of the London stockholders by Mr. McHenry. who was here, and by Mr. Homan, a large stockholder and Director, who came from London to attend this meeting, that the total expendi- tures incurred by the stockholders amounted to between $700,- 000 and $800,000. This embraced a very large compen paid to General Sickles, $50,000 to George Crouch, and. of course, this $350,000. The aggregate was claimed to be $750,- 000, or thereabouts. It was due to these exposures that it is possible at this late day to narrate the inner history of the " rescuing of Erie.*' But for them. Jay Gould would never have told of the part that was really played by the reform management with him in making it sure that their loudly proclaimed victory would not. after all, end in defeat. This is Jay Gould*s story of the events succeeding the coup of March 11, 1872, and from it a person might not nec- essarily need to strain a point much to gather that the credit of unseating Gould belonged really to himself: JAY GOULD'S STORY of his DETHRONEMENT. i to the Legislative Investigating Committee of 1S73.1 I called a meeting B lard for the next day. Tuesday, March 12th. inviting the members who were then legal Di- 3 of the company. At that meeting we should have filled up all the vacancies, for I had control of the company and of the Board just as perfectly as I ever had. as they conceded themselves. After I had made this call, and that evening (nth), while the whole affairs of the company were deranged and demoralized, and when we held one side of the building by force, and they the other. Dr. Kldridge, who was a Director of the company, and a large stockholder, came to me and urged a settlement, and said, I think, that he had had a convcr with Mr. Barlow, who proposed that some of the other Di- rectors meet with Mr. Barlow, and that he had no doubt an arrangement could be made that would be satisfactory to all Sides, and he explained to me the terms, and I acquiesced in it immediately. He went back to Mr. Barlow with power from me to close the arrangement. He had a second interview with him. and then returned to me and said the matter was 1 I This " arrangement " made with Gould to effect his surrender, and place the then entirely untenable footing of the " revolutionists " on a safe ground, is shown by the following: New York. March 14. 1872. ■ii/rf, Esq. : Dear Sir: — Referring to the conversation with you of this date in relation to the affairs of the Erie Company and your- self personally. I agree, on behalf of the present Board, that the ing verbal agreements shall lie carried out as soon as they can be done with discretion: The proceedings of the Board and stockholders, and the release thereunder to yourself. Fisk. and Lane, shall be con- 2 ' B] fWEEN THIC OCEAN AND I 1 1 K LAKES fin quiesced in by the present Board, who shall give dditional release down to the period of your closing your connection with the company. The advances made by you, the »Ktails of which wen- shewn me this morning, amounting to $<)j.ooo. shall be paid for. The ■l the Chemung Railroad to the Northern Central road Company, January i, 1872, shall he carried out with the understanding that if the Erie Company shall elect to pay the Chemung Company the pro rata trackage instead of the amount of Sro.coo. fixed in the lease or rent, it shall have the right to do so. The lease and agreements with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, t: in Railroad Company, and the Erie ipany, for use of the Jefferson Railroad Company, etc.. to be carried You are to be protected in all bond-, you have signed on appeal or for custom purposes for the company, and also as indorser for the company. The loans you are carrying for the company will.be promptly paid. Very respectfully. D. E. Sickles. The release mentioned in the above is as follows : To all 'whom these presents shall come or may concern. Greeting : Know all men that the Erie Railway Company, a corpora- tion of the State of New York, for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar, lawful money of the United States of America, to it in hand paid by Jay Gould. James Fisk. Jr., and Frederick A. Lane, hath remised, released, and forever dis- charged, and by these presents doth, for itself, its successors and assigns, remise, release, and forever discharge the said Jay Gould. James Fisk. Jr., and Frederick A. Lane, and each of them, their and each of their heirs, executors, and adminis- trators, of and from all manner of action and actions, cause and causes of action, -nit^. debts, dues, sums of money, ac- counts, reckonings, bonds, bills, specialties, covenants, con- tracts, controversu ments, promises, varianc p.i-scs. damages, judgments, extents, executions, claims and demands whatsoever, in law or in equity, which against the said Jay Gould, James Fisk, Jr.. and Frederick A. Lane, or any one or more of them, it ever had. now has. or which its sui -ors or assigns hereafter can, shall, or may have. for. upon, or by n any matter, cause or thing whatsoever, from the beginning of the world to the thirty-first daj ol October, [871. In witness whereof, the said company hath caused these presents to be -lulled by a committee appointed by the Board of Dircci d company, and by the authority ami order of the Directors anil stockholders thereof, and its corporate -eal to be herewith affixed, this thirtieth day of December, 1871. The Erie Railway Company, l'.\ b iHN 1 1 1 1 |o\, ) ' Henri I omi in, j ^'"""""- Sealed and delivered in presence of — Geo. W. Parcber, Mortimer Smith, Assistant Secretary. [l. s.] The loans Gould claimed to be due him from the Erie amounted to between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000. The release was given, as above, at a time when Gould, Fisk, and Lane were expecting to be held responsible, both at civil and criminal action, for acts done in the name or the Company, and the fact that it was subsequently of no legal force or value did not speak much for the stamina or courage of the new " Reform " management in hastily recog- nizing and acknowledging it at the demand of the man whom they had gone to so much trouble and expense to unhorse, showing that he had virtually to unhorse himself, after all. GENERAL JOHN A. DIX. CHAPTER XVII. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN A. DIX— MARCH TO JULY, 1872. McHenry, Barlow, and the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company the Tower Behind the Throne — The Erie's Floating Debt $5,000,000, and No Money in the Treasury — Barlow Appeals to Bischoflscheim for Aid and Gets It — The Extraordinary Contract with the London Bankers to Place the $30,000,000 Loan — Peter II. Watson, ex-Assistant Secretary of War, Succeeds General Dix. It was many weeks after the so-called Sickles coup Railway Company for the prestige of his name, and had brought into existence the" Reform" manage- as an earnest of the lofty intentions that were to ment of Erie that Wall Street was willing to accept move the new management in restoring and rehabili- it as anything more than the result of a collusive tating Erie. He had been but a short time Presi- scheme to which even Jay Gould himself was a party, dent, though, when he manifested a disposition Time and circumstances entirely disproved this incompatible with that of a figurehead, and insisted suspected collusion of Gould with the revolution, that he had some ideas of his own as to the future There was no room for any doubt, however, as to of the Company. This caused friction in the Board. the tangible presence of a powerful Atlantic and Earl}- in the term of the new administration rumor Great Western element in the atmosphere surround- began to busy itself with coming changes in the ing the new order of things in Erie. The controlling management. It declared that General Dix was to influence of the management was James McHenry, in be removed and General McCIellan made President connection with Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt, the in his place. At all events, it proclaimed with London bankers, and representatives of the English firmness, " Dix must go." Shareholders' Association. His ambition was to effect a combination of the interests of the Erie September 1, 1870, the Gould management had Railway Company with those of the Atlantic and authorized an issue of $30,000,0x20 in consolidated Great Western Railroad Company, the vicissitudes bonds, to bear interest at 7 per cent., payable in of which latter had led him into serious financial gold,- and to mature in forty years. These bonds entanglement. By such a combination he hoped to were intended for the conversion and extinguish- use the Erie as a means of relieving himself of his ment of the then existing mortgage bonds and other burden of Atlantic and Great Western responsibili- debts of the Company. Of this loan §18,000,000 ties, by passing it over to the broader shoulders of were deposited with the Farmers' Loan and Trust the Company he had seized from Jay Gould, although Company to take up the outstanding old bonds, and, those shoulders were already so overladen with other by an arrangement with J. S. Morgan & Co., of burdens that this one would have been as the last London, $5,000,000 were deposited with that house straw that broke the patient camel's back. The to take up the old English or sterling loan. None Atlantic and Great Western influence had a power- of these bonds had been placed. On May S, 1872, ful representative in S. L. M. Barlow, of the new two months after the Dix management came in. Erie Directory. He was counsel to the Atlantic Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt were appointed sole and Great Western, as well as to the Erie. General financial agents of the Erie Railway Company in McCIellan, of the Directory, was President of the Europe, and a contract was made with them by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company. Company under which they were to place the S30.- General Dix had been elected President of the Erie 000,000 loan. By the terms of this contract the 202 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Company bound itself to pay these bankers a commis- sion of I per cent, on the total amount of the semi- annual interest upon such bonds as they might countersign and issue; a commission of one-half of I percent, on the principal of such bonds; a com- mission of 2 l / 2 per cent, on the nominal amount of the loan to the full extent issued to the public and paid for, or exchanged for bonds of previous issue, and a further commission of one-quarter of I per cent., in the same manner and times, as brokerage. The agents were also authorized to deduct from the money they might receive for the sale of bonds the amount that might be due them from the Company, principal and interest, for advances made by them. In addition to this, the Company agreed to pay such of the liens and commissions as the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company or the firm of J. S. Morgan & Co. of London might have against it, the former com- pany having $18,000,000 and the latter $5,000,000 of the bonds in custody. This was the issue of bonds of which Jay Gould had purchased $3,000,000 at 60 while he was President of the Company. After the Dix management came into power, S. L. M. Barlow took preliminary measures to recover these bonds from Gould by legal proceedings, on the ground that he had purchased them, owing to his official connection with the Company, at a figure below their market value. Discovering, on investi- gating the matter, that the contention would not stand, as the price paid for the bonds by Gould was as high as could have been obtained from any other purchaser at the time, and that his being President of the Company was no bar to his holding securities of the Company if properly obtained, the proceed- ings were discontinued. The day the Erie was turned over to the Dix management, Justin D. White, then Treasurer of the Company, reported officially to the Board that the Company was, in round numbers, $5,000,000 in arrears, with no money in the treasury. Of this sum, it was claimed, over $2,000,000 were demand claims held by friends of the old Board, and money to pay them had to be raised forthwith to save the Company from bankruptcy, and the only security available was $3,336,000 of the $30,000,000 consoli- dated bonds. Following is the official showing of the Company's condition: Floating Debt of the Erie Railway Company, March 11, 1872, as reported by the Treasurer, yustin D. White : Bills payable, maturing at an average of over $700,000 per month $1,846,000 00 Loans, viz.: Willard, Martin & Co $619,674 56 O. H. P. Archer 50,000 00 W. J. O'Beirne 300,00000 W. J. O'Beirne 125,000 00 Daniel Drew 300,000 00 Edwin Eldridge 125,000 00 Marine Bank 70,00000 Pennsylvania Coal Company 105,00000 Tenth National Bank 100,000 00 Union Steamboat Company 100,00000 Duncan, Sherman & Co 100,000 00 — 2,084,674 56 $3,930,674 56 Unpaid Labor for January 80,000 00 Unpaid Labor for February 550,000 00 Supplies 285.000 00 Line Vouchers 100,000 00 Miscellaneous Vouchers 30,000 00 Total $4,975,674 56 Securities of the Erie Railway Company Hypothecated. Jefferson Railroad Bonds $645,000 00 National Stock Yard Co. Bonds 410,000 00 Newburgh and New York Railroad Co. Bonds. 150,000 00 Glenwood Coal Co. Bonds 50,coo 00 Boston, Hartford and Erie Bonds 678,000 00 Consolidated Mortgage Bonds 3,336,00000 Capital, March, 1872. Stock $78,000,000 00 Preferred Stock 8,536,910 00 First Mortgage Bonds $3,000,000 Second Mortgage Bonds 4,000,000 Third Mortgage Bonds 6,000.000 Fourth Mortgage Bonds 4,441.000 Fifth Mortgage Bonds 926.500 Buffalo Branch Bonds 186,400 Sterling Bonds 5.000,000 Consolidated Mortgage Bonds 3,000,000 Long Dock Bonds 3,000,000—29,553,900 00 $116,290,810 00 Leased Roads, Capitalized 17.000.000 00 Floating Debt 4.975.6/4 °° Total $138,266,484 00 THE STORY OF ERIE 203 Whether or not the list of personal creditors in this statement showed that they were " friends of the old Board " must be a matter of opinion. At any rate, it is reasonable to suppose they wanted their money. The value of the consolidated mortgage bonds, as a means of meeting these claims, was attested by the fact that they could not be hypothecated in New York for more than fifty cents on the dollar. Bar- low cabled Bischoffscheim a statement of the des- perate situation the Company was face to face with, and asked for a credit of $2,000,000 on the security of $3,500,000 of the consolidated mortgage bonds. Bischoffscheim responded by cabling the desired credit, and the difficulty was tided over for a short time. Then a similar crisis confronted the Com- pany, and Bischoffscheim was asked for another loan of §2,000,000, which he cabled to the rescue of the Company. It was for this service, which the Erie manage- ment (or rather Mr. Barlow) declared that no other house in the world would have taken the risk of doing, that the contract for placing the consolidated bonds was made with Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt on such extremely liberal terms. The correctness of this Barlow opinion was called into serious question by others, and it became the subject of unpleasant official query a few months later. Under the act of the New York Legislature repeal- ing the Classification Act, which was signed by Gov- ernor John T. Hoffman April 20, 1872, an election for a new Board of Erie Directors must be held July 10, 1872. A great deal depended on the result of that election. Heath and Raphael and the Ameri- can Committee of Erie stockholders held about three- eighths of the capital stock, and Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt controlled another three-eighths. The remainder was held in Wall Street. A fierce strug- gle to gain possession of a majority of the outstand- ing two-eighths of the stock, to insure control of the coming election, began between the rival interests, and Erie once more became the all-exciting feature of the Street. This met with the pleasant approval of the bull element in Wall Street, for the scramble of the English schemers for stock had the effect of putting the price of Erie steadily higher. The indi- vidual interests and future prospects of neither of the rival prime movers in this struggle were enhanced by this situation in Wall Street at that time, and the result was that on April 8th, Heath and Raphael, of the London Protective Association, drew out of the fight and surrendered their holding of Erie stock to Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt. This practically destroyed all hope the opponents of the plan of reorganization and future management of the Com- pany and road had of gaining ascendency in the Company, and substituting their ideas of the proper way Erie affairs should be conducted. It also re- sulted in a significant victory for Jay Gould. April 4, 1872, John Swan, representing the Heath and Raphael interests, had instituted proceedings, through Attorney-General Francis C. Barlow, against Jay Gould and Frederick A. Lane to recover such sums of money as they might have obtained by alleged irregular methods during their management of the Erie Railway Company. General Dix, as President of the Company, was made a party to this litigation as a matter of form. May 13th following, on motion of John Swan, this suit was discontinued by the Hon. William L. Learned, Judge of the New York Supreme Court, on payment to such defend- ants as had appeared the costs and disbursements in the proceedings. Jay Gould had appeared, but Lane had not. The reason assigned by Swan to the Attorney-General for discontinuing the proceeding was that his clients had made such arrangements with other stockholders as to insure proper protec- tion of their interests in Erie, and consequently did not desire any further aid of the people of the State in the action. As the time approached for the election it became an open secret that the Dix management was not the one that the new masters of Erie desired, and that the influences at work were not to the liking of General Dix. A section of the act repealing the Classification Act prohibited any officer or director of any other railroad company from holding a place in the Erie Direction. This prohibition stood in the way of a purpose the English controllers of the situ- ation had in view, which was the placing of Cornelius Yanderbilt at the head of the Erie Railway Com- 204 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES pany as the successor of General Dix. They made an effort to have the objectionable section of the act repealed almost before the ink with which Governor Hoffman had signed the bill was dry. They failed in this, and sought elsewhere for a new President for Erie. General McClellan, who, being President of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company, had resigned from the Erie Board, was suggested, but he seemed to prefer the place he had. The then President of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Com- pany, T. B. Blackstone, was importuned to take the place, but he declined. Then the perennial Gen. A. S. Diven, of Elmira, was mentioned prominently, but no agreement could be reached that warranted his call to the place. As a matter to be of pleasing recollection to General Dix, James McHenry and Gilson Holman, of the Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt combination, and S. L. M. Barlow, their leading representative in the Erie Board, requested him, by a pressing communication, to remain at the head of the Company. He replied to them that his private affairs were such that it would be impossible for him to remain. No one seemed to care to be President of the Erie Railway Company at that time. As late as July 8th, two days before the date fixed for the election, no future President was yet in sight. At a meeting of the leaders in Erie, held on the evening of that day, the name of Peter H. Watson was suggested. The suggestion came from Commodore Vanderbilt. Mr. Watson had been Assistant Secretary of War under Secretary Stanton during the Civil War, and since then had had no little experience in the affairs of railroads. It was agreed that he would make a sat- isfactory President of the Erie Railway Company. He was communicated with on the subject, and con- sented to take the place. One of the resolutions passed by the Board of Directors July 8, 1S72, the last meeting of the Dix Board, was the following: Resolved, That the Treasurer be authorized to pay $30,000 as this company's proportion of the legal expenses of the New York Central Company at Albany, last winter, to prevent legis- lation affecting prejudicially the interests of this company. The resolution was adopted unanimously, and was referred to the Executive Committee. That Com- mittee held it for further action, and it subsequently came forward to plague the Watson administration, although it had had nothing to do with any of that administration's affairs, and, in fact, belonged to the transactions of the Gould regime. The 10th of Jul)-. 1S72, was an exciting and stirring day at and about Erie headquarters in the Grand Opera House. It was almost a counterpart of one of the characteristic Gould and Fisk days. Detectives, policemen, and deputy sheriffs were there by the dozen, but "Tommy" Lynch and his merry men were not among them. The rumor had gone abroad that the opposition to the new order of things in Erie was determined to make trouble of some kind at the election, and hundreds of people with recol- lections of entertainment they had been provided with on previous occasions of this sort at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Twenty-third Street, were there in force on that hot July day, to enjoy this expected later exhibition. But they were disap- pointed. The proceedings inside the Opera House were peaceful and smooth. Not one opposing voice was raised in protest against them. At the meeting of the Board held previous to the election, resolutions of thanks to General Dix, General Diven, and others in the Board; to James McHenry for the part he took in overthrowing Jay Gould and his management; to Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt for coming to the aid of the new man- agement, and placing much needed funds at its dis- posal at a critical time; and to Edward T. Green, Gilson Holman, and W. Wetmore Cryder, Ameri- can representatives of Erie in Europe, were passed, but none to Gen. Daniel E. Sickles for his part in the anti-Gould movement. Henry G. Stebbins re- signed from the Board. At the ensuing election the following Board of Directors was chosen : Peter H. Watson, Gen. A. S. Diven, W. R. Travers, Will- iam Butler Duncan, Charles Day, S. L. M. Barlow, Gen. John A. Dix, J. V. L. Pruyn, Henry L. Lan- sing, Homer Ramsdell, William W. Shippen, E. D. Morgan, Frederick Schuchardt, S. D. Babcock, John J. Cisco, George Talbott Olyphant, John Taylor fohnston. The new Board organized by electing Peter II. THE STORY OF ERIE *°5 Watson, President; Gen. A. S. Diven, Vice-Presi- dent; Horatio N. Otis, Secretary, and William Watts Sherman, Treasurer. At the election, James McHenry and other for- eign parties representing stock of the Company were present, and claimed that $750,000 in all had been expended in the ousting of Jay Gould, and that the entire amount ought to be a charge upon the Com- pany. After the election, at a stockholders' meet- ing at which $50,000,000 of stock was represented, four-fifths of it English holdings, it was voted unan- imously that the Directors of the Erie Railway Company should take an early method of reimburs- ing all the actual expenditures incurred by the few stockholders who had brought about the change. A resolution was also passed instructing the Board of Directors to audit the account for expenditures and then pay it. The account was referred to the Exec- utive Committee, but it was not felt by that Com- mittee that it would be well just then to act upon it. This matter was also made subject to annoying search for more light upon it later on. The first and only report to the stockholders made by the Dix management (July 1, 1872) was a history of but seven months of operation (from October 1st to May 1st), the act repealing the Classification Act having ordered a new election for Directors to be held on the second Tuesday of July instead of the second Tuesday of October, as theretofore. " It maj- be proper to remark," said the report, in some preliminary explanation, " that whatever credit or discredit may appear from the statements must attach not to the present managers, but to their predecessors in office." The earnings of the Com- pany for the nine months, the return for June and July being partially estimated, were $10,374,- 599.50, including $295,092.66 reported earnings of the leased lines. The expenses, including $316,530.57 for the leased lines, were $9,801,980.93, leaving a surplus of $572,618.57. This showed an increase in earnings over the corresponding seven months of the previous fiscal year of $i,335.'9"> alld a de " crease in expense of $160,593.35. There had been expended for construction $2,189,276.40. The dis- bursements for interest, construction, etc., added to the operating expenses, brought the outlay for the seven months up to $1 1,991,257.35, showing a deficit of $1,616,657.83. " The Railroad of the Barclay Coal Company, with its furniture and equipment," the report continued, " is leased for twenty years by the Towanda Coal Company, which is operated by the Erie, this Com- pany [laying for the same an annual rental of $30,000, and a royalty of twenty-five cents per ton for the coal. This arrangement is an advantageous one for the Company, securing as it does a supply of coal at cheap rates for the use of the locomotives. The broad-gauge track of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company was leased perpetually by this Company at a yearly rental of $180,000, but this arrangement, like many others of a similar char- acter made by the late management, entails an un- necessary and improper loss to this Company, and it can probably be terminated, the same not being valid as against this Company. " The contracts between this Company and the Sleeping Coach Company provides that the latter shall furnish sleeping and drawing-room coaches complete, with the furniture and fixtures properly adapted to their use, and necessary attendants, and shall receive for their use four cents for each mile run, and the additional amount paid by passenger occupying the same, over and above the rates of fare charged on the regular passenger coaches of the Rail- way Company. The Union Car Company furnish 500 box freight cars, suitable for transportation of grain in bulk, at one cent per car per mile run, the Railway Company to keep the same in repair and guarantee a minimum monthly service of 2,500 miles per car. The Jefferson Car Company furnish the Railway Company with 1,500 four-wheeled ' dump ' or coal cars, at half a cent a car per mile for carrying coal, the Railway Company to keep the same in re- pair and guarantee a minimum monthly service of 1,400 miles per car. " Although something has been done in the way of reform, and measures are in progress which, if carried out, will do much more toward placing the affairs of the Company on a firmer basis, yet the ex- istence of many contracts which involve loss to the Company is a subject of regret ; some of these in all 2o6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES probability can be abrogated, and others modified so as not to be so onerous in their requirements. But it is in the matter of additional facilities for increas- ing business, securing remunerative rates and eco- nomical operations, that the Company must more particularly look to secure satisfactory returns on their investment. The double tracking of portions of the road, the introduction of the third rail to secure narrow-gauge connections, and steel rails in place of iron for renewals, stand prominently among the needed requirements." In the construction account of this report, signed by G. P. Morosini, Auditor, was a charge of $842,- 7 $ J. 7- for " legal expenses," but the Auditor added this explanatory but significant foot-note: "The propriety of putting this item in the construction ac- count is questionable, but it was so arranged by the former administration." The question of completing the double track and of adding a third rail to the broad-gauge track over the entire line, which was first advocated by Vice- President Diven, received serious attention in this report. April 24, 1872, the Vice-President had ordered, by direction of the Executive Committee, the making of surveys and estimates of the cost of this improvement, the necessity of which the unfor- tunate original adoption of the broad or six-foot ige was then making most apparent. Vice-Presi- dent Diven's plan also included the reduction of ex- cessive grades where practicable, the substitution of iron bridges for wood, the completion of the neces- sary depots, increased machine shops, erection of grain elevators, and such narrow-gauge rolling stock as would be necessary for the economical transaction of the business of the road. He submitted the fol- lowing as the result of the surveys and estimates: The cost and expense of laying a " third rail," on double track and sidings between Jersey City and Buffalo will be, if of steel rails $5,551,800 00 Cost nf above, if of iron rails 4.890,150 00 The cost and expense of laying " third rail," on double ii.nl. and sidings between Hornells- \illi- and Salamanca will be, if of steel rails.. I,l6l,000 00 Cost of above, if of iron rails 1,025,700 00 Cost and 1 1 of laying "third rail," on single track and siding between Salamanca and Dunkirk will be, if of steel rails 33-. 150 00 Cost of above, if of iron rails 294,200 00 The cost of completing double track on Dela- ware Division, including grading and ma- sonry, superstructure, laying and ballasting, and iron bridges, with steel rails, will be Cost of above, if of iron rails, will be The cost of completing double track on Sus- quehanna Division, as above, if of steel rails. If of iron rails The cost of completing double track on West- ern Division, Hornellsville to Salamanca, steel rails Iron rails The cost of completing double track on Buf- falo Division, Hornellsville to Buffalo, if of steel rails Iron rails }>2, 297,225 00 2,201,015 °o 654.025 00 602.050 00 1,837,914 00 1,702,614 00 1.998.540 00 1 .824.300 00 Steel rails $13.8.12.65400 Iron rails 12,540.029 00 Additional buildings required... $1,149,00000 Additional equipment, engines and cars 5,700,000 00 — $6,849,000 00 Steel rails $20,681.65400 Iron rails 19,389.02900 In recommending these improvements General Diven reported as follows, which is important now as showing the system under which the railroad's operation was conducted twenty-five years ago: " It will be seen from the foregoing report that to complete the double track on the Delaware Di- vision, without the third rail, will cost, if of steel, $2,297,225 ; if of iron, $2,201,015. This I regard indispensable to any increase of the business of the road. The delays incident to throwing so large a business upon a single track renders anything like regular time impossible. The freight trains are obliged constantly to take the sidings for the fast trains to make their time. No time should be lost in completing the double track. " To complete the double track on the Susque- hanna Division, without third rail, will cost, if of steel rails, $654,025 ; if of iron rails, $602,050, mak- ing the cost to complete the double track from New- York to Hornellsville, if of steel rails, $2,951,250; if of iron, $2,803,065. As the cost of completing this double track to Hornellsville is so small, after the completion of the Delaware Division, I recommend this as very desirable. This done, and with two routes to Buffalo from Corning, and with the Sala- manca and Buffalo business divided at Hornellsville, THE STORY OF ERIE 20; the road could be very well worked without double tracking the rest of the road. Though I regard the double tracking from Hornellsville to Buffalo and from Hornellsville to Salamanca as important, I do not regard it as indispensable. " To lay third rail from Jersey City to Buffalo — on double track to Hornellsville — and track as now laid from Hornellsville, including completion of double track on Delaware and Susquehanna Divisions, will cost, if of steel, $7,965,865; if of iron, $",232,865. Add to this, third rail on track as now from Hornells- ville to Salamanca will make, if of steel, $8,653,315; if of iron, $7,852,665. Unless the Atlantic and Great Western narrow their gauge, the third rail to Salamanca is not recommended. The double track to Hornellsville, and the third rail to Buffalo, as soon as practicable, is of unquestionable importance. As it will take about one year to do this work, no time should be lost in its prosecution." This was the beginning of the great change in the gauge of the railroad, a change that was not finally accomplished until years afterward. The survey and estimates for these proposed improvements were made under the direction of R. N. Brown. CHAPTER XVIII. ADMINISTRATION OF PETER H. WATSON— 1872 TO 1874. I. Dark Clouds with Silver Lining: An Eminently Respectable Board, but No Money — The New Management's Policy one of Dividends — A Dividend Declared, which Amazes Some People — The Gould " Restitution " — How Gould Brought it About and Won Another Victory from Defeat — Details of the "Restitution." II. The Silver Lining Growing Less: Clamor that Dividend Payments were Fraudulent — Erie in the Legislature Again — President Watson Declares that the Only Thing to be 1 lone to Save Erie is to Spend $40,000,000 in Improvements — An Issue of Consolidated Bonds in that Amount Ordered — President Watson Goes Abroad to Borrow Money on the Bonds — Falling on Wretched Times in London. III. The Silver LINING DlS \rs : Watson a Supplicant for Aid Abroad, Barlow a Dictator of Erie Affairs at Home — Dunan, the Erie Auditor, Resigns, and Declares Publicly that the Watson Dividends were F'alse — Dunan Denounced by the Board — Report of President Watson — lie Denies the Charge — McHenry Secures a Lease of the Atlantic and Great Western on His Own Terms — Melancholy Ending of the Watson Administration. I. DARK CLOUDS WITH SILVER LINING. THERE had never been a more eminently respect- able and reputable Board of Directors than the one that started in to pilot the battered bark of Erie out of troubled waters, and bring it safely into the har- bor of peace and prosperity. Yet there was no indi- cation that confidence in Erie was restored by this showing of great names. According to the statement made by the Directors on July 10, 1872, the earnings had for months exceeded the expenses more than half a million of dollars, but the disbursements were more than a million and a half in excess of the re- ceipts. The inheritance of liabilities from the pre- ceding management was a funded debt of more than $30,000,000, and a stock debt of over §86,000,000. It was well known that the treasury was empty. Something besides names representing all that was substantial and potent in the financial world was necessary to improve the condition and repute of Eric. Wall Street had ruled the Company and its affairs long and disastrously. Public confidence- awaited the disclosure of what the policy of the Company was to be under its new guidance. The disclosure came in good time, and the policy was unpopular from the start. It was one of dividends — the English policy of dividing among the stock- holders, annually or semi-annually, the net earnings of the road, and the pledge that whatever amounts might be required for construction or equipment should be provided by the stockholders. A few of the Directors expressed grave doubts as to the wis- dom of this policy, and apprehension that the result of it would be far from beneficial to the future of the Company; but the stockholders, a majority of whom were foreign, insisted upon it. As the management was duty-bound to coincide with the wishes of the foreign influence, the policy was adopted, and, as subsequent developments made manifest, the neces- sary figuring to bring to bear such a relation of charges to earnings as would leave a balance to be divided among the stockholders began. A radical change in the administration of the oper- ating departments of the railroad was made by President Watson's "General Order, Xo. 1," on September 18, 1872. A Department of Transporta- tion, a Department of Road, and a Department of Rolling Stock were created, over which Vice-Presi- dent Diven had direct authority, with power to ap- point superintendents and make rules and regulations for the operation and maintenance of the road, sub- ject to the approval of the President. Harden D. Y. Pratt was appointed Superintendent of Transporta- tion ; Robert M. Brown Superintendent of Road, and Myron T. Brown Superintendent of Rolling Stock. Robert Berdell Cable was subsequently appointed General Superintendent of Transportation, and the Superintendents of Divisions were changed as to title, and became Assistant Superintendents of Transportation. PETER H. WATSON. THE STORY OF ERIE 209 The Atlantic and Great Western influence in the new Erie management was not calculated to inspire a hopeful feeling for the future of Erie, and the knowledge that James McHenry was a much-list- ened-to adviser in Erie affairs gave much strength to the belief that the Erie Railroad Company might eventually become the burden-bearer for the Atlan- tic and Great Western Railroad Company. Toward the end of the year 1872, evidences of a determina- tion of that influence to at last connect the Erie and the Atlantic and Great Western by closer ties were plain to all observers of the tend of Erie affairs. Rumors that a dividend was soon to be declared on Erie preferred stock had long prevailed, and when one was actually declared and paid, 3^ per cent, for the six months ending June 30th, Erie became an object of renewed public interest. Was the dividend earned ? That was the question. The year 1872 closed, however, with a transaction by the Watson management which it proclaimed to be a demonstration of its remarkable shrewdness and far-seeing business wisdom. A great many people regarded the transaction in the same light, and were loud in their expressions of admiration of the won- derful perspicuity of men who were capable of bringing to quick and successful culmination so momentous an issue. There were those who recog- nized at once the farcical character of this affair, although it is but fair to assume that President Watson and some of his Directors believed in the solemn importance of it, and that the Erie Railway Company had made a great bargain. In fact, dur- ing the part of his administration following it, the "Gould Reclamation" was ever his favorite sub- ject of reference, as it was that of his advisers, when- ever unpleasant persons wanted to know what the management had done or was doing for Erie. If ever a debt was paid with " cats and dogs," the " restitution" by Jay Gould was an instance of it. Jay Gould's victorious downfall from the dictator- ship of Erie, and his nonchalant retirement from his seat in the Directory, were to be followed by still greater triumphs of his peculiar genius. After he had ceased to be the dictator of Erie, and was shorn of the great prestige he enjoyed and the wide influ- 14 ence he wielded as such dictator, and especially as there were ominous rumors of the appalling fate that awaited him at such time as the new Erie man- agers were ready to call him to account for his short- comings, there were men who made the mistake of judging him as one who would hesitate to call atten- tion to himself by resorting to any bold or aggressive methods in any operation he might undertake in Wall Street, and that, consequently, he would be a proper target for shrewd speculators to hurl their shafts at and relentlessly impale. Even the wily Daniel Drew had not learned enough from his past experience with Gould to know better, and it turned out that Henry X. Smith, long time Gould's partner in the firm of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co., was led to seek profit at Gould's expense and as a matter of private vengeance. Smith had been worsted previ- ously in a speculative bout with Daniel Drew, a little operation in which Gould was concerned with him. He was moved to blame Gould for the loss he sus- tained, and demanded that Gould should make it good. This was not according to the rules of Gould's procedure, and he refused to comply with Smith's demand. " Then I'll get good and even with you before another year! " exclaimed the angry broker. Jay Gould smiled and went his way, and the long and close friendship that had existed between him and Smith was broken there and then. Gould had then recently formed an alliance with his former foes, Augustus Schell and Horace F. Clark and others, in a bull movement in Chicago and Northwestern, al- though he was not at first known to be interested. Smith learned that Gould was in the movement, and he conceived the idea of operating heavily on the short side of the same stock, believing that he could catch Gould unaware, get him in a tight place, and make a million or so out of him. Smith had plenty of money and credit, and had always been a remark- ably successful manipulator of the stock market. Rut he had reckoned without his host this time. When he thought the time had come to drive Gould into the hole he supposed had been dug for him, he found that all the Chicago and Northwestern stock in the Street had been bought up by the Gould party, and that they had a tight and impregnable 210 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES comer on it. Smith was short 40,000 shares, and Daniel Drew and William R. Travers (an Erie Di- rector of the new school), who had also taken that side of the market, with Gould in their eyes as their victim, each found himself short 10,000 shares. Smith, as well as Drew and Travers, stood to make their contracts good at 75, and when they sought to make the turn, on the afternoon of November 20th, the stock had advanced to 100, and not a share was to be had anywhere. Even at that price, a loss of $700,000 stared Smith in the face; but Northwest- ern was still booming upward. According to all the protestations of the new Erie management since it came into power, it had been leaving no stone unturned that it could find to turn which would expose to it evidence upon which it could bring Jay Gould to justice for the wrong-doing he was charged with being guilty of while he was in control of the Company. A suit to recover from him $10,000,000 had been entered against him, but it was discontinued for lack of evidence to sustain it. This evidence, it was believed, was contained in the books of the firm of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co., but these the Erie management had no power to examine. Well pleased and greatly exultant were the Erie people, then, as they declared, when Henry N. Smith called on President Watson and Counsel Barlow, December 21, 1872, and informed them that he would open to them the books of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co. containing true ac- counts of Jay Gould's Erie transactions, which would supply the missing evidence necessary to convict him of the long-pending charges. This delivery of Smith to the Erie management followed closely on an interview he had had with Gould. When he found that instead of having forced his former part- ner into a corner, the latter had outwitted him and held him at his mercy, Smith lost no time in seeking Gould, believing that he possessed the weapons by which he could compel Gould to release him from his desperate dilemma. You must let me have Northwestern," he said to Gould, " and let me have it so I can get out of this fix whole." Gould declined to make any such arrangement, and at last Smith brought his weapons into use. If you don't help me out of this," said he, " I will turn over the Smith, Gould & Martin books to Barlow — and you know what that means! " In his cool, imperturbable manner Gould replied: Very well. Turn them over. I have no objec- tion." Then it was, foiled, on the brink of financial dis- aster, and hot with rage, that Smith became the ally of the Erie management in its warfare against Gould. The management was quick to move on the infor- mation thus obtained. On Friday, November 22d, the counsel for the Erie Railway Company, Messrs. Barlow, Larocque & MacFarland, obtained from Judge Fancher of the Supreme Court an order of arrest for Jay Gould, alleging a claim against him of the Erie Railway Company of $9,726,541.26, " for moneys fraudu- lently appropriated by him, belonging to the Com- pany, while acting in the joint capacity of its Presi- dent and Treasurer." The complaint was sworn to by President Watson. It alleged that while acting as President of the Company Gould formed a copart- nership with Henry N. Smith, Henry H. Martin, and James B. Bache, under the firm name of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co., and that through the agency of the firm he embezzled and misapplied moneys of the Company to the gross amount of $9,726,541.26, made up as follows: " He caused to be issued and put upon the market 407,347 shares of the capital stock of the Company at the par value of $40,7 54,700. In the issue of this stock Gould acted as Director. It was issued to him directly, and he converted it into cash, amounting to $12,803,590.23, of which he received personally $4,499, 132.23. Subsequently his firm sold other Erie stock, netting the sum of $3,061,700.15, which sum was paid to Gould, but never accounted for by him to the Company, he claiming that the Company was indebted to him, while the contrary was the fact, and that the money was applied by him to cover his losses in specula- tion. In November, 1868, he operated in shares of the Erie Railway Company, through his firm, ami incurred a loss by decrease in market value of the shares, to relieve himself from which and put it upon the Company. He, in July, 1869, by fraud prac- tised on the court, procured an order allowing the THE STORY OF ERIE 21 I Company to repurchase shares of the Company which were of doubtful validity. Under this order he purchased 121,400 shares at the average rate of 61.47 P er share, amounting in all to $7,462,458, such assumed cost being charged to the Company, and paid for out of moneys of the Company in the hands of Smith, Gould, Martin & Co., while at the time the market value of the stock was only about $29 per share, thus causing a loss to the company of §3,941,858. In 1869 he speculated in Reading stock to the extent of $359,312, and lost $168,803.69, which he fraudulently charged against the Erie Rail- way Company. In January, 1869, he speculated in New York Central stock and lost $13,580.51, which he fraudulently charged to the Company. In Au- gust, 1869, he drew out of the Erie Railway Com- pany's funds $60,000, which he paid over to James Fisk, Jr., well knowing Fisk had no right to receive it. In October, 1868, he paid $23,554.75 to secure his election as President, which sum he charged to the account of the Erie Railway Company. In December, 1870, he had fraudulently increased the capital stock of the Company to the extent of $20,000,000. On January 13, 1871, a further in- crease of the capital stock of $1,000,000 was made in like manner, and the stock, when issued, was taken by Jay Gould to be sold by him for the use and benefit of the Company. The market value of the stock was at that time at the rate of $22, or there- about, per share, and was sold by Gould for $660,000, which he embezzled, or misapplied, and did not account for." This complaint, and the affidavit accompanying it, made by Henry N. Smith, that the accounts from the Smith, Gould & Martin books were correct, were sworn to before William A. Dunphy, Notary Public, November 22, 1872. On these papers Judge Fancher issued the order of arrest, and Deputy Sheriff John McLaughlin, between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon of Friday, November 22d, traced Gould to the office of Osborne & Chapin, at 34 Broad Street. It was denied there that Gould was in the office. The officer tried the door to the inner office and found it locked. Ad- mission was refused him, and he was about to break down the door, when it was unlocked and Gould came out of the room and surrendered himself. 1 [e was taken to the Sheriff's office, where Augustus Schell and Horace F. Clark qualified as his bonds- men in the amount of $1,000,000 bail demanded by Judge Fancher, and he was immediately released. In the meantime, Gould and his associates had maintained the 1 orner in Northwestern. On Decem- ber 21st the stock jumped by rapid stages to 200. Gould's arrest greatly excited the Street and public. Smith declared that he would never settle his con- tracts, but after some days he effected a compromise with his creditors by which he was relieved of his squeeze at the cost of about $1,000,000. Drew paid $250,000 for his last experience in trying to worst Jay Gould. Travers got out with a loss of $300,000. Gould and his friends claimed that the Erie suit and his arrest were simply to affect stocks so that his antagonists might escape from the losses that threat- ened them, and manifested no uneasiness as to its outcome. Pending further proceedings in the Erie suit against him, Gould brought about several confer- ences between himself and S. L. M. Barlow and President Watson. The result of these conferences was that he succeeded in convincing them that they might do a great deal better by Erie than to enter into expensive litigation with him, " of the ultimate result of which," he said, " I stand in no fear." He assured them that he and his friends controlled lines that, brought into connection with the Erie, would form a grand continuous system between New York and San Francisco, and raise the Erie Railway to the position of being without a rival in Western and transcontinental traffic. The combination, he said, consisted of the Lake Shore and Michigan South- ern, the Chicago and Northwestern — the gaining of control of which had led to his arrest — the Hannibal and St. Joseph, the Chicago and Rock Island, and the Union Pacific Railroads. The only link n was the Erie to complete the grandest scheme in the history of railroad transportation. To consummate it, and dispose of and settle the differences between him and the Erie Railway Company, lie said he was willing to turn over to that Company certain prop- erties in his possession, the further condition being that he should be permitted to purchase 200,000 212 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES shares of the Company's common stock at the new market quotation, which was about 50. These con- ferences resulted in the following correspondence: New York, December 17, 1872. Dear Sir: — Referring to my recent conversation with you on the subject of the claims of the Erie Railway upon mc. I assume that there is no longer any sufficient reason why an adjustment of all open questions, satisfactory and honorable to all parties, should not now be made. I have at all times, since my resignation as President of the Erie Company, been prepared to make conveyances to it of properties belonging to the company, to which I never made any claim. In addition to these I have held in my name both real and personal proper- ties, which I intended for the use of the Erie Company, some ni which were forced upon me to meet real exigencies in the affairs of the Erie Company during my administration, and others of which I purchased rather with the expectation of benefiting the company through business to accrue to the road than from any other motive. Upon your construction of my accounts with the company I am charged with all the moneys there expended, and the properties in question there- fore belong to me. My idea is. rather, that they should go to the company, and that I should be credited with their value. Another question, of even more importance, grows out of the state in which I am compelled to leave my account with the company. At the time of my withdrawal from the presi- dency I could then have explained many matters which now are involved in doubt. One account book, belonging to the company, has been mislaid since I left the Presidency. Through entries in it I could readily account for all the dis- crepancies which you have pointed out to me. It was kept for this purpose, and its loss is a serious embarrassment. But I am willing and prefer to meet you in a spirit that shall leave no question as to my motives and intentions. Take your own statement and you claim $9,086,000. The various pieces of real estate in New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, and Ohio, and the stocks and bonds which I men- tioned in my last conversation with you, I believe you will consider worth more to the Erie Company than the total sum claimed. Some of these properties were purchased with my own means, and the company has no claim upon them, but they are necessary for its use. I now propose to convey all these properties previously mentioned, and will, in addition, convey the Grand Opera House and all adjacent properties, owned by Mr. Fisk and myself, the same to be freed by me from all mortgages, to you, on receiving a full discharge from the company. I do lln^ for the sake of peace, because any litigation of such questions is mini annoying to me than the loss of the money involved, and because I am sincerely anxious for the success of the Erie Company, in which I have a large pecuniary interest I'l.. 1 e lei me know as speedily as possible whether this proposition is favorably entertained by you. Yours truly, Jay Gould. To Peter II. Watson, Esq., President Erie Railway. President Watson named a special committee of the Board, consisting of himself, ex-Governor E. D. Morgan, William Butler Duncan, William R. T ravers, and Samuel D. Babcock, to examine the various securities and properties included in Gould's offer, and to take his proposition into consideration. Pending the decision of this committee, he sent the following reply to Jay Gould's letter: Office of the Erie Railway Company, New York, December 17, 1872. Jay Gould, Esq.: Dear Sir: — I have your favor of this date, the substance of which I will at once submit to the special committee of our Board having the claim against you in charge. ■ I cannot say what their action will be, but I am satisfied with the explanations you have made, and will cheerfully rec- ommend a settlement on the general terms suggested by you, as I believe the best interests of the Erie Company will be thereby served, and that the properties in question are fully equivalent in value to the Erie Company to its claim against you of every character. I will call our committee together to-morrow, and com- municate their action to you, not doubting that they will con- sider your offer, as I do, a fair one under the circumstances, and one which, from a business point of view, should be ac- cepted in the interests of the stockholders of the Erie Company. Yours respectfully, P. H. Watson. President. At a special meeting of the Board of Directors held at 10 o'clock on the morning of December 19th, the committee reported that the property might be accepted by the Company with the assurance that it was worth $9,000,000, and that at a forced sale it would command $6,000,000. The report was ac- cepted by a unanimous vote of the Board, and the President was authorized to effect a settlement with Gould on his terms. That same day, and on the following day, at the office of Barlow, Larocque cK; MacFarland, counsel for the Erie Railway Company, Gould transferred to the Company the property referred to in his letter to President Watson of the 17th of December, and received a full discharge and release from any claim the Erie Railway Company had or might have had upon him. The news of this event took Wall Street by sur- prise. On the strength of it Erie stock rose from $2}i to 57^ on the 19th, and the market closed strong. Wall Street had its own private opinion as to what had prompted Gould to make" restitution." the term by which the Erie management dignified the transaction. On the score of credit and power THE STORY OF ERIE - r 3 as a great stock operator, so Wall Street argued, Gould had recently made close alliance with such men as Horace F. Clark, Augustus Schell, and others who were, or had been, closely allied with the Vanderbilt interests (although the old Commo- dore publicly denied that he had any interests in Wall Street), and had made a great deal of money in a short time out of this alliance. But his con- tinued standing with that desirable combination, as well as with the Stock Exchange, depended upon his ability to satisfy and thereby silence the pending and threatened legal proceedings against him. It was not a pleasant thing to contemplate such pro- ceedings, said Wall Street, especially to one who was perhaps at that time more ambitious of the prestige of success in the Street than of increasing his personal wealth. " It beats all I ever heerd ! " said old Daniel Drew, in the vernacular peculiar to him. " Jest mind what I tell ye. He'll make up the best part o' them nine million they say he's turned over to the Ary by bullin' its sheers! But nine millions ? Pooh!" In conversation, after settling with the Erie, Gould said: "The settlement was made in cash, stocks, and real estate, and the proceeds will go far toward putting down a third rail, replenishing the rolling stock, and paying dividends, and will greatly sustain the credit of the road. The 200,000 shares which I purchased as the condition of this settlement will be of great value, and will at least reimburse me for the money I have paid to the Erie corporation. I also stipulated that I should have a voice in matters per- taining to the road and be consulted in regard to its workings." This was made publicly, and, so far as there is any record, was never denied. As to reimbursing him- self by the effect the" restitution " had on the stock and his subsequent operations, even if the settlement had really cost him $9,000,000, which it had not, nor anything like it, he could not have made a better investment. What a spectacle, then, was that! This man, lately reviled by his successors in control of Eric, and standing charged by them, under oath and in sickening detail, before a solemn court, with rob- bery, embezzlement, and gross violation of a sacred trust, and held in bonds of fabulous amount to answer the charges, which, if proved, would place him in a felon's cell, boldly and confidently dictating terms upon which he would release them from the annoyance of litigation ! Terms that included vir- tually his rehabilitation in the good graces of the Company whose treasury he was charged with loot- ing, and whose name and fame they affirmed he had besmirched. Was ever triumph in defeat greater than this ? The details of this settlement and the " restitu- tion " are as follows, from the official records: THE AGREEMENT WITH JAY GOULD. Agreement made this eighteenth day of December, in the ■>■ one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, be- tween the Erie Railway Company, party of the first part, and Jay Gould, parly of the second part : Whereas, The said company has large claims against the said Jay Gould, some of which art- now in suit, and >ome o! which have been presented to him, hut which arc not in suit. And, Whereas, It is proposed that a full settlement and com- promise shall be made of said claims. Now, therefore, it has been and is hereby mutually covc- 1 d. by and between the said parti, sideration of the premises and the sum of one dollar by each of said partus to the other duly paid, as follows: First. — The complaint in the main suit again-; slid Gould shall be amended so as to cover all the various items of claims of every nature to this date, alll due to the Erie Com- pany from said Gould, as well as all existing claims for erty or stocks, and for all items appearing to be due to the Erie Company by said Gould or his co-partners hereinafter mentioned. Other than James Fisk. junior, on the bo Erie Company, or on those of Smith, Gould. Martin .S: Com- pany, or of the other firms in which said Gould was or is a partner, all of which last-mentioned books are now freely open to the examination of said Company; and such complaint shall be so framed as to embrace all other accounts, claims, 1 of action and demands of every nature against said Jay 1 or his itners. other than the said James Fisk. junior, whether the same be or not specifically set forth, the intention of the parties being to compromise everything to this ,1 te; and said Gould, in making this pri - ment, being in- duced thereto by the agreement that he shall be released from all such specific claims, many of which ! . be just: and that he shall also be released from other claims, which the said Company alleges may exist and may be lawfully due by him to said Company, and are not known til which by the compromise are released and aban- doned by said Company. Second. — Now. therefore, the said Erie Railway Company in execution of this agreement ami for the consideration herein- after mentioned and of the sum of one dollar to it in hand 21 4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES paid by t and for other good and valuable con- siderations, doth hereby release and forever discharge the said Jay i iould and all his co-partners in the various firms of Smith, Gould. Martin & Company, and Osborn ec Chapin, Williard, Martin & Beach. Joslyn, Bach & Co., other than the said James Fisk. junior, from all accounts, claim of action and demands of every nature by reason of any matter, cause or thing to the day of the date thereof, excepting, nevertheless, latum of 1 1 1 i -- release the covenants and agree- ments on the part of said < lould to be kept and performed as the same is hereinafter set forth. Third. — And the said Gould, in consideration as aforesaid, covenants, and agrees for himself, and his heirs, executors and administrators, to and with the said Erie Railway Company, that lie will pay, assign, transfer and set over to the said Com- pany to be held by it, as its own absolute property, on the execution hereof, the following securities and property, viz.: Shares in the Brooks Locomotive Works, of the par value of $99,000 00 Shares of the National Stock Yard Co., of the par value of 186,000 00 Shares of the Erie Emigrant Company, of the par value of 65,000 00 Shares of the Jefferson Railroad Company, of the par value of 950,000 00 Shares of the Xew York and Pennsylvania Blue- stone Co.. of the par value of 86,000 00 Bluestonc Company Bonds 12,000 00 Shares Glenwood Coal Company, of the par value of 1,00000 Glenwood Coal Co.. First Mortgage Bonds 124,000 00 Glenwood Coal Co., Second Mortgage Bonds 500.000 00 Shares Suspension Bridge Company, of the par value of 80,000 00 Shares Lackawanna & Susquehanna Co., of the par value of 40,000 00 Shares Alleghany Transportation Co., of the par value of 450.000 00 Shares New York & Hackensack R. R. Co., of the par value of 179,000 00 Hackensack Extension R. R. Co., of the par value of 50,000 00 Shares Nyack & Northern R. R. Co., of the par value of 16,000 00 Shares Northern R. R. Co.. of the par value of. . . . 900 00 Shares Erie Railway preferred stock scrip 34.000 00 Shares Jefferson Car Company 178,000 00 Fourth — And the said Jay Gould, in like manner, covenants and agrees to and with said Company that he will convey or cause to be conveyed to said Company, simultaneously with the delivery hereof of good and absolute conveyances in fee simple, or by assignment of leases where the title is leasehold, with proper n li asi ol dower, and with full covenants of war- ranty against all heirs and incumbrani 1 1 cepl as below-, the consideration onveyances to be the sum of one million live hundred thousand dollars, I" 1"' credited I'll such claims linst said Gould, all the following property in the city of New Y'.rk, viz.: The Opera House and its appurtenance- at the corner of Eighth Vvenue and Twenty-third Street in said 1 ity, and all the house- and lots on Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Street- adjoining or near to the same, being all the properties and real tanding in the name of said Gould, or of said Gould and James Fisk, junior, at the time of his decease, and including certain lots and their appurtenances near to the Hudson River on said Twenty-third Street, and including the properties in which said Gould has any right. title or interest by way of lease, contract, or otherwise. All of said estates and properties which were purchased from one Pike, are to be conveyed free and cleared from mortgage, liens and incumbrances. Such of said properties as are leasehold to be transferred free from all claims and liens. including morl if the same were originally purchased from said Pike, but any other of said properties to be transferred, or the contracts therefor to be assigned and transferred subject to the mortgages existing thereon at the time when said Gould or said Gould and Fisk acquired title thereto, or to such portion of the original purchase money as has not been paid, but to no other liens, charges or incumbrances. Fifth. — And the said Gould, in like manner for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, further covenants and agrees with the said the Erie Railway Company that he and they will also forthwith execute and deliver, in further con- sideration of said release, full and absolute conveyances; in which conveyances his wife will join releasing her dower, if any. to the said Company for all and singular his right, title and interest in and to the various properties for which a suit is now pending against him, in the name and on behalf of the Erie Railway Company, or which he owns, or which stands in his name in the States of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, or on or near the line of the Erie Railway or its branches in the State of New Jersey, all such properties, rights or in- terests to be conveyed or transferred from time to time on demand on the presentation of proper transfers and conveyance to him for execution, taxes and assessments on the properties, not in the city of New York, not to be paid by the said Gould, except on the Glenwood properties which he agrees to dis- charge; provided, however, that this covenant to convey shall not embrace the house and its appurtenances on the Fifth Avenue now occupied by said Gould, nor the stables also occupied by him. Sixth. — The interest of said Gould in the New Lisbon Coal Company and in the Ohio Coal and Mining Company, if the same was paid for out of the moneys of the Erie Railway, is hereby transferred to it. but if the same was paid out of said Gould's individual property, then the same shall be held by Samuel L. M. Barlow, to whom the same was transferred con- ditionally, a few months ago, the said Gould being at this time unable to determine whether the same is his own property or is held by him in trust for the Erie Company. Seventh. — And the said Gould in like manner covenants to and with the Erie Railway Company that he will, as soon as practicable, cause or procure all pending suits or proceedings in bankruptcy against the Glenwood Coal Company to be dis- continued, and that he will pay and cancel all the existing floating debts of the said Company, or will otherwise procure or perfect title to the Erie Railway of all its property real and personal, free from all liens or claims other than those of said Eric Railway Company, and will convey and transfer to said Glenwood Coal Company all the real estate, personal property and leases purchased for. belonging to or connected with said Glenwood Coal Company, free from all liens and claims, ex- cept as aforesaid. And the said Erie Company will consent to the discontinuance of the said bankruptcy proceedings. Eighth. — The existing lease of the Opera House to the Erie Railway the said Gould agrees to cancel and procure to be can- THE STORY OI- ERIK 215 celled, and all other leases of the New York property herein mentioned lie likewise agrees to transfer and to procure to be transferred as of this date to the Erie Railway Company. Ninth. — And the said Gould furth ints and a in consideration as aforesaid, with the Erie Railway Company in further consideratioi : release, that he will deliver and cause to be transferred to the said Company or its assigns, one million of dollars in capital stock of the United States Express Company, at its par value, and this transfer and delivery of said Stock the said Gould to Complete a- speedily as max !n- practicable, and in any case within six months from the date thereof. And said Gould having made a contract by which said Express Company agreed to deliver to hi equal amount of said stock, the said Erie Railway Company agrees to render any proper assistance when and as req intended to facilitate the said Gould in obtaining the and hereafter to do no act that will prevent him from ing the same, and also agrees that the said Gould may, if an action for the same becomes necessary, sue the said Express Company to recover the said stock in his own name anil at his own cost and charge, or may use the name of the Erie Railway, also at his own cost, for that purpose, if In- he so advised. Tenth. — And the said Gould hereby, in like manner, sells, assigns and transfers to the said Erie Railway Company all of his interest in the United States Towboat Company, and agrees forthwith to deliver the evidence of such interest t" the said Company. Eleventh. — The said Gould, by a certain contract with the Erie Railway Company, for the sale to it of three million dol- lars of its consolidated bonds, was to receive a credit of the actual profit realized by the Erie Railway Company on the re- sale of the said bonds, which profit now amounts to the sum of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars or thereabouts Now, it is hereby agreed that such profits, whatever they may be. shall be retained by the said Erie Railway Company as its own. and without accountability therefor to said Gould, whose claims thereto, or under such contract, are hereby released. Twelfth. — And the said Gould hereby releases the said Erie Railway Company from the obligation to repay certain ex- penditures by him heretofore made for account of said ■ pany. and from all other claims, demands and causes of action against the said Company of every nature to this date, and hereby absolves and releases the said Company from all obli- gations, if any. to pay any other or further sums to him. Thirteenth. — The said Gould here! to pay. on the execution hereof, the reasonable cost and counsel fees of the plaintiff's attorneys. Messrs. Barlow, Larocque and MacFar- land, connected with this settlement, or growing out of pending suits. Fourteenth. — The said Gould hereby agrees to pay, on the execution hereof, the claims against the Narragansett Steam Company, now in suit, hereby compromised at the sum of fifty thousand dollars: and all claims by either of said companies against the other, or growing out of the occupation of a pier by the Xarragansctt Company, or otherwise, arising to this date, or hereby released. Fifteenth.— The aforesaid payments by said Gould of the moneys and transfers of the real and personal property above- oned made, and to be made, to the Erie Railway Com- pany, in accordance with the covenants and agreements herein set forth, and in consideration of which the Eru Railway Company executes the foregoing release, are intended to be in compromise of its claims against said Gould, as recited m the previous portions of this agreement: but in thus com- promising and settling with said Company it is midl- and agreed that nothing herein contained shall be construed as an admission by said Gould of any v. .1 Company by him done or suffered; but on the contrary he claim he has always been prepared and willing to make COnvi to the said Company of the principal part of the pro; herein agreed to be conveyed, whenever the neci charges to him were properly executed. And it is undi - that the remainder of said payments he now makes for thi :!>1 to terminate annoying litig I it is ad- mitted by said Company that the said Gould has offered to make conveyance to it of a considerable part of the premises now agreed to be convej In witness whereof, the said the Erie Railway Company has caused its corporate seal to be hereto and the same to be attested by its President, by order of its Board of Directors, and the said Jay Gould has hereunto set his hand and seal the day and year first above written. Seal of Railway Co. Attest : Erie Railway Company, H. X. Otis, By P. II. Watson, Secretary. President. Jay Gout d. An analysis of the details of this contract of the Company with Jay Gould was presented before the Investigating Committee of the New York Legisla- ture in 1 S79, clause by clause, as follows: >T (This clause was intended to cover the transaction in the matter of the Chemung Railroad. — Author). — The Che- mung Railroad extends from a point on the Erie Railway, about four miles west of Klmira. to Watkins, 17' 4 miles. The Elmira and Canandaigua Railroad extends from Watkins to Canandaigua 4(1' 1 miles — a total distance of 64 miles. Capit 1 stock Chemung Railroad. $380,000: capital stock Elmira and Canandaigua Railroad. $500.000 — a total of $880,000. The Eri.- acquired a lease of both roads, under date of January I. 1N5 ■• at a rental of $30,000 per year for the Chemung Railroad, and $25,000 per year for the Elmira and Canandaigua Road. and it was stipulated in the contract for each road that. in case of failure to pay the rent of either, as provided, then the lease of both should be forfeited, tin- object being to enable both of the small roads to keep together, and work through line. February 27, 1863, the Erie Company leased the Buffalo. Xew York, and Erie Railroad, and transferr interest in the lease to the Northern Central Railway Company. April 15. 1863. This partnership business in the operat the Buffalo. Xew York, and Erie Railroad not working to the satisfaction of either, it was dissolved January the Erie assigned the lease of the Elmira and Canand Road to the Northern Central Railway, and contract allow their trains to run oxer the Chemung Railroad. T contracts and leases were profitable to the Erie Railwaj pany. In 1 87 1 . Jay Gould, President of the Erie, purcl ntrol of the capital stork of the Chemung and Canan- daigua companies, and put in his own Board of Din afterward the Erie defaulted in the rent of the Chemung Railroad. This, of coursi and placed the Northern Central Railway at the mer Gould for a connection as an outlet for their western bit- 2l6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Gould then sold them the capital stock of both companies for $3,000,000. The Erie Company lost control of those two roads. lost their business, and suffered large pecuniary loss, while Gould individually made more than $2,000,000 by the trans- action. Third. — As regards the cost and value of the securities transferred by Gould: Brooks Locomotive Works, $99.000 — In December, 1869. Horatio G. Brooks leased from the Erie Company the repair ipS at Dunkirk, and purchased all the tools ami machinery in them, the tools and machinery to be paid for by credits on bills for engines, the Erie Company agreeing to purchase from him twenty-five new locomotives per annum. Brooks then formed a joint stock company, to which he sold and trans- ferred his contracts and leases with the Erie, and received pay in the capital stock of his company — the Brooks Locomotive Works. Thus hi- company was floated without any cash basis, no money having been paid in. Brooks divided the capital stock around, according to previous understanding, and the $99,000 was Gould's portion. Erie Emigrant Company, $65.000. — The Erie Land and Im- provement Company was a joint stock company, formed to act as emigrant agent for the Erie Railway Company. Its capital stock was issued in payment for a contract between the Eric Company and a third party, under which the Erie Com- pany paid large commissions for all emigrant passengers. This $65,000 represented Gould's interest in the division of 1 It cost nothing, and had no cash basis. National Stock Yard Company, $186.000. — The National Stock Yard Company is a New Jersey corporation. Gould purchased the land for the stock yard at Weehawken (the farm formerly owned by Dudley S. Gregory) and paid for it with Erie funds. The Erie Company made the improvements in the shape of barns and pens, and then the whole was transferred to the Stock Yard Company at cost. The Erie Company was repaid in bonds of the Stock Yard Company. The capital stock of $1,000,000, on which no payments whatever were made, was divided, and the $186,000 was Gould- portion. Jefferson Railroad Company. $1.950.000. — The Jefferson Rail- road Company, a Pennsylvania corporation, was organized in the interest of the Erie road, to construct a branch railroad from Lanesboro to Carbondale. Henry A. Fonda & Co. con- tracted to build the road for $2,000,000 mortgage bonds, and $2,000,000 capital stock, the Erie Company guaranteeing in- terest on the bonds. During the progress of the work (when the road was about half completed), the contractors having some difficulty in procuring funds, Gould, acting for the Erie Company, proposed to take from the contractors the remainder of their Jefferson bonds at 80 per cent., and the contractors to transfer hack the capital stock (it was understood from the first that the stock had no real value). The money for the contractors was procured by the sale of Boston, Hartford, and Erie bonds to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. The stock was transferred to Justin D. White, and by him handed over to Gould and Fisk. The road was constructed on the proceeds of the sale of the $2,000,000 bonds, and the contractors got rich at that. No money was ever paid on the stock. Bluestone Company: Stock. $86,000; bonds, $12,000. — The Bluestone Company was organized without any cash capital. Its stock was issued in payment for contract- for privileges of quarrying stone in Pike County, Pennsylvania. Fifty cents per share was borrowed From the stockholders on the Com- pany's notes for money to tut with, ami just prior to maturity of the notes the bonds were issued at twelve per cent, of their par value. Gould therefore paid but $1,144 for his $08,000. At the time of this transfer the Bluestone Company was prac- tically insolvent, if not already in the hands of a receiver. William M. Tweed and Hugh Smith were each given $100,000 of the capital stock, but the city did not purchase any of their stone. The Department of Public Works wanted too large a slice from the bills of purchase, which the Bluestone Com- pany would not agree to, considering Tweed and Smith would get enough in dividends on their stock. Following is the story of the Bluestone Company. It is not from the records of the Investigating Committee, but from authoritative information with which the author was furnished: Soon after the Civil War John F. Kilgour, a blue- stone quarryman of Ulster County, N. V., in com- pany with George \Y. Waters, another operator in Hudson River bluestone, purchased a quarry tract in Sullivan County, near Westbrookville, in the Neversink Valley. The firm of Kilgour & Waters made money in their quarries, but in 1868 rumors that a great bluestone deposit had been discovered on the line of the Erie Railway, in Pike County, Pa., reached them, and Kilgour made a prospecting tour to the region, and finding that the rumors were more than true, he and his partner sold out their West- brookville property to W. B. Fitch, of Kingston, and purchased 3,000 acres of land in Pike County, paying $8,000 for the tract. The region in which this entirely undeveloped quarry property was situated was known as the Pond Eddy country. It was wild and mountainous. The Erie Railway rah on one side of it and the Delaware and Hudson Canal on the other, a quarter of a mile distant. The rude station building of the Erie Rail- way at Pond Eddy, and a little hamlet in Sullivan County, across the river, were the only signs of civ- ilization for miles around. It needed only a few- days' work to demonstrate the fact that the Pond Eddy quarries were bound to be a success beyond all expectation, and in the following June Waters & Kilgour had 100 men at work. That summer the Pennsylvania Bluestone Company was organized with a large capital, and 400 men were put to work in the Pond Eddy quarries. Waters subsequently sold his interest in the tract that had cost $S,000 for $75,000. The new company and the large business it rapidly built up soon attracted the attention of THE STORY OF ERIE 217 outside persons, among them James Fisk, Jr. Early in 1S70 Fisk sent word to Kilgour that he would like to see him at the Erie offices in New York. Kil- gour called, and Fisk went straight to business. I want an interest in those bluestone quarries," said Fisk. Kilgour told Fisk that there was no possible way for him to obtain an interest in the business. "Then we must freeze somebody out!" said Fisk. Kilgour replied that such a thing was out of the question. " You can't get in the business any way that I can see," said Kilgour. ' Then you can have no further switch or track privileges on the Erie!" exclaimed Fisk. "I'll tear your sidings out to-morrow!" Without switching privileges at Pond Eddy the bluestone quarries would be practically worthless, but Kilgour, who was a bluff and emphatic individ- ual, put on his hat, and shaking his fist at the Prince of Erie, thundered: " You and your railroad can both go to hell, Mr. Fisk! You can't get your finger in my business! " Kilgour strode out of Fisk's office, and went straight to his home in Passaic. He told his wife that Fisk had ruined him. Kilgour's manner had pleased Fisk. He sent one of his henchmen, a man named George E. Rust, to follow the irate quarry owner, and to beg of him to return and have further talk with Fisk. The bluestone operator refused to listen to any overtures, until his wife begged him to do so, and not be ruined without a struggle. He went to Fisk's office again next day, and the result of the interview was that the Pennsylvania Blue- stone Company ceased to exist, and a new company under the name of the New York and Pennsylvania Bluestone Company was formed, with a capital of $1,000,000. John F. Kilgour was made President, and miles of switches were built along the railroad at the Erie Company's expense, to accommodate the business of the new concern. Gould, Fisk, and William M. Tweed, with Kilgour, were the principal stockholders in the company. Individual operators in bluestone had gone into the business by the score along the Erie, as it had been discovered that the country on both sides of the river for miles was one vast bluestone quarry. These small operators were " frozen out," for no railroad privileges were given to them. The big company got control of the whole region. Soon after the new company began operations, contracts of the kind so plentiful in the days of Tweed were made with the bluestone company by Tweed, in his official capac- ity, for supplying New York City with stone from the Fisk-Twced-Kilgour quarries. Before the schemes of the combination were well afoot, however, the downfall of the Tweed Ring came. That was the first great blow to the Blue- stone Company, for its contracts would have resulted in the payment of millions to it by the city. Quickly following the fall of Tweed and the Ring, came the death of Fisk. With this came the end of the New York and Pennsylvania Bluestone Company. At the time of the Gould-Watson agreement the Blue- stone Company was practically insolvent, if not already in the hands of a receiver, which could readily have been ascertained by the Committee of Directors making inquiry at Port Jervis, X. Y., on the line of the railroad, where the facts were notorious. Glcnwood Coal Company: Shares. $1,000,000; bonds, $624,000. — Gould bought thi.- coal lands with Erie funds, then organized the company, to whom he transferred the lands, receiving in payment the capital stock. The Erie Treasury was reimbursed with Glenwood Coal Company's bonds, so that no money was ever paid for the stock. The $624,000 in bonds which Gould turned over at this time were bonds which Gould had in his possession as an officer of the Coal Company. They were not in his individual possession, as they had never been issued by the Coal Company. Suspension Bridge Company: Stock. $80.000. — The Suspension Bridge and Erie Junction Railroad Companj inized to construct a road between the points indicated by its title. Mortimer Smith contracted to build the road for $1,000,000 in bonds, and $500,000 in stock. Smith was merely the agent of Erie officials, who purchased the bonds at 65 per cent, of par value, and divided the stock around pro rata. The road was built on the proceeds of the bonds. Gould undoubted!; his bonds, which were guaranteed by the Erie Compan) large advance. .lllegany Transportation Company: Stock. $450.000.— This was a pipe line company in the Pennsylvania 01] regions. Henry Ilarley first sold Gould an interest in his pipe line in 1868 for $100,000. On the purchase -1 another line. Gould paid as his share $12,500. and then he afterward purchased the inter Gen. Robert B. Potter. Receiver of the Atlantic and I Western Railroad, in the same lines for $40.000— total payment by Gould $152,500. On the formation of the Allegany Trans- portation Company, which was the corporate life of Harley's 218 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES pipe lines, on a capital stock of $1,700,000. Gould's share of stock was $150,000. From the contracts with the Atlantic and Groat Western Railroad Company and the Erie Company, the Allegany Transportation Company was enabled to make large and frequent dividends. At the time of this transfer to the Erie Company, the stock was worth absolutely nothing. New York and Hackensack Railroad Company: Stock, $179,400. I bought tin- stock through Robert Rannie, of Lodi, N. J. After this purchase the Erie Company purchased all the rolling stock and tools of the Hackensack Company, paying $93,000. and Gould's dividends from it paid for this stock. The Erie then leased the Hackensack Road and furnished the roll- ing Stuck Hackensack Extension Railroad Company: Stock. $50.000. — This railroad was built on the proceeds of the sale of bonds and then leased to the Erie Company. The stock was issued with- out any cash payments, and this $50,000 was given to Gould at the time of the execution of the lease. Nyack and Northern Railroad: Stock, $16,000.— This road is an extension of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey from Piermont to Nyack. and leased to the Erie. It was built on proceeds of sale of bonds, and the stock was a gratuity, and this much was Gould's share. Northern Railroad Ccmpany: Stock, $900.— The Northern Railroad Company of New Jersey, in 1868, had an issue of capi- tal stock of $250,000 and mortgage bonds of $350,000. At this time Gould and Fisk purchased a one-fourth interest in the road, and General Diven purchased a one-sixth interest. Up to this tune the road had never paid a dividend. The author- ized issue of stock was $i,ooo.ooo, and the mortgage under which the bonds were issued was for $500,000. After Gould, Fisk, and Diven acquired their interest, the Erie Company purchased all the rolling stock and machinery and tools of every kind from the Northern Railroad Company, and paid something like $230,000 in cash. The dividends from this paid for the capital stock purchased by them. They then divided the $150,000 of mortgage bonds and $750,000 of capi- tal stock, and made a contract for the Erie to furnish the rolling stock and operate the road. Under this contract they were able to pay interest on the whole $500,000 of bonds, and a dividend of from 3 to 5 per cent, on the whole $1,000,000 of capital stock. This paltry $900 of stock turned over by Gould must have been intended as a blind, or it slipped in by mistake. Erie Railway Preferred Scrip, $34.000.— This scrip was Gould's proceeds from the scrip dividend declared in the winter of 1869-70. Jefferson Car Company: Stock, $178.000. — Alexander C. Rad- cliffe contracted with the Erie Railway Company to furnish or the transportation of coal for the Delaware and Hud- son Canal Company from Carbondale to Buffalo and Roches- ter. The Jefferson Car Company w^as organized with a capital of one million dollars— $200,000 of the stock to he issued for cash, and $800,000 for the purchase of the Radcliffe contract. A subscriber to the rash stock was to receive for each share a -to, k paid for .it par. two shares of the contract stock addi- tional — SO that lie paid really hut 33 per cent, for his stock. Thus $600,000 was disposed of. One hundred thousand dollars of the contract vvas originally given to Could. He afterward purchased five hundred shares ($50,000) from one of the cash subscribers at tin original cost of $16,667, and subsequently they gave him $28,000 more stock on the execution of another contract. Fourth. — The Opera House and adjoining properties were purchased with Erie funds, hut not from these funds traced to Gould through Smith. Gould & Martin's books. Fifth.— No transfer of property was made under this clause, except such property as the Erie Company was in possession of. The deeds were taken in the name of Jay Gould, but he had executed trust deeds in each case, which has been deposited in the Erie safe. Sixth. — There is no doubt this interest was purchased with Erie moneys, but it would be a natural inquiry now to ascer- tain whether the Erie Company or Barlow has it. Eighth. — Gould was willing to cancel the lease of the Opera House after the title in the property had been transferred to the Erie Company, but he did not refund any rents which the Erie had paid. Ninth. — This one million dollars of United States Express stock never has been transferred or delivered to the Erie Company. (Under the Presidency of H. J. Jewett, in 1874, suit was brought against Gould to compel a settle- ment of the claim, but it was compromised [the stock of the Express Company having declined to 45], by Gould paying the Erie the equivalent of 10,000 shares of the Express Company's stock at that price. — Author?) Tenth. — Gould had $7,500 of the stock of the Towboat Com- pany given to him by O. H. P. Archer. This company was for the purpose of towing the freight barges between New York and Long Dock. Eleventh. — Gould, Tweed. Palmer, and others took these $3,000,000 bonds from the Erie Company at 60 per cent. On May 2, 1872. Barlow telegraphed McHenry, asking if he should purchase those bonds back again at 75, so as to have them in- cluded in a negotiation for the sale of others then going on in London. On June 4. he wrote to I Ionian, Green, and Cryder that they had bought the bonds. Now, why should they re- purchase these bonds at a profit to Gould of 15 per cent, and agree to do all the work and take all the risk and give him all the profits on a resale? Investigation will undoubtedly show there was no. such agreement, but that the bonds were bought outright at 75. and the clause was put in to apparently swell up the credits of Gould's account. It cannot be shown that he divided this $650,000 with Palmer. Tweed, or other members of the syndicate who held the bonds, as he would have done had there been any such agreement. Fourteenth. — The Narragansett Steamship Company owed the Eric Company a large amount of money — at this time Gould was President and principal owner of the Narragansett Company. He agrees to pay the claim which is compromised Of course the amount paid is credited to the Narragansett Company to balance the account. Now. why should the same amount be again credited to Gould's individual account exci pi to throw dust in the eyes of stupid Directors and make the alleged amount recovered from Gould appear so much larger? The whole Narragansett Steamship stock held by Gould at that time in law and equity belonged to the Erie Company. Such was the great Gould " restitution," by which Jay Gould once more manifested his superior genius in dealing with Erie affairs! THE STORY OF ERIE 219 By the withdrawal of the legal proceedings against Gould, the books of the firm of Gould, Smith, Mar- tin & Co., that were to be used as the vital evidence that could win against Gould, of course were of no more service, and Henry X. Smith's vengeance was not accomplished. The books were returned to his custody. The cry that the Erie managers had com- pounded a felony in settling with Gould was raised, and alarming talk of criminal prosecution and legis- lative investigation prevailed after the nature of the " restitution " had been publicly discussed and weighed, and the importance of the books as evi- dence was declared. The books would also be of great value to others who might want to proceed against Gould for alleged irregular transactions, it was said. At any rate, in the early spring of 1874, when Erie affairs were getting seriously entangled, and certain suits against Erie and Gould were threatened, a number of mysterious and unknown men called at Smith's farm in New Jersey, when no one but a hired man was at the place, and where the books had been stored, and forcibly took possession of them and disappeared. It has never been made public in whose interest the raid on the books was made, but they have never been seen or heard from since. II. THE SILVER LINING GROWING LESS. At a meeting of the Board of Directors on the 14th of January, 1873, the long-expected and rumored new issue of convertible bonds was ordered unan- imously. The issue was for $10,000,000 7 per cent, (gold) bonds. At this same meeting a special com- mittee was appointed to consider the question of declaring a dividend on the preferred stock. William Pitt Shearman was appointed Treasurer of the Com- pany. A contract was made with Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt to place this loan, and by the nth of February, $8, 000,000 of it was sold in European markets. On the same day a half yearly dividend °f l x A P er cent, was declared on the preferred stock of the Company to January 1, 1873, and a dividend of ij^ per cent, on the common stock. At the meeting which declared the dividend, four of the Directors — Messrs. Olyphant, Johnston, Pruyn, and Babcock — voted against it, mainly on the ground tiiat the act was inexpedient while the Company was bor- rowing money to increase its facilities and to pay interest on its debt. The other Directors; thirteen in all, based their action upon the statements of President Watson and Auditor Dunan, without any personal knowledge of their own in relation to the profits of the Company. President Watson declared that these dividends were due to t he stockholders out of the net earnings of 1872. The incredulity with which this statement was received in financial circles, and, to a large extent, by the public, was by no means flattering to the management. The posi- tive charge was made that the profits of the I pany for that year could not have equalled that sum ; that the dividends were paid out of borrowed money for the purpose of strengthening the credit of the Company in Europe, to aid in the negotiation of its bonds, and in the interest of speculators in Erie stock, as well as to satisfy the clamor of small holders abroad, who had been promised dividends upon the coming into power of the new manage- ment. The opinion that the dividends had been fraudu- lently declared and paid was so persistently and aggressively kept before the public that an investi- gation was demanded at the session of the Xew York Legislature of 1873, not only to ascertain the methods by which the new management had manipu- lated the Company's transactions to warrant the dividends, but to obtain information as to whether it was true that large and improper payments of money had been made by the foreign stockholders and officers of the Erie Railway Company in effecting the transfer of the Gould management to its suc- cessor, the leaders in the making of such transfer being the controlling influence in the Watson r/gime, the charge being that such payments had been made, and that the agents of the foi stockholders had. through a corrupt contract for the negotiation of its bonds, indirectly reimbursed themselves from the Company's treasury for such expenditure. On March 11, 1873, the first anni- versary of Gould's dethroning, an investigation was ordered. (Page 452, " Under the Legislative Probe.") 2?0 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The Committee made its report on May 16, 1873. It declared that " it is thought but just to state that the Committee do not believe that the present officers of the Erie Railway Company have know- falsified statements made as taken from the books of the Company. The new Auditor claims to have found the books in a disorderly condition, and to have introduced a new system of accounts. These causes may and probably have led to the confusion and discrepancy stated." The Committee's report declared further: " In order to fully understand the nature of the trans- action, which, without authority of law, in a single day revolutionized the management of one of the leading railroad lines of this country, running the entire length of the State of New York, it will be necessary to analyze briefly the motives of some of the actors. McHenry, and Bischoffscheim & Co. of London appear most prominent as the persons claim- ing to represent the great body of English stock- ■rs. There is no evidence to show that the latter permanently owned or controlled any consid- erable amount of stock previous to the election in July. It is in evidence that McHenry, who ad- vanced more than one-half the sum used to buy out the Directors and for other purposes, was not a per- manent holder of Erie stock and had no direct inter- est in the welfare of the Erie Road. So much disinterestedness is not commonly found among managers of great corporations, and the secret springs of Mr. McHenry's actions must be sought in his ownership or interest in the Atlantic and Great Western Road, a corporation representing $109,000,000 of stock and bonded debt, and whose affairs are currently believed to be insolvent. This lias its principal connections with the Erie Rail- way, and is mainly dependent upon it for the through traffic passing over its track. It is fair to conclude from the testimony that McHenry's object in con- trolling the Erie Board was for the purpose of inti- mate relation between the two roads, and thus to benefit the property owned by him, viz., the Atlan- tic and Great Western. The present Board was approved by him, McHenry himself being present at the election. The counsellor of the Erie is also counscllur for the Atlantic and Great Western, and has been for a number of years. However bold and ingenious the plan, or however well skilled and tal- ented the actors, it is safe to say that but for the gold of the English stockholders the whole scheme would have met an ignominious failure, proving again the efficiency of a well-filled camp-chest in a campaign against an enemy fertile in resources and ever on the alert. Aside from the motives which inspired the policy and the actions which resulted in the overthrow of the Gould direction, the manner and the means cannot but be regarded with the severest disapprobation. And the fact that the movement was inspired, and large amounts of money were advanced by foreigners having no other than a selfish interest, and in contempt of the laws and tribunals of the State, renders this proceeding pecu- liarly offensive. " In a statement of account from Bischoffscheim & Co. to the Erie Railway Company, made in January, 1873. was an item of ^80,000 for expenses, as per McHenry's instructions. President Watson said that payment of this item is not yet acknowledged. The balance of the account, however, amounting to ^23, 168. 12, was drawn for by the Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company, and no protest was made against the charge of £80, 000. No demand for a statement of items was made on Bischoffscheim until after the investigation was begun." The Committee did not think the rate of commis- sion allowed by the Bischoffscheim contract (the one made under the Dix administration for placing the $30,000,000 loan) was " too large, under the circum- stances, upon the amount of the bonds actually nego- tiated, about $7,000,000. But upon the $23,000,000 which were to be exchanged for the same amount held by the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and by J. S. Morgan & Co., the rate seemed to be too high, and may have been influenced by past ser- vices rendered by Bischoffscheim & Co. in effecting the revolution. The advances made by Bischoff- scheim & Co. of $4,000,000, upon the bonds soon after the Dix Directors came in, no doubt relieved the Company from embarrassment, but they received the usual rates of interest on these advances, in addition to the commission upon the bonds as soon as sold. THE STORY OF ERIE 221 " The right to reimburse the extravagant amounts corruptly employed in overthrowing the Gould direc- tion from the treasury of the Erie Railway Company is not, in the minds of your Committee, in any way defensible except upon the principle that ' to the victors belong the spoils.' The interest of McHenry was witli the Atlantic and Great Western. Bischoff- scheim & Co. were large dealers in railroad securi- ties, particularly in Erie stocks, and their principal object in the movement was to speculate upon the rise which they believed would ensue, and which did ensue, upon the change in management. It is well known that the latter, at least, made large sums in the advance which followed upon the stock of the Erie Company from about thirty to sixty-five cents on the dollar. These parties then should have looked for reimbursement out of the re- sults which followed and which were anticipated by them. " But by the change of administration, together with the contract with Bischoffscheim & Co., and the advances made by them, the credit of the Company was greatly improved, and, perhaps, the danger of insolvency averted. Its stock was doubled in value within a brief period, and the value of its securities increased and made available. But these were for- tunate incidents following the overthrow, produced, in fact, by a belief in the integrity of the ' reform ' direction, and of which fortunate results Bischoff- scheim & Co. availed themselves to a large extent by previous purchase of Erie stock. The witness Horace F. Clark and others gave evidence that the expenses had of late largely increased. Auditor Dunan's statement showed a large decrease of ex- penses, which could hardly have been unless an undue amount had been carried to constructive account, and too little allowed for depreciation of track and equipment. Your Committee here take occasion to say that they have the fullest confidence in the ability and integrity of President Watson, and believe that he is earnestly endeavoring to promote the welfare of the great Company of which he is the head, and that the affairs of that road are being conducted by him with the sole purpose of reestablishing its credit and of economizing its revenues." In consequence of the exposures that the investi- gation brought about as to their participation in what President Watson called the " pecuniary stimulus " of the Gould conspiracy, Secretary H. N. Otis, Assist- ant Treasurer Justin D. White, and Auditor John Hilton were suspended without pay from the service of the Company March 17, 1873, and they were never reinstated. Secretary Otis resigned April 8th fol- lowing, and never recovered from the blow. He had been many years a Director and Secretary of the Company, and up to the time of the Gould over- throw, his record was above reproach. It is believed by his friends to this day that he was deceived as to the character of the plans of those who were en- gineering the campaign against Gould, and as to what its result was to be, and was an inconsiderate victim of that questionable transaction, rather than a willing sharer in its fruits. The report of the Committee, while regarded by the public as an ambiguous and insufficient deliver- ance, was accepted and proclaimed as a vindication by the Watson management as to the matter of its honesty and fair-dealing in the matter of the divi- dend. The unsavory and scandalous revelations of the investigation, the management congratulated itself, were none of its affairs. They related to a previous administration, and the existing manage- ment was in no way responsible for them. The fact remained, however, that the predominant influences of the Watson management had been the prime movers in the affair, the methods of which had received the most positive condemnation of the Committee. This, to however much of probity and straightforwardness the same influences were inclined in directing the future of the Company, did not tend to strengthen confidence in the new management. Peter H. Watson, undoubtedly, had burdened himself with the responsibilities of the Presidency of the Erie Railway Company with the fond hope that he might succeed in rehabilitating it to the proud position which was the great property's right due. In the spring of 1873 he said: " The Erie Railway is a partially complete machine. It will require over $40,000,000 to make it complete, or $30,000,000 in BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES addition to the $10,000,000 that has recently been borrowed. And when completed, by reason of its augmented receipts, it will be able to earn dividends on the entire cost. One thing required is a double track. Another is to have the equipment doubled. The Company has 10,000 available cars, less than half enough. It needs 1,200 locomotives, and has less than one-half that number. We want ioo more sidings. There is a deficiency in stations, a defi- ciency in shops. We have not house-room enough to cover more than one-quarter of the locomotives. They have been standing out all winter, with watch- men employed, at large expense, to keep up fires in them to prevent them from freezing." Marly in the summer, rumors of another dividend n to circulate, and the same clamor that it could not be honestly declared arose. September 2, 1873, a meeting of the Board of Directors was held, and the creation of a $40,000,000 second consolidated mortgage, and the negotiating of $10,000,000 of the bonds to issue under that mortgage, were agreed upon. At this meeting Lucius Robinson, subse- quently Governor of New York State, was elected Vice-President to succeed Gen. A. S. Diven, who had resigned the previous March. President Wat- son was granted leave of absence to go to Europe on official business of the Company, which was to impress the stockholders and investors there with the importance of his views on the necessity of large expenditure in bringing the railroad to a proper con- dition to do the traffic it was entitled to and would obtain with sufficient facilities, and to negotiate the loan for that purpose. In a report made by President Watson to the Board at this meeting he strongly commended the policy which had been adopted with a view rather to future than to present dividends. This was to ex- pend upward of $40,000,000 of additional capital in double-tracking the road and supplying it with steel rails, narrowing its gauge, perfecting its road-bed, providing it with sufficient rolling stock and motive power, with grain elevators, coal chutes, and other depot and terminal facilities, and extending its branches into the anthracite and bituminous coal fields; "purchasing sufficient coal lands to prevent any hostile combination from diverting the coal trade from the Erie; establishing its connection through the New York, Boston and Montreal, and the New York and New England railroads, with the great manufacturing districts of New England and their chief seaport, Boston, and with the Eastern railway lines which connect with those of the Maritime British Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which terminate eastward of Halifax, the nearest seaport of this continent to Europe, and the point at which multitudes of passengers for Europe, who desire to make their ocean voyage the shortest possible, will, at no distant day, embark and dis- embark. While establishing these connections cast- ward, its alliances westward would be perfected so as to carry it practically to Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago, the three great gateways and depots of the Southwest, the West, and the Northwest." The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad had recently been leased by the New York Central, thus giving one of the theretofore most important and valuable Erie connections to the absolute con- trol of the Erie's great and progressive rival. This was the more disappointing to President Watson as, in association with his proposed narrow-gauging of the Erie, he had fondly hoped to secure for his Com- pany the same control of the Lake Shore that the Central obtained. There was nothing left, there- fore, but to use every means to make satisfactory and mutually profitable arrangements with the Atlan- tic and Great Western Railroad Company for inter- change of traffic, and securing the Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad and its branches and connecting lines as part of the Erie and Atlantic and Great Western system. How this might best be accomplished President Watson left until his return from Europe for further considera- tion. When he returned from Europe, however, he found his hands and head full of other things affect- ing so closely his immediate management of Erie that the further development of his plans of exten- sion could find no room there, and found room there never again. ' In accordance with the reports of the General Auditor herewith submitted," said Mr. Watson in his report, " I recommend the declaration of a divi- THE STORY OF ERIE 223 dend of 3^ per cent, upon the par value of the pre- ferred stock, and 1 per cent, upon the common stock of the Company, to be paid out of the net earnings. The amount suggested as a dividend upon the com- mon stock might perhaps be a little increased, but I prefer to keep clearly within the limits of the present actual earnings, trusting soon to show an increase that will warrant a larger distribution among the stockholders. The net earnings since June 30, 1873, are more than sufficient to pay this and the dividend of 3^ per cent, on the preferred stock." President Watson sailed for Europe. He had scarcely landed in London before the news of the great crisis that had suddenly confronted the finan- cial situation in the United States reached there. Banks, trust companies, commercial houses, and brokers were failing almost hourly. Business in the stock exchanges was suspended. General financial and business paralysis seemed to have stricken the country. Erie shares, and all American securities, declined disastrously in the London market. Presi- dent Watson had chosen an unfortunate time to place an American security among English investors, especially an obligation of Erie, which corporation time and circumstance had not exalted in the esti- mation of capitalists either at home or abroad. The Erie President went boldly and confidently to work, however, biding his time and improving his oppor- tunity. The end of the year came. He had not yet reestablished London confidence in the prospects of Erie. III. THE SILVER LINING DISAPPEARS. The year 1874 opened with no very encouraging outlook for the Erie, if the signs of the time could be rightly read, and before many weeks passed it was plain that the signs had not failed. President Watson was still in Europe pleading for money. Although the second dividend had been declared and paid, and the report of the Company's condition and prospects at the end of the fiscal year of 1873 was encouraging in the extreme, many employees of the Company at the end of March, 1874, had but re- cently received their pay for January, and were anx- iously awaiting their February dues, not taking into account the wages for March already earned; and the month closed with a strike of employees that greatly interfered with the business of the road for a fortnight or more, and at last had to be suppressed by the aid of the military. The belief that the divi- dends had not been earned by the Company gained strength daily. It was openly declared that the money President Watson had gone to Europe to borrow was necessary to keep the Company out of bankruptcy. The predominance of S. L. M. Barlow in the direction of Erie affairs had made many ene- mies. At the last election he had voted on $40,000,- OOO worth of stock — 400,000 shares, or more than half of the common capital stock. This demon- strated that he was entirely in the confidence of the English syndicate or combination, and enabled him to become as dictatorial in the management as he might please, and he was a man well constructed to enjoy being a dictator. Unfortunately for the future of the Watson man- agement, Director Barlow — who was also the head of the Company's legal department — in the course of the enforcement of his views as to the policy of the Company, made an enemy of Col. S. H. Dunan, the General Auditor. Colonel Dunan had come into the service of the Erie from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. He had been for several years the head of the accounting department of that company, and was acknowledged to be foremost among expert and conscientious railway accountants. He was permitted to leave the service of the Balti- more company by President Garrett and accept the offer made him by the Erie Railway Company, at the personal request and urgent appeal of President Watson himself, who vouched for his strictest integ- rity and unimpeachable character. Auditor Dunan was himself a stern man, stubborn in the discharge of his duty as he saw it, and impatient of dictation. Between two such positive characters as Barlow and Dunan friction was inevitable. It came at last, and the result was the uncovering of still another un- pleasant chapter in the secret history of Erie, from the effects of which the Watson management never recovered. This uncovering began with the resig- nation, on March 11, 1S74, of Auditor Dunan from the service of the Company. This was followed by 224 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES his publication of a report made by him to the Board of Directors, which, in circumstantial detail, declared that the annual report of the Company to the State Engineer for the fiscal year of 1S73 was a false state- ment, and was known to be so by President Watson when it was made; that the floating debt, instead of being less than $3,000,000, as according to the sworn report, was really $7,000,000; that the accounts had been manipulated to make the necessary showing that the dividends had been paid out of earnings, when in fact they had been borrowed from the cap- ital ; that there was scarcely a dollar in the treasury, and that the Company was actually bankrupt. That the Erie dividends had not been earned had long been general belief, but such confirmation of it as this positive declaration, made by one than whom no man living should know more of the financial condition of the Company, was not to have been expected. President Watson was still in Europe, and had not been successful yet in securing the money he had gone thither to borrow. Lucius Robinson was act- ing President. The Erie management and its friends charged that Dunan had formed a coalition with Jay Gould and others inimical to Erie in a bear raid on the stock, and had resigned his office and made the damaging declaration of the dishonesty of the Erie annual report to aid in carrying the stock-jobbing scheme to success. Dunan's statement was de- nounced as false. The report had been completed on March 3d, while he was yet Auditor, and was made, he said, to set himself right, before resigning, for having consented to the signing of the misleading report that had gone forth as the Company's official statement the previous January. On March 12th the Board of Erie Directors held a meeting, denounced Dunan by official resolution as a stock-jobber, falsifier, and traitor; declared its entire and continued confidence in President Watson, and appointed a Committee consisting of John Tay- lor Johnston, Cortlandt Parker, Frederick Schuch- ardt, George H. Brown, and Herman R. Baltzer, to examine and report forthwith the floating debt of the Company, and all the accounts of the Company from the date of its reorganization under General Dix. The Committee made its report March 20th. It stated that the floating debt on March 13th, for which money was really necessary to be provided, was $2,858,539.37, although there were items that might be construed as obligations, not properly so, which would increase the amount to $5,352,375.02, instead of $7,000,000; and said it had found the ex-Auditor's statements of entries to be correct, but that the conclusions drawn from them were erroneous. In replying to the Committee, Colonel Dunan made the statement that they " had only included in their report that which was either audited or in process of being audited and passed upon, excluding all the numerous claims which had not at the date been presented to the Company, and those which were presented, and upon which there are some dis- puted points — nevertheless, they be debts. For instance, the accounts of the Union and Jefferson Car Companies, and the balance due for the rental of the Erie and Suspension Bridge Railroad, payment upon which has been deferred for a year and a half; the balances due upon the purchase of coal lands; the amount due upon the guarantee of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad bonds; the numerous cases in litigation in New York and other States, many of which will inevitably be decided against the Company; the unadjusted claims for drawbacks and overcharges in freight and passengers, the revenue on which has been earned and paid in, and which has for some months amounted to an average of $90,000 per month; the accrued accounts for the purchase of supplies and for labor to the 13th inst., all these and many not enumerated, amounting to as they do sev- eral millions of dollars, have evidently been omitted from the Committee's statement." As the Committee had reported that it had de- cided to postpone a full report on Dunan's state- ments until the return of President Watson, no reply was made to his comments on their statements, and it is well to say that no reply was ever made by the Committee. The denunciation of and charges made against ex-Auditor Dunan by the Erie management and its friends, no matter what of justice or truth might have attended them, simply served to lead the way for further and more damaging revelations than those THE STORY OF ERIE 225 made in Dunan's official report of March. Under date of April 7, 1874, in an open letter to President Watson — who was then on his way home from Eng- land, he having at last succeeded in securing a loan — Colonel Dunan told the story of how the funds were got by which the dividends of 1873 were paid. " On July 1, 1873," he charged, " President Watson knew there was a large deficiency in the earnings of the Company, as compared with the expenses. That fact must either be suppressed or the President must admit his management to be a disastrous failure. In no way could the knowledge be kept secret except by a falsification of the accounts." Auditor Dunan was willing to consent to "modifications" being made in the profit and loss account sufficient to give the earnings the appearance of equalling the expen- ditures for operations, provided that no dividend should be declared, none having been earned. Presi- dent Watson assured him that no dividend would be declared, " and the modifications in the profit and loss account were made. This resulted in the showing of a balance to credit of income account of $1,700,000, leaving the Company about square in its operations from October 1, 1872, to June 30, 1873-" " You will remember that on the morning of August 27th, the day before the Board meeting," Dunan wrote to Watson, " I met you with Mr. Bar- low, at your rooms by appointment. Mr. Barlow was decided in his opinion of the policy of declaring a dividend, and that the accounts should be made to show that one had been declared. You will do me the justice to say how strenuously I opposed any further tampering with the accounts, and how ear- nestly I urged that if a dividend must be made, that it be made out of the surplus which remained over in the previous years. The question of extra repa- ration which had been advanced as a plea for the extravagant expenditures in working the road, was taken into consideration. I suggested that if there was anything in it, it was just as well to declare the dividend out of the old surplus as it was to alter the accounts, and that I had no accounts to show for any extra reparation. You will recall what followed. I was sent from your room to await a conference between yourself and Mr. Barlow. The conference »5 ended; you sent for Mr. Clarke, the Third Vice- President, and Mr. Tyson, the Fourth Vice-Presi- dent. I left for my office. Their visit resulted in the production of the letters on which you formed the basis of the entries which took from the expenses $1,123,000. This gave the amount desired for the dividend of $780,000 on the common stock, and $300,000 on the preferred. You approved their reports, and I was directed to see that the accounts were made to conform. This act was committed on the 28th day of August, 1873, and its consequences were made to appear in the accounts for June 30, 1873, long after the accounts for that period were closed and balanced off." In his further reorganization of the operating de- partments of the railroad service, President Watson had created early in 1873 the offices of Second, Third, and Fourth Vice-Presidents. James C. Clarke, who had been in the service of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Illinois Central, and other railroads, was appointed Third Vice-President, in the charge of the Departments of Road and Transportation, on May 1, 1873. Henry Tyson was made Fourth Vice- President, in charge of the Department of Motive Power and Machinery, in August. The reports ex- Auditor Dunan referred to as having been made to President Watson were in the form of letters ad- dressed to the President that, as to Clarke's Depart- ment, " the expenditure for repairs and renewals during the nine months ending June 30, 1873, was $719,600 more than would have been needed to pre- vent deterioration, if the property had been fully maintained during former years " ; and as to Tyson's Department, that " the expenditure due to reinstat- ing motive power and rolling stock for the same period was in excess of the amount justly chargeable to repairs and renewals for maintenance," the excess being placed at $404,304.23. These reports were ap- proved by President Watson, and the two amounts, making a total of $1,123,904, were transferred from the expense account to the capital account, and became the fund from which the 1873 dividends were paid on the common and preferred stock. In dealing with these letters Dunan, writing later, in answer to President Watson's report to the Directors in reply to his statements, said : 226 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES i of $1,000,000 was transferred from the cur- rent i count upon no better authority than the mere opinion:- of two iio were not in a position which en- abled them to form any intelligent opinion on the sul Mr. Clarke had been in the employment of the company but a few months, and had never gone over the ore the month of March. 1873, while Mr. Tyson did not enter its ser- vice until after the period referred to in his letter. Neither of them called upon any of their subordinates or associat inform. ai. >n upon the subject of these repairs, nor prepared, nor urnished with, any statement showing the actual amount of work done in detail, so that neither of them, when he made up his estimate, knew, or had means of knowing, the circum- stanci to the alleged increase m expenditure, ii' 'r could either of them have given any satisfactory explanation, on the next day after writing these two letters, of the reasons which led him to set down the precise figures given in these letters. Indeed, their original letters did not pretend to give the figures in the detail presented by the letters as given to the rke wrote that he estimated the proportion of increased expenditure, which should not be charged to the current expenses of the year, at 28 per cent, of the whole ex- penditure, and Mr. Tyson stated that he estimated the like amount in his department at 26 per cent, of the whole. Neither of them stated, either in writing or verbally, any ii which had led them to form this estimate of percentage: but the fact was that they were informed by Mr. Watson that between them they must take off the sum of $1,100,000 from the expenses of their departments, and provide an excuse for charging that amount to capital, this being the amount of two dividends which it was desired to pay, being 26 and 28 per cent. of the whole amount of expenditure in their departments. But the letters in this shape were not satisfactory to Mr. Watson, who, in his own handwriting, altered them by striking out the statement of a percentage and putting in the account and fig- ures which he desired to take from the several departments. The letters were then completed on this basis, and the estimate of amounts properly chargeable to capital, which was taken by Messrs. Clarke and Tyson, who knew very little about the affairs of their departments in the past, to which they referred, was completed by Mr. Watson, who knew still less of these details. Proceeding with his open letter to President Wat- son, Dunan wrote as follows about this transaction : What followed the falsification done in August was neces- sary to be consistent with that act. The accounts had been made to show a surplus of earnings over expenses: it was requisite, therefore, that in all future statements and accounts which were made up, the fact should nowhere appear that we had drawn upon our capital accounts for the means of running ; verj successive statement must of necessity con- tain a reiteration of the lie. Over $3,300,000 were used of the rtibli bonds to pay dividends and work the road in our year. Hut as we had stated that these amounts had been paid fi urplus earnings, a falsehood had to 1 hi n we 1 ame to make up the statement show- ing tin i this fund. You (Watson) had been at the head of the management over a year, and had been but recently elected. Before you were the accounts which showed most disasti n rid d results in the operation of the road. While the earnings had largely increased, the working expenses had disproportionately swollen to an amount unpre- cedented in the affairs of any road. Von were on the eve of sailing for 1 urope. To publish to the world the result before you was simply to abandon the contemplated trip, admit the failure ol your administration, and disappoint the hopeful an- ticipations of the public and the proprietors of the railway. I saw that you hesitated which horn to accept. There were the facts and the figures before you. and there seemed no way out of the difficulty but a frank acknowledgment that it was a bad job. Behind you. as it were, appeared the great dictator (Bar- low 1 in attitudes of authority, intimidation, and threat. No failure must be acknowledged. Not only must success be pub- lished to the world, but it must be a grand success, and the accounts must be made to show it. The alternative was. " No dividends — no money." Fulsome dispatches had been sent to London during the year indicative of the grandest success that had ever attended the labors of any administration of any cor- poration, and the stockholders expected a dividend. He whom I call the great dictator : * * * had decided that a divi- dend must be made and that was sufficient. It was nothing to him that in order to do so the accounts must be tampered with, so long as some one else did it. His will was law. Up to this hour you had not written one line of your report. The con- sciousness that in that report you must commit yourself to an erroneous statement of facts concerning the operation of the road I confidently believe was the most distasteful cup ever presented to your lips. I expected, even till the last moment, to see you reject the dose and decide again to stand firmly by the truth, be the consequences what they might, and I think, left to yourself, a report on the basis of the altered accounts never would have been written. I have shown in my report to the Board of March 3, 1874, that there was a deficiency in the capital account for the fiscal year 1873 of $3,677,911.16. The facts and figures therein given are incontrovertible. The books and accounts prove them conclusively. No mere assertion can alter or change them. The entries which have been made to change the true accounts into the false throw the books out of balance, and stand on their pages as a blot upon your name and mine. Erase them, and correct the gravest error of your administration. Mr. Watson returned to New York about the middle of April, 1874. Dunan's scathing open letter to him was still a thing of lively public interest. No satisfactory response had been made by any of the officers or Directors to a single one of the damaging allegations Dunan had put forth. It was given out from time to time that President Watson would make a statement immediately after his return which would show the falsity of Dunan's charges and de- molish them. The President returned, but a week or more passed without a word having been tittered by him in refutation of Dunan's damaging allega- tions. April 20th another sensational incident in this latest Erie imbroglio occurred. President Wat- son, having requested J. S. llunichen, General Accountant of the Erie Railway Company, to fur- nish him with abstracts and statements from the THE STORY OF ERIE 227 Company's books " as they exist," the Accountant replied by a note in which he declared that he was convinced of the correctness of Mr. Dunan's state- ment as to the condition of the accounts of the Com- pany, and that in fact he had strenuously opposed the alterations at the time they were made, and had not since changed his opinion regarding them. Therefore," he wrote, " as I do not care to act contrary to my convictions, I respectfully tender you my resignation as General Accountant of the Company, to take effect at your earliest conven- ience." The resignation was accepted at once by the President. This incident led a leading New York newspaper, which had been a strong supporter of the Watson administration, to comment as follows: " We have refused to pass any judgment on Mr. Dunan's state- ments until President Watson should be heard, but we assure Mr. Watson that he is wearing out the patience not merely of the great public, but even of those who have most implicitly believed in him. If the book-keeper tells the truth, Mr. Dunan's charges are sustained. If he does not tell the truth he ought to be in State's prison. The matter cannot be ig- nored, and if Mr. Watson has any explanation to make he should not lose an hour in making it." But Mr. Watson had been preparing his report, and April 22d he submitted it to the Board of Direct- ors. He denied none of the charges made by Mr. Dunan, and, in fact, did not refer to the most seri- ous ones. He explained and justified the transfers made from the expense accounts of the two oper- ating departments to the capital stock, defended his policy, and concluded with the declaration: "Our business continues good, our road is in better condi- tion than ever before, and I believe that when the contemplated report shall be made by those whose competency for the task and complete integrity and impartiality are assured, the recent attempt to injure the credit of the Company will result only in placing the great property before the public in a better posi- tion than it has ever before occupied." The statement was not satisfactory even to the friends of the management, as the succeeding events painfully made apparent. The persons to whom President Watson referred as contemplating an ex- amination of the affairs of the Company were expert accountants selected in this country and in England. The American experts were Stephen Little and Theodore Houston. James McHenry selected James Glegg, partner in the London banking house of Quilter, Ball & Co., and Henry Bishop of the Lon- don firm of Turquand, Youngs & Co. As repre- sentative of another party of English shareholders, Capt. II. W. Tyler was also selected to make a report, differences among the English proprietors having again occurred. The English accountants arrived in New York early in May, 1874. Glegg and Bishop were accompanied by James McHenry, who soon afterward returned to London, having quarrelled with President Watson and the Erie man- agement over the details of a plan for leasing the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad to the Erie, which plan had been agreed upon by the Erie Direct- ors, but was not satisfactory to McHenry. The lease was ratified by the stockholders of the Atlan- tic and Great Western Railroad Company June 25, 1874. It was for a term of ninety-nine years. Its terms bound the Erie Railway Company to pay the lessor 38 per cent, of the net earnings of the first year, 29 per cent, the second year, and 30 per cent, the third year. If, at the expiration of five years it was found that the proportion had exceeded that figure, the Erie was to divide the excess with the Atlantic and Great Western equally. The aggre- gate stock of the two companies amounted to $130,- 000,000. The Erie Directors met the same day and accepted the lease. At this meeting Accountants Little and Houston made a preliminary report of the result of their examination of the books as they stood at the time of the retirement of Auditor Dunan. They announced that an error of $3,000,000 had been made in the latter's report of the float ing debt of the Company on Eebruary 28th, and that the report of the Committee of the Board of Direct- ors had overestimated by more than $500,000 the floating debt at that time. But still the feeling increased that the Watson management was doomed. The English stock- holders were clamorous again for a change. Erie stock fell to 26^, lower than it had been since the dark days of Gould's control. McHenry had formed 22S BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES anew Erie Protective Committee in London. From its quarters he issued a letter June 30th, which was sent to the London Directors of the Erie Railway Company, and to the foreign exchanges, declaring that the management of the Company had adopted and was then engaged in following the Gould and Fisk method of issuing new stock which was to be sent to Europe for sale. This caused great depres- sion in Erie stocks abroad, and hastened the decline of confidence in the management.. To overcome this assault, Frederick William Smith, Secretary of the London Directory, acting on instructions, caused the arrest of one Wortner, an associate of McHenry, on July 17th, and began proceedings against him before the Lord Mayor on charge of libel of the Com- pany. Wortner said he was prepared to prove every charge he had made. Nothing ever came of the prosecution. The lease of the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- road had scarcely been signed and come into force, when it was announced that that company, on July 1st, had defaulted in London in the payment of the interest on its first consolidated mortgage bonds. Following this discouraging news the situation of Erie was further disturbed by the instituting of pro- ceedings against the Company, before Attorney-Gen- eral Pratt, by John C. Angell, claiming to be a stock and bondholder of the Company, praying for the intervention of the State, for the benefit of the stockholders and bona-fide creditors, in procuring a dissolution of the Company, and the organization of a new corporation, free from its existing embarrass- ments. At the hearing at Albany July 7th, Angell was represented by John M. Hill as counsel. Ex-Judge William Fullerton appeared as the legal represent- ative of the Erie Protective Committee of London, the head and adviser of which was James McHenry, The Erie Railway Company's counsel were Hon. William M. Evarts and ex-Judge W. D. Shipman. The proceedings were founded on the affidavit of ex-Auditor Dunan, wherein the charges he had made in his exposures of March, 1874, were reiterated. Angell declared in his deposition, besides recounting the story of the alleged false dividends, that the floating debt of the Company was in excess of | XJO.OOO, and that the salable value of property that could be made available to pay that debt was not more than $3,000,000, all the remainder of the Company's property having been mortgaged to its full market value; that the promissory notes of the Company could not be negotiated for less than a dis- count of from 30 to 40 per cent, per annum ; that the Company had created a new mortgage in violation of the charter; that the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, which the Directors had leased, was an in- solvent concern, not producing enough net earnings to pay the amount of the annual interest required by the existing mortgages upon its property, and the terms of the lease were such as would involve the Erie Railway Company in further financial compli- cations, one of which was in the Atlantic and Great Western's purchase of a large amount of stocks and bonds of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad Company, in the raising of the money for which purpose the Erie Railway Company had endorsed the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- road Company's obligations. Dunan, in his affidavit in support of the charges, deposed that the current expenses for 1872 should have been further reduced $400,000, the value of equipment destroyed during that year, no portion of which was ever made good in the equipment account ; that Duncan, Sherman & Co. were charged with $750,000 in notes of the Erie Railway Company given to that firm, which were ultimately paid in cash, and the charge stood unexplained on the books of the Company nearly twelve months, when Dunan was instructed to credit Duncan, Sherman & Co. against said charge by the purchase of 5,000 shares of Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad stock, at $150 per share. The stock of this Company was selling during 1873, when the Erie purchase was made, at 90, and Dunan declared that the shares were purchased by the Directors of the Erie Rail- way Company for $450,000, or $300,000 less than the amount charged the Company, which " was divided between some persons to the deponent unknown "; that Mr. Watson bought coal lands in his own name and sold them to the Pennsylvania companies leased by the Erie, the Company having no legal right to make such purchases; that the purchases were made THE STORY OF ERIE 229 in 1873 out of convertible bonds, and the purchase money, amounting to $1,000,000, was charged upon the books to the " Purchase of Coal Lands " account, and that he refused to obey President Watson's order to transfer the account to the President's indi- vidual account. These allegations were all denied by affidavits of President Watson, Director Barlow, and others; not specifically, but under the general declaration that they were malignant falsehoods. The Attorney-General took the papers and re- served his decision. It had long ceased to be a mere rumor that Mr. Watson was to retire from the management of the Erie Railway Company in July, 1874. It was an assured event. The names of men from whom his successor might be chosen had been a month or more on the public tongue. The last act of the Board of Directors, at its last meeting, July 15, 1874, was to unanimously adopt the following: Resolved, That the Board regrets exceedingly the necessity of parting with their valuable and estimable associate, with whom their intercourse had always been so agreeable, and for whom they have learned to entertain the most sincere friend- ship and respect. Resolved, That few men could have brought to the position Mr. Watson leaves, so much integrity, resolution to contest wrong, to expose and guard against carelessness in duty, watchfulness against waste and extravagance in administration, or capacity to wield the great powers of the presidency as belong to and have been shown by him: and that our regret in parting with htm is increased by the conviction that his impaired health is the undoubtable result of a faithfulness to the trust confided to him, which had led him to forget himself in his regard for duty and the interests of others. Resolved, That in view of the attacks on the interests of the Erie Company and the integrity of its management, which malevolence, selfishness, and ingratitude have lately made, we congratulate our President that investigation only brings out more clearly the correctness and fidelity of his management, and increases and extends a reputation as an honest man, which belongs to his country, and of which she must ever be proud. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be attested, and delivered to Mr. Watson. The election of a new Board by the stockholders followed the adjournment of the old Board, and Peter H. Watson's name was added to the long list of those of his predecessors who had come to the head of Erie affairs with their own ambitions, and their various plans for the management of the great property, so few of which had tended to its advance- ment or its welfare. It may at least be said for President Watson that he stood as an obstacle to the machinations of the McHenry influences that sought absolute control of Erie, by no means insig- nificant among his services in that respect being his refusal to approve the paying from the Erie treasury of the $750,000 alleged to have been used by McHenry and others in bringing about the overthrow of Jay Gould. The Watson administration was brief, but of duration sufficient to demonstrate that its policy was not one by which the Erie Railway Company could be grounded in public confidence and restored to such place among contemporary corporations as its property and capabilities entitled it. The policy of expansion was but the revival of Jay Gould's idea of 1868-69, and was undoubtedly correct in princi- ple. The policy of dividend-declaring was simply one of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and could not obtain among wise business men. The ending of the Watson management came a long way from ful- filling its promise, and President Watson, disap- pointed, chagrined, broken in health, handed the Company, with all its inherited and acquired en- tanglements and misfortunes, over to other hands, which for the next ten years were kept in constant and active use in efforts to straighten out the com- plicated affairs of Erie. How well or how ill they succeeded the progress of this narrative will reveal. CHAPTER XIX. ADMINISTRATION OF HUGH J. JEWETT— 1874 TO 1884. I. An I N rANGLED INHERITANCE : Mr. leu el t Takes Hold to Rescue Krie — His $40,000 Salary, and Why the Company Agreed to Pay It — Troublesome Sequences of the Watson ami Previous Managements — First Pooling Arrangement — Dissatisfied Foreign Holders of Erie Securities — The Unfortunate Atlantic and Great Western Entailment. II. TELLING THE Truth: A Rugged Path, with Obstacles that Will Not Down — President Jewett Uncovers the True Situation — The Company Bankrupt — The Management Sai 1 . by a Lawsuit that was Begun to Destroy It — Jewett Made Receiver of the Company. III. CAREER OF A BANKRUPT : Conciliating the English Shareholders — The Opposition of McHenry — The Reorganization Plan, the Foreclosure, and the Decree of Sale — ral Sickles Plans Another " Raid " — Harassing Struggle of McHenry in the Courts to Block the Reorganization Plans — The Receiver Successful at Last — The Bankrupt Erie Railway Company Dies — Succeeded by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company. IV. The BURDEN Too Heavy: President Jewett Again Hopeful — A Question of Dividends- — Disastrous Rate Wars — 1 lisquieting Rumor as to the Company's Stability — Failure of the Marine Bank and of Grant S; Ward Embarrasses the Frie Management — Passing of the June Interest, 1SS4 — President Jewett Announces that He is Anxious to Retire — John King Made Assistant President — Mr. Jewett Retires, and King is Elected President — A Question of Service and of Justice. I. AX ENTANGLED INHERITANCE. I have accepted the Presidency of the Erie Railway Com- pany with the determination, if possible, to place the road on such a basis as will enable it to compete successfully with the other great trunk lines. I am fully aware of the great difficul- ties that I shall have to contend with, but I am resolved to do my best to overcome them. I have prepared myself for the and cling to the hope that, by energy and organization, the fortunes of the road can be retrieved. What directions the changes and reforms I contemplate will take I am not That a reform, a very thorough reform, is needed cannot be denied. I have not taken charge of the road for the purpose of losing my reputation as a railroad man. The first thing I purpose doing is to examine for myself into the condition of the road, and upon the result of that will depend my future course and conduct. — Hugh J. Jewett, July 15, 1874, after his election us President. ides the more remote items in the Erie legacy which the coming management was to fall heir to from its predecessors, not a few of which were des- tined to be a plague to it, there were others, created at the very close of the Watson management, that promised more or less of tribulation, and which called l>r decisive action on the part of the retiring man- agement to make its uorriment less as part of the inheritance of the succeeding rc'gimc. These were the Angell suits, then pending, one in the courts and one before the Attorney-General. At a meeting of the stockholders held previous to the July election, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: Resolved, That the stockholders of the Erie Railway Com- pany now assembled, representing in person or by proxy more than one-half of the total stock capital, both common and preferred, of this company, do hereby express their grateful thanks to the officers and directors of the company for their careful and patient labor for the past year, and for the fidelity with which they have administered the affairs and business of the company. Resolved. That the action of the Directors of this company in creating the so-called second consolidated mortgage to secure the amount of $40,000,000 of bonds ($10,000,000 being reserved to cover the existing convertible bonds) and in issu- ing a portion of said bonds for the general uses and purposes of this company, be and the same is hereby ratified, approved, and confirmed: and that, in the opinion of the stockholders, the said issue was necessary and proper, and that the proceeds shall be used and disposed of in paying and discharging the indebtedness and liabilities of the company, and for such other purposes as may, in the opinion of the Board, be considered necessary, proper, and expedient. Resolved. That the stockholders do fully ratify, approve, and confirm the recent lease of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad by the Erie Railway Company, on the terms set forth in the lease dated May 6, 1874. a "d in the contemporaneous agreements, and do likewise approve, ratify, and confirm the purchase heretofore made of the stock of the Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad, and in the purchase of interests in coal lands, and in the stocks of various coal companies organ- ized under the laws of Pennsylvania, such purchases being, in the opinion of the stockholders, wise and necessary for the requirements of the company, and for the true interests of the st< ickholders. Resolved. That the stockholders of this company have as- sembled to now formally accept, adopt, and confirm all the arts, arrangements, purchases, and contracts aforesaid, the same, in the judgment of this meeting, having been wisely made and entered into for the best requirements of the com- pany, and fur the true interests of the stockholders of said company. THE STORY OF ERIE 211 Resolved. That a copy of these resolutions be duly certified to the Attorney-General of the State of New York. All this was of course to strengthen the position of the Company in its defence in the Angell suits if tluy were pressed to final action, and to bind up such loose ends of management as might have re- sulted from the course of President Watson and the Directors in bringing to bear the things complained of in the suits, although they affected to believe that the suits were designed as stock-jobbing or black- mailing raids by their authors. At the election for Directors which followed the adoption of these resolutions, the following gentle- men were chosen as the Board for the ensuing year: Hugh J. Jewett, S. L. M. Barlow, John A. C. Gray, W. Butler Duncan, Marshall O. Roberts, Frederick Schuchardt, Edwin D. Morgan, John Taylor John- ston, Henry G. Stebbins, Herman R. Baltzer, Louis H. Meyer, New York; Cortlandt Parker, Newark; Lucius Robinson, Elmira; Homer Ramsdell, New- burgh; Thomas A. Scott, Philadelphia. The Board organized and elected Hugh J. Jewett, President; William P. Shearman, Treasurer; and Augustus R. Macdonough, Secretary. It may be well at the start of this narrative of the events that marked the Jewett administration to cor- rect an impression that prevails widely in railroad circles, even to this day, that the amount of the sal- ary which it was soon known Mr. Jewett was to receive as President of the Company, and the terms of the contract which secured its payment, were the result of undue influences brought to bear by him by which he was able to dictate his emolument. Mr. Jewett did not seek the Presidency. As a matter of fact, his name had not been mentioned in connection with the place until after the death of J. Edgar Thompson, President of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad Company, in May, 1874. It had been de- cided by the controlling influences of the Erie Rail- way Company that Col. Thomas A. Scott, First Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, should succeed Mr. Watson, and he had accepted the offer. The death of President Thomp- son, however, left the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany without a directing head, and Colonel Scott was called to succeed Thompson. The Erie people were then all at sea for a successor to President Watson, and applications were made to a score or more of prominent railroad managers in different parts of the country to take the place before Mr. Jewett was approached on the subject. He was then a Representative in Congress from Ohio, prom- inent in national affairs, and with a fair promise of still greater distinction. He was largely interested in the control of railroad properties in Ohio and else- where, the remuneration from which was large and of prospective increase. His success in past rail- road management had gained him a reputation for much sagacity and business foresight. Moreover, it was believed by the controlling influences then in Erie that his ambition and personal interests would be in common with certain views which that control had in mind as to the future policy of the Company. Mr. Jewett was offered and solicited to take the place to be vacated by Mr. Watson. He was not inclined at first to consider the offer, to the sacrifice of his position and other prospects, but at last con- sented, on condition that he should be paid a salary of $40,000 a year; be secured in the place and salary for ten years, and receive during the first year of his incumbency $150,000, or an advance of $15,000 a year for the ten years, $25,000, the difference be- tween $1 5,000 and $40,000, to be paid annually there- after. Those were the only conditions upon which Mr. Jewett would consent to abandon his existing engagements and take charge of the affairs of the Erie Railway Company. It rested with those in power to say whether they would be justified in agreeing to the conditions. They decided that they would be, and they agreed to Mr. Jewett's condi- tions. No railroad president had at that day re- ceived as large a salary as Jewett's. Years before, Charles Moran had been secured by the New York and Erie Railroad Company as President, under cir- cumstances somewhat similar to Mr, Jewett's, at a salary of $25,000. President Watson had received $20,000 a year. Mr. Jewett placed the value of his services at $40,000 a year, with a large advance as indemnity. The Company decided that he was worth it, and employed him at his own terms. BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAK - ther they made a good or a bad bargain, or whether their action was legal, is another question, let the settlement of which depend on the showing of the story of the Jewett administration. President Jewett was not long in making the dis- covery, in " examining for himself," that he had come into possession of a charge the condition of which revealed to him that when he uttered the con- viction, on taking office at the head of Erie, that " he had prepared himself for the worst," the worst had not stood uncovered before him. He found that on the $25,000,000 of bonds which had been author- ized for issue at different times during the Watson administration, the Company had realized only some- thing like $14,000,000. The $15,000,000 of second consolidated bonds that President Watson had gone to London to negotiate, and which he had hawked about among the money-changers of Europe for eight months, were not placed as a loan at all, but had been hypothecated from time to time, through James McHenry, at a ruinous discount. Of the $10,000,000 issue of convertible bonds, $8,000,000 were negotiated through Bischoffscheim & Gold- schmidt, netting - 77-58. Of this amount only $4,249,989 were remitted to the Company's treasury, the balance of $3,577,688 being retained in London, and used in interest payments on other debts. The $2,000,000 balance of the $10,000,000 issued had been intrusted to the care of James McHenry, and the Erie treasury was still yearning for it when Jewett assumed control. The $4,249,989 had been charged to the construction account cover- ing the period between January 1 and September 30, 1873. What it was actually used for does not ap- pear. There was literally nothing in the Erie treas- ury to even make a pretense of beginning " to place the road on such a basis as will enable it to compete successfully with the other great trunk lines." In fact, the Erie was so ill-provided for competing with such lines that one • >{ President Jewett's first acts was to enter into a non-competitive or pooling com- pact with the Pennsylvania Central and the New York Central Railroad 1 ompanies, which was the beginning of that trouble with the merchants and commercial corporations of New York that resulted in renewed bitter strife in the Legislature of New York and other States, and at last in Congress, between the railroads and the shipping interests, and culminated in much restrictive and prohibitive legis- lation in the conduct of railroad management. The far-reaching effect of that compact, which was signed at a meeting of railroad magnates at Saratoga August 5, 1874, maj' be imagined from the number of rail- roads that became party to it with the three great trunk lines. They were the Atlantic and Great Western ; Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and In- dianapolis; Lake Shore and Michigan Southern; Great Western of Canada; Michigan Central; De- troit and Milwaukee; Canada Southern; Toledo, Wabash and Western; Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Western Indianapolis and St. Louis; Terre Haute and Indianapolis; Ohio and Mississippi; Illinois Central; Pennsylvania Company: Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis; Jeffersonville, Medina and Indianapolis: Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton; Chicago, Burlington and Quincy ; Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific; Chicago and Northwestern; Evansville and Crawfordsville; Evansville and Terre Haute; Indianapolis, Peru and Chicago Railway Companies, and others. The compact provided for the formation of a Bureau of Commissioners, and whose duties included the establishment of through rates for the transpor- tation of passengers and freight over the several lines between competitive points East and West, in con- junction with the Eastern Bureau of Commissioners, who represented the trunk lines of the country, lying east of Buffalo, Pittsburg, and Ohio River. To insure the united support of the Commissioners' actions, the companies pledged themselves to require and exact from all their connecting lines the rates established from time to time by the Commissioners, and in no event to accept from any connecting line, agency, or other party, any lower rates than mi^ht be established by said Commissioners, and upon notice of such failures from the Commissioners, no through tickets or bills of lading would be received or deliv- ered to any line so failing to conform to the require- ments of the compact. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada THE STORY OF ERIE 233 refused to enter into the pooling agreement. This excited the merchants of New York, who declared that the compact was a discriminative one against New York by the Erie Railway and the New York Central Railroad Companies in favor of Philadelphia and Baltimore, and that it would ruin the grain trade of New York. The Chamber of Commerce held a meeting denouncing the Erie and Central managers, and appointed committees of influential citizens to take measures to break the railroad combination in the interest of the trade of New York City. Their efforts, and the result of them, will occupy their proper places in this narrative. The long-expected report of the London account- ants of their investigation into the Erie Railway affairs was made public in London, October 9, 1874. In substance its statements were as follows: In the three years ending September, 1S73, the profits of the road were Si. 108,775. '"stead of $5,352,673 as stated in the Company's accounts. This amount was subject to a further deduction in respect to the various items charged to capital, and not then audited. The report showed a loss on the working of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad up to September 30, 1871, and stated that $3,240,167 were paid for it by the Erie Railway Company in 1S71 . [872, and 1S73. The accountants considered that, under the circumstances, the dividends on the preferred stock were fairly earned. The report said that but for the deficit of $456,444. shown by the corrected profit and loss account, as existing September 30, 1 87 1, $270,000 would have been available, subject to the adjustment of outside matters, for a dividend on the common stock for the two years ending June 30, [873. The accountants anticipated that the value of the recoveries from Jay Gould would fall very far short of their nominal amount. An abstract of the statement of assets and liabilities of the Company up to September 30, 1872, showed the liabilities to be $1 15,449,21 1, and the assets $1 18.265,979. " An au- thoritative examination and determination of many questions of law and fact, affecting the nature of multifarious liabilities and assets, must be accom- plished before a complete elucidation of the present financial position of the Company could be arrived at." The profits of the Company for the three years ending September, 1873, were subjected to the deduction of the Bischoffscheim disputed claim of $400,000, for aid given in the expulsion of Jay Gould. The balance sheet to September 30, 1873, showed a net deficit of $2,331,392. The report cov- ered the period from September 30, 1S71, to March 31, 1874, The report was so unassuring and showed, although with much ambiguity, how the confiding English stock and bondholders had been hoodwinked, that it was followed by a disastrous reaction in the value of Erie stock, and an almost entire loss of confidence abroad in the future of the Company. The report was far from responding to the wishes or interests of the bona-fide shareholders. It only enlightened them with regard to the disorder and mismanage- ment in the years 1872 and 1873, much of which was a remnant of the years of the Gould and Fisk de- moralization. Regarding the actual financial con- dition of the Company, the application of the loans and the probable effect of the promised or suggested reforms of Mr. Jewett on the remunerative working of the line, it left them entirely in the dark. A leading London newspaper, commenting on the re- port, was moved to declare that on reading it " every Erie shareholder's first impression must be to sincerely regret the day when the so-called ' Res- cue ' was brought about, for while Jay Gould reigned supreme no Englishman parted with a dollar to the insatiable Erie Company. We will not speak of the little bill presented by Messrs. Bischoffscheim & (ioldschmidt for the ' Rescue.' That claim is a mere trifle, compared with the other financial results of the overthrow of Jay Gould. That worthy's exit was followed by the advent of Mr. Watson, heralded as the honest Under-Secretary of War during the great struggle between North and South, and as a man of as great capacity as integrity. Mr. Watson lost no time in coming to London to carry out his great policy, which was to bring a golden harvest to the long-suffering Erie shareholders. All that he wanted was money — money for improvements, ex- tensions, and payment of the floating debt — and money was furnished by the English public, with its usual sanguine liberality — a total of, say, £4, i5o,O0Oof 234 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES hard cash extracted by Mr. Watson from the British public, not to speak of the large amounts which the Atlantic and Great Western Company managed to by the cry of an intimate alliance with the Erie. And now the accountants tell us that, under Mr. Watson, not only was there no more a dividend earned than under Jay Gould, but that it is doubtful whether the Company will be able to pay the inter- est on its recent issues of bonds. The report refers to a period anticipatory to that at which the whole of the proceeds of the issues of convertible and second mortgage bonds reached the Company, but it does not require much reading between the lines to see that the accountants found no income to pay the full interest on the entire bonded debt to-day. Such a state of things would stamp the Watson ad- ministration as a far more fatal one than that of Fisk and Gould. Prospectuses for the two issues of bonds stated that ' the proceeds will be devoted to doubling the track, narrowing the gauge, or placing a third rail on the present broad gauge, the increase of roll- ing stock, and generally to the improvement of the property,' and we cannot believe that, notwithstand- ing these declarations, the money has been simply squandered and not left a mark. If that money has been judiciously laid out, the least that it must pro- duce forthwith is its own interest. If after a few years it does no more than that, the shareholder has not been benefited in any manner, but only exposed to a greater danger of foreclosure. It is quite pos- sible that when Captain Tyler made his inspection, all the improvements were not completed; that, for instance, the new rails and the new rolling stock had not yet arrived on the ground, and on this account it is the more urgent that this Board should give complete details as to the disposal of the vast amount of money. Mr. Watson has gone and Mr. Jewett is now President. He bears a very high reputation, and will doubtless be anxious, if possi- ble, to reassure his constituents. While the anomaly must exist by the law of the United States that a railway almost entirely owned by Englishmen is managed exclusively by a Board of Americans, the English proprietors must, in our opinion, insist on a machinery which will afford them an efficient con- trol over their property. " October 27, 1874, Captain Tyler, who was sent to this country as a railway expert to examine and report on the condition ami prospects of the Erie Railway property, made public the result of his observations. The road, he said, undoubtedly pos- sessed natural advantages, but in order that its resources might be properly developed, he specified several objects necessary to be obtained as follows: Double track, with steel rails and durable sleepers (ties) on the whole main line and some other sec- tions; some improvements in the gradients of the road; fresh extensions and connections; change of gauge indispensable; improved terminal arrange- ments to provide sufficient storage for increased traffic; iron bridges to be substituted for wooden, when the latter required renewal; speculation in coal fields and all other objects to be avoided; no out- side rings should be permitted to earn- out any of the improvements mentioned; liberal expenditure, but the precise amount to be expended from time to time could only be settled after most careful deliberation. Captain Tyler said there was probably no railway in the world which would better repay such large expenditure than the Erie Railway, if a really good management, supported by a stable constituency of proprietors, could be permanently secured. He rec- ommended the organization of a strong committee in England to control arrangements with regard to fresh capital and expenditure generally. He con- demned railway competition as ruinous, and told investors to make allowance for the depressing ef- fects of the panic of the previous autumn, and not consider as normal the current year's traffic. Cap- tain Tyler particularly recommended a Canadian con- nection by way of the International Bridge. He assured the shareholders that there was no cause for despair, but every reason to hope for the future of Erie, if only undue competition was avoided and good management secured. He estimated the cost of a change of gauge at $8,500,000; improvement of gradients, $3,000,000; iron bridges, Si, 500,000; and new depots, $700,000. He thought the most of that total might be expended wisely in about three years, and he advised the laying of 20,OOOtons of steel rails within the same period. THE STORY OF ERIE 235 " As regards freight," Captain Tyler said, " Erie is exceptionally well situated for coal traffic; its traffic in milk, butter, eggs, and cheese also increases rapidly; it conveyed in 1873 about one-sixth part of the through grain traffic from the West, and with an alteration of grade the traffic could be largely increased. The line is in some parts in excellent running order, in other parts in fair running order, and in other parts, again, including some of its branches, and portions not fresh jointed, in a less efficient condition. Very much might be done in economy of maintenance by the employment of more durable materials. Of 505 engines on the books, 33 have nothing to represent them. From a careful survey which has been made of the whole of this stock, it would appear that the depreciation of it may be expressed at 47 per cent, below what it would be if the engines were all in thorough good working order, and they would probably compare not unfavorably with the engines of other American lines. Of the 13,716 cars owned or leased by the Company, 8,005 are m good condition, 4,840 in fair working order, and 871 require to be repaired or re- built. The relations of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad with the United States Roll- ing Stock Company are most onerous, and means should be found for terminating them. Grain ships should be loaded by an elevator, as oil is at Wee- hawken." This report was received with more expressions of disappointment and discouragement by the stock- holders than the report of the accountants had been. The showing it made of the condition of the prop- erty and of what was required in the way of labor and expenditure to place it in shape for economical and efficient service, after all the money that had been supplied to be used ostensibly for the establish- ing of the property on such a basis, was not in the least calculated to inspire hope for return in divi- dends or even interest on bonds. It revealed, also, if the report might be accepted as trustworthy, and of its trustworthiness there seemed to be no ques- tion, the difficult task and by no means pleasant prospects confronting the new management. On the making public of Captain Tyler's conclusions Erie stock declined rapidly from 36 to 27, and it was many a day before the unfortunate stock reached the former figure again. The disturbing Angell suits were persisted in by their promoters. The author of these suits was Jay Gould, who, knowing the by no means stable condi- tion of the Company whose affairs he had once him- self so memorably manipulated, had laid plans to get control of them again. His mediums in this pro- cedure were J. C. Angell, H. D. V. Pratt, and Joseph W. Guppy, the latter being the man through whom ex-Auditor Dunan was induced to reiterate his damaging charges against Watson, by affidavits in support of this complaint. Angell was an obscure person whom no one knew. Pratt had been a short time Superintendent of Transportation during the Watson administration. Guppy had entered the service of the old New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany with Charles Minot, one of whose numerous protdgcs he was, when Minot came from the Boston and Maine Railroad in May, 1850, to become Gen- eral Superintendent of the New York and Erie Rail- road. Guppy had been telegraph operator, Chief Clerk, Assistant General Superintendent, and a valu- able adjunct of the Operating Departments of the Company from that time until 1872, with the excep- tion of a lapse of a few years when he was Minot's assistant as Manager of the Michigan Southern Rail- road. He had been a confidential attache of both Gould and Fisk, and was a friend of Dunan. In the event of the success of Gould's new attempt against the Erie, it was understood that Pratt and Guppy were to be the Receivers of the Company. Coupons on the second consolidated bonds being due in December, 1874, Barrett, Redfield & Hill, Angell's counsel, made a motion before Judge T. E. Westbrook, of the New York Supreme Court, asking for an injunction restraining the Erie Railway Com- pany from paying the interest on those bonds, and for the appointment of a Receiver for the bonds and the stock of the coal companies. Judge Westbrook issued an order on the defendants to show cause on December 2, 1874, why these motions should not be granted, enjoining the Company meanwhile from paying the coupons. Upon affidavit made by Presi- dent Jewett on that day, Judge Westbrook modified 236 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES order as to the payment of interest and other iniary obligations of the Company. On a hear- ing to continue the modified injunction, argued on the 3d by William Wallace MacFarland for the Com- pany, ex- Judge William Fullerton for the London Protective Committee, and W. C. Barrett for Angell, lohn L. Lawrence was appointed Referee to hear the testimony on which the continuance of the injunction was sought, and report to the court. A similar injunction was issued from the London Chan- cery Court on December 2d, on the complaint of one McKenna, a stockholder, but it was dissolved on the 7th. The months of October, November, and Decem- ber, 1874, were very trying months for the Company, on account of the low rates of fare and dull traffic generally, but especially in east-bound business, which was very irregular. Mr. Jewett, however, ■reported that the earning for those months were equal to the expenses, and on December 10th, in the face of the by no means encouraging situation, he made public a report for the year ending Sep- tember 30th, upon which he felt satisfied to venture some very sanguine calculations. He showed that while the Company had earned $18,500,000 during the year, its working expenses had been $13,500,000, leaving $5,000,000 of net revenue. Four millions of that was to be applied to the payment of rentals, interest on mortgages, taxes, etc., leaving about $\\ 000,000 surplus, the most of which was to be em- ployed toward the reduction of the floating debt. The flexibility and possibilities of railroad account- ing, and the mystery of that science, was startlingly demonstrated in Mr. Jewett's statement of the amount of the Erie floating debt at the end of Sep- tember, 1S74, which was reported at about $1,500,- 000.' At the end of September, 1873, according to the English expert accountants, the floating debt of the Company was 85.500,000. Here was a reduc- tion of $4,000,000 during the year, a progress of the railroad toward prosperity which was not shown by any of the returns in Mr. Jewett's reports. This wide discrepancy in accounting proved again what it is possible for diverging theories as to the proper construction of liabilities and their relation to assets to accomplish in showing the condition of a railroad company's finances. One of Mr. Jewett's sanguine expectations, more than a score of years ago, was that the time would come in his administration when the Erie would be earning $22,000,000 a year, and its net revenue over $8,000,000. He did not mention that there was any probability of a dividend in the very near future, but even with the road earning a net revenue of $8,000,000 annually, the person who took the trouble- to figure a little found that, after providing for the possible floating debt and the interest on the bonded indebtedness, there would not be more than $2,500,- 000 to be divided among the holders of $86,000,000 of stock, common and preferred. Director John A. C. Gray was sent to London in the fall of 1875, with instructions to unravel and adjust the complications into which the affairs of the Company had fallen there, to recover the undis- posed-of bonds, take the Company's interests away from the hands they were in, and extinguish all out- standing liabilities, except shareholders' and bond- holders' obligations. Mr. Gray returned in Novem- ber and made his report. This the Company declined to give to the public, but the statement was made by President Jewett, officially, that Mr. Gray had successfully accomplished his mission, and the stock- holders were to be congratulated upon his success. Subsequent events, including years of expensive and annoying litigation at home and abroad, proved that some one had been in error as to the result of the Gray mission. In the month of December, 1875, the headquarters of the Erie Railway Company were removed from their elegant housing in the Grand Opera House to the original Erie building at West, Duane, and Reade streets, from which they had been taken to the Opera House in the luxurious days of Gould and Fisk. The Opera House and the twenty-two lots and buildings that composed the Gould purchase, and which were part of his " restitution " to the Watson administration, were advertised for sale by the Company, but as the sale was conditional on the prop- erty going in one parcel, no transfer was consummated. Peter II. Watson had scarcely taken his place as THE STORY OF ERIE 237 President of the Erie Railway Company in Jul}-, aary to save this stock. Through S. L. M. Barlow, 1872, when James McHenry, on the 12th of that who made the request as a personal one to Col. month, placed before him a proposition urging the H. G. Stebbins of the Finance Committee, the ad- lease of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad by vance was made, and approved by President Jewett. the Erie. President Watson said he was in favor of The amount necessary was $68 1,000, making nearly bringing about some such arrangement, but when §800,000 the Erie had paid, through Barlow, to McHenry fixed the rental on the basis of a guarantee keep McHenry's stock. McHenry, who then owed of the interest on the first and second consolidated the Erie at least §1,000,000 besides, promised Gray mortgage bonds of the Atlantic and Great Western he would settle the stock advances within a few Company, which would have called for a payment of days, but he never settled; and thus railroad man- about $2,000,000 a year, Watson declined to enter- agers, who were not altogether certain whether they tain the proposition, saying that the sum was en- would be able to meet obligations of their Company tirely too much for a railroad that " began at no that were to fall due within a few weeks, did not place and ended nowhere." hesitate to take the chances of furnishing from its If you are anxious to lease your road, get con- treasury almost a million dollars to do a personal nections that will make it valuable," said President favor for one of their number. Watson. The lease of the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- Then Watson told McHenry that the Cleveland, road to the Erie, to which the Watson administra- Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad and tion, as one of its last acts, had agreed, was based its ramifying lines would be an acquisition to the on the terms that President Watson had refused in Atlantic and Great Western Railroad that would 1872, but was predicated on the clause that a con- give the latter great importance as a connecting link trolling interest in the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- in an Erie through system. It happened that Presi- nati and Indianapolis Railroad should be purchased dent Hurlburt of that company, and the Vanderbilt, by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Corn- Clarke, and Schell interests in Lake Shore had pany and delivered to the Erie. This the lessor clashed, and Watson informed McHenry that the company did not do. President Jewett subsequently latter might get control of the stock of the Cleve- discovered, further, that the Erie Railway Company, land, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Com- as lessee, was compelled to deposit in the State pany on very favorable terms. Watson succeeded in of Ohio securities to such amount as the Directors negotiating a deal of the kind between McHenry and of the Atlantic and Great Western might require. Hurlburt. McHenry got control of $7, 500,000 of Consequently, although the retiring Board of Direct- the stock. This was carried for him on margin by ors had by their resolution approved and ratified the William R. Travers&Co., of Wall Street, for more lease, President Jewett wisely r refused to recognize than two years, eighteen months of which time the it as binding, and this complication was left to the Erie Railway Company had advanced money from future to disentangle, time to time to keep the stock from being sold, the amount thus advanced, through S. L. M. Barlow, s II. TELLING THE TRUTH. being in September, 1874, $1 15,000. The control of this stock was the only thing that made the lease of Mr. Jewett had not long been at the head of Erie the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad to the Erie affairs before it became manifest that the Company of any value, in the estimation of the Erie manage- was to have at last a management that could make a ment. In September, 1874, Travers & Co. notified show of business methods. He went at once thor- Mc Henry that the stock must be cared for or they oughly into details, and the loose and draggling ends would sell it for his account. Director John A. C. of unfinished or neglected operations were gathered Gray was in London then. McHenry induced Gray up and knitted together. When he had time to look to recommend the Erie to advance the money neces- about him, according to a declaration subsequently BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES made, lie found the Erie rolling stock insufficient and defective, because of neglect in replacement and repairs by former managements; a railroad almost entirely made of iron rails, upon a roadway largely of single track; locomotives and cars of a variegated sort as to pattern, size, and date of build, there being no less than 85 different patterns in use; roundhouses inadequate for the accommodation of the locomotives; pa'ssenger and freight buildings insufficient in number, convenience, capacity, and condition ; docks and other terminal facilities entirely inadequate for the traffic of the road; many of the bridges of antiquated wooden structure, and even the culverts, in some instances, made of wood ; the roadway in deplorable condition, out of repair and deficient in ballasting, and cross-ties decaying; sid- ings and yards insufficient, and things generally down at heel, in the face of all the alleged millions that had been spent on the " betterment " of the road. There is no doubt, either, that it did not require more than the first six months of his administration, during which time he had made himself well ac- quainted with the financial condition and necessities of the Company and the urgent requirements of its railroad, to convince President Jewett that, while it was well to hope for the best and trust to the favor of events, the prospects for disentangling, in the regular order of business and management, the com- plications that confronted him were by no means bright, and that even at that early day the prob- ability of having to resort to extraordinary and per- haps drastic measures found place in his mind. His earlier calculations for the future, however, revealed nothing of this, and he sustained the possibility of affairs righting themselves, or tending toward such a consummation, by the ever-consoling " If." " If we can keep the expenses down to," etc.; " if we can maintain our operating expenses at a certain ntage of the earnings;" "if" this, that, and ther fortuitous circumstance might prevail, he "could see no reason," etc., President Jewett was wont to tell the stockholders, and the public, why the Erie Railway Company, within a reasonable time, would have not only overcome its difficulties, but would be earning dividends. There can be no doubt that Mr. Jewett's wish was father to the thought. It is of no small belief, to this day, that if any adept in railroad management could at that time have piloted the Company through the threatening breakers of bankruptcy and out into safe waters once more, Presi- dent Jewett was the one. But no man living could have saved it from foundering. It was as a vessel captured, ransacked, and scuttled by pirates. Its doom was sealed. In 1S75 something almost unheard-of in the his- tory of the Erie occurred. The truth about the affairs of the Company was told by its officers. This unique and astounding event might have been a startling object-lesson in the teaching of the public the difference between the conditions of a railroad company's affairs as revealed by the annual official statements, and their condition when shown in the light of facts, if the public had not long ceased to credit the yearly reports of the Erie Railway Com- pany as to anything they might contain. It was only one year since the report of the preceding year's business of the road was promulgated, and attested as to its reliability by a Directory in which men of the highest standing held seats, to the effect that the earnings were so much in excess of expenses that dividends both of the common and preferred shares were warranted; and in the last month of the year 1874 the official statement was made public that the earnings for the year ending September 30th were $5,000,000 in excess of the expenditures; and in the report for the same year, made to the State Engi- neer, January 25, 1875, the funded debt of the Com- pany was stated to be less than $46,000,000, and the floating debt something like $2,500,000. A few weeks later the startling telling of the truth as to Erie affairs came about, and how entirely railroad accounting seemed to be but a mere matter of form and a creature of circumstances, was shown when placed in comparison with this revelation. In spite of the fact that the railroad was solemnly reported to have earned $5,000,000, net, at the end of the fiscal year of 1S74, the annual rumor was abroad before midwinter that the Company would not have money enough to meet the interest that would become due on its bonds in June. The Sara- toga rate compact had been broken before the end THE STORY OF ERIE 239 of 1874, and the Pennsylvania Central had joined with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in a war on the Erie and New York Central companies by a heavy cut in rates. The Grand Trunk Railroad Company, which had a New York connection by the Vermont Central Railroad to New London, Conn., thence by line of steamboats on Long Island Sound, also reduced both freight and passenger rates be- tween New York and Chicago. Both New York trunk lines were forced to meet these cuts, and, of course, the reduction was particularly disastrous to the Erie. This war was at its height in March, 1875, when the great ice flood in the Delaware River carried away the Erie's iron bridge across that stream, four miles above Port Jervis, and traffic on the railroad for 125 miles west of Port Jervis was suspended for a fortnight. Besides the loss this caused, the replacing of the bridge cost the Com- pany §75,000. Yet President Jewett returned cheer- ful and confident words to anxious inquirers under all these and many other discouraging circumstances that attended the affairs of the Company, until at last certain stockholders became over-anxious and annoyingly persistent in their seeking after light on Erie's prospects. Then President Jewett rose and laid bare poor Erie's true condition. This was in May, 1 87 5 , and the tenor of his revelations was sub- stantially this: The funded debt outstanding at the beginning of May, 1875, was $54,394,100 (reported at $45,596,814 in January), on which the annual interest then accru- ing was $4,073,106.56. There were still $600,000 of the $15,000,000 second consolidated mortgage bonds in the possession of the Company. The Company received on account of the disposal of these bonds by the London Banking Association, previous to the coming in of Mr. Jewett, on July 14, 1874, $2,106,- 293.26. Since his election there had been received $2,556,567.83, which, with disbursements of pro- ceeds of the bonds made on indebtedness of the Company in London, and amounting to $1,497,- 283.91, was an aggregate amount of $6,160,145, leaving $2,542,157.50 to be accounted for, to which was due the controversy then pending between the Company and McHcnry and the London Banking Association. The disposal of the money received by the Jewett management from the proceeds of the second consolidated bonds ($2,556,567.83), was re- ported from the Treasurer's office as follows: Disbursements on Account of Indebtedness Incurred Prior to July 14, 1874. For Construction $343,698 53 Coal Land Mortgages 829.904 14 Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, Account of Rental 329,53' =5 Settlement of Buck & Fargo and Union Car Com- pany Suits 202,375 44 Injuries to Persons (old claims) 85,025 06 Suspension Bridge and Eric Junction Railroad Stock 23.700 00 Buffalo Real Estate 24.958 30 First Mortgage Bonds paid off 2,000 00 $1,841,192 72 Disbursements on Account of Indebtedness Incurred Sub- sequent to July 14, 1874. Advances on Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Stock Account, James Mc- Hcnry $681,095 77 Steel Rails 129.378 65 General Fund 46.810 04 $857,284 46 Aggregate $2,698,477 18 Deduct Cash in Treasury, July 14, 1874. . . . 141,909 35 $2,556,567 83 The coal lands, and stocks in the companies own- ing them, cost the Company $2,594,191.65, of which amount $1,931,810.08 was applied to the purchase of the stock, and $662,381.57 was advanced to meet expenses incurred by the companies in the management and development of the lands, none of which had as yet been profitable to the Com- pany. The truth about the mission of John A. C. Gray to London to bring about a settlement with McHenry and the London Banking Association was that he brought back 2,766 shares of the Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad stock, and $656,500 in Atlantic and Great Western bonds, known as the western extension bonds, the value of which was not known, or uncertain. The lease of 240 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad that the Watson management had made and ratified con- tained no clause specifying the kind of security the Erie Railway Company should deposit to insure its agreement, but the agreement ratified by the Atlan- tic and Great Western Railroad Company declared that the Erie must deposit in the State of Ohio $1,000,000 in its second consolidated mortgage bonds. The lessee company was also to purchase and transfer to the lessor a controlling interest of $7,500,000 in the stock of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad Company by January 1, 1875. This was the stock McHenry held, and he insisted that the Erie Railway Company must take it and pay him all the investment had cost him. This Mr. Jewett had refused to sanction; and holding that there was good and legal reason for not regarding the lease as binding on his Company, he had repudiated it, and the Atlantic and Great West- ern Railroad Company was meditating legal proceed- ings to enforce its terms. The earnings of the Erie Railway Company were falling short of its requirements for interest on its bonds and floating debt and its leases more than $3,000,000. This had been going on for several years, and the bonded debt had increased $5,000,000 a year for four years, and the last bonds issued by the Company, a gold 7 per cent, bond, had been dis- posed of for forty cents on the dollar. This telling of the truth about Erie occurred on .May 14th, and it was soon known that the Erie was trying to borrow $500,000 to meet its June interest by mortgaging its coal lands in Luzerne County, Pa., to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Canal companies, as security for the loan, and it was rumored that the coal companies had agreed to advance the money. The street was intensely excited over this evident new crisis in Erie. On May 23d a meeting of stock- holders, the call for which had greatly excited Wall Street and caused the liveliest dealing in Erie shares that the Street had known for many a da}-, was held at Delmonico's, in Beaver Street. L. Bronell pre- sided, and resolutions were adopted deprecating the purpose of the Company to mortgage its coal lands to the Delaware and Hudson Canal and the Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad companies to obtain money to pay its June interest, or on terms that must eventually result in their loss to the Company, as being a continuation of the wretched financial policy of borrowing money to pa}- interest which had brought the Company to the verge of bankruptcy. The resolutions recommended an as- sessment on the stock, to raise the needed money, and called on the Board of Directors to open books and invite stockholders to contribute toward this end and prevent the Company from going to pro- test. The Directors did not heed the call, nor is it likely the stockholders would have paid any great heed themselves to an invitation to step forward and send more good money rattling after bad. In March, 1875, President Jewett, by direction of the Board, had sent Hon. Hugh McCulloch to Lon- don as the attorney of the Erie Railway Company, to endeavor to effect an amicable settlement of the dispute between the Company and James McHenry and the London Banking Association. After more than a month spent in fruitless negotiations to that end, Mr. McCulloch informed President Jewett that such a settlement was impossible. He was then instructed to resort to legal proceedings in the mat- ter. Then followed President Jewett's showing of the account between the Erie Railway Company and the London financiers, the correctness of which the latter speedily denied to Mr. McCulloch, and the famous Erie-McHenry litigation was begun. But the entire truth had not been told about Erie yet. On May 25th President Sloan and President Dickson, of the two coal companies mentioned, sent word to President Jewett that they had decided not to lend him the $500,000 on the coal lands security, as counsel had advised them that there was doubt on the legality of the Erie's title to the property. A meeting of the Board of Directors was held at Director Barlow's Madison Avenue residence, on the evening of that day, and President Jewett announced the eleventh-hour decision of the coal companies. At the meeting previous to this one the Board had determined to individually provide for the June interest, and the President, at the meeting on the THE STORY OF ERIE 241 25th, declared that lie felt it his duty, before permit- ting any one to become involved in such a trans- action, to acquaint the Board with the fact that the financial condition of the Company was extremely critical. The so-called second consolidated mort- gage for $15,000,000, which was negotiated at forty cents on the dollar, he declared fraudulent both of issue and in the method of its manipulation by James McHenry and the London Banking Association, and that no bona-fidc holders had them; and even if there were bona-fide holders, the Company was only liable for the amount it had received for the bonds. The first consolidated bonds, $12,076,000 outstand- ing, and the $10,000,000 convertible gold bonds, were believed to be valid obligations. The annual rentals for lines leased by the Company was $986,- 722.31, and liable to forfeiture unless paid when due. The outstanding unsecured debts due, and shortly to become due, were $2,648,531.55, of which $1,086,- 891.87 were due for wages, and $635,809.89 for sup- plies. There were many suits pending against the Company, and judgments against it had been ob- tained in many others. The purchase of the coal lands was a violation of the charter and a just ground for forfeiture of it, although they had cost the Com- pany thus far upward of $1,000,000. The Atlantic and Great Western lease was also in violation of the charter, and should be adjudged void. The scrip dividend of February 11, 1869, and the Watson dividends of 1872 and 1873, he held were not earned, and consequently had been illegally declared, and that there should be an accounting. The current net income of the Company from the earnings had not for many years, at any time, been equal to the payment of the current obligations as they matured, and had been paid by borrowing money, which in- creased rather than satisfied the obligations. The Company had been insolvent for more than a year, and had not paid its current indebtedness, the net earnings having been, since July 14, 1874, only $3,163,454.19. The current obligations during the same time were $4,784,911. The floating debt had been somewhat reduced from $5,000,000, as it stood on July 14, 1S74; not by the earnings, but by apply- ing the proceeds of the bonds sold or hypothecated at the sacrifice mentioned, and was therefore not 16 diminished, but really increased in amount. The wages of the employees had not been paid since March, and a wholesale strike of 12,000 men was threatened. The only available assets were $100,000, nominal value, in bonds. There was imminent dan- ger of hypothecated securities, on which $1,405,000 had been borrowed, being sold at a sacrifice. There was interest due in June, amounting to $553,190.40. The Company's obligations by October 1st, the end of the fiscal year, would be $8,000,000, outside of the specified debts due and falling due, and the most liberal estimates put the earnings at only a little more than $4,500,000 ($4,581,271.94), near $4,000,000 less than the expected liabilities. Even if the June interest were paid, the prospects of pro- viding for the July interest were not promising, and he could see no way of it being made by the earn- ings of the Company. He said that it was a part of the plot against the Company and its credit to in- volve employees in a strike. Under all the circum- stances, he was of the opinion that it would be better for the property to remain in the control of those who would seek to preserve it, and not pass into the hands of selfish conspirators, whose purpose would not be to regard the obligations and duties of the Company. The result of the discussion of the subject was the adopting of a resolution that " in the judgment of the Board, if a Receiver of the property and assets and credits of the Erie Railway Company is to be appointed, Mr. Hugh J. Jewett is the most fit and proper person to be charged with the duty." The Angell suit was still in the hands of Attorney- General Pratt. Early in May Wilbur M. Brown, law partner of the Attorney-General, and by his authority, had visited President Jewett at his office in New York, and announced that the Attorney- General felt that he must proceed at once, in case the rumor regarding the Company's prospective de- fault on its June interest had foundation. President Jewett, having then assurances that the money would be forthcoming, had informed Mr. Brown that there was no probability of the default nor need of a Receiver, and declared that the parties pressing the Angell suit were stock-jobbers and Wall Street raiders. Brown thereupon told Jewett that no action -4- BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES would be taken by the Attorney-General without he first informed the Erie President. The Angell suit had Jay Gould at its back. Soon after it was begun, November 9, 1874, the Erie Rail- way Company brought suit against Jay Gould to r $420,000 claimed to be due from him by his default in a certain clause of the Watson " repara- tion " agreement. This action was still pending in May, [875, and the case against Gould was under- stood to be a strong one. When it was resolved by the Erie Directors to apply for a Receiver, William ice MacFarland, of the firm of Shipman, Bar- low, Larocque & MacFarland, suggested the taking by the Company itself of the Angell suit, amending the summons for relief, and applying, through the Attorney-General, for a Receiver on charges and allegations of that suit. This was agreed to. A conference was held between S. L. M. Barlow and Jay Gould. What transpired between them is one of the unrevealed Erie secrets, but there was no opposition made by Gould or any one else to the appropriating of the Angell suit by the defendants against whom it was originally brought, or to any of the proceedings that were begun through it, and early in 1876 Receiver Jewett applied to Judge Donahue for leave to settle the above action against Gould, he having signified a willingness to remove mortgage liens upon Erie property conveyed to the Company by him, and deliver to the Receiver $350,- 000 in the mortgage bonds of the Northern Central Railroad, and $50,000 in the stock of the Suspension Bridge and Erie Junction Railroad, on which stock, by its lease of that road, the Erie Railway Company stood as guarantee for the interest or dividends at the rate of seven per cent, per annum, which guar- antee alone made the stock of any market value, it being worth at the time only about twenty cents on the dollar. To the Erie, however, Mr. Jewett said, this stock was worth more than that, owing to the connecting relations between the two roads. .May 26, 1875, at a Special Term of the Supreme Court of New York, at the Court House in New York City, the appropriated Angell suit came up for a hearing before Judge Charles Donahue. The suit was called " The People of the State of New York, plaintiff, against the Erie Railway Com- pany, Hugh J. Jewett, Thomas A. Scott, John Tay- lor Johnston, Marshal O. Roberts, Frederick Schu- chardt, William Butler Duncan, Edwin D. Morgan, Herman R. Baltzer, Samuel L. M. Barlow, H. W. Meyer, Henry G. Stebbins, R. Suydam Grant, Lucius Robinson, John A. C. Gray, Cortlandt Parker, and Homer Ramsdell, Directors; and J. C. Bancroft Davis, W. S. Gregory, Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, John Earl Williams, Jay Gould, C. T. Hunter, William Butler Duncan, Horatio N. Otis, Cornelius Walsh, John Toucey, Zenas H. Rus- sell, Coe F. Young, Dorman B. Eaton, Augustus Frank Lawrence, C. Woodruff, John A. C. Gray, and Legrand Lockwood, defendants, as Trustees under the various mortgages." Wilbur M. Brown appeared on behalf of the Attorney-General to repre- sent the plaintiff, and William Wallace MacFarland for the defendants. On these proceedings Hugh J. Jewett was appointed Receiver by Judge Donahue. Mr. Jewett filed the required bonds in $500,000, S. L. M. Barlow, Homer Ramsdell, and Edwin D. Morgan qualifying as his sureties. The compensa- tion of Mr. Jewett as Receiver was fixed at $40,000 a year. Quickly following Judge Donahue's order the fol- lowing was issued, on the same day, from the Erie general offices, and the Company's second career as an acknowledged bankrupt began : Receiver's Order, No. 1. The undersigned having been duly appointed Receiver of the Erie Railway, its branches, and leased lines, has this day assumed the control thereof, and of the equipment, material, and all other property and assets belonging thereto. All offi- cers, agents, and employees will continue in the discharge of their respective duties as heretofore, until otherwise ordered. H. J. Jewett, Receiver. Erie stock had fallen from 36 on July 14, 1874, to l6}4 on May 25, 1875 — the deepest in the mud of Wall Street this foot-ball of speculation and pecula- tion had been trampled since the luckless days of Charles Moran. III. CAREER OF A BANKRUPT. The default of the Erie Railway Company, and the turning of its affairs over to a Receiver, caused THE STORY OF ERIE 243 the utmost agitation among the foreign proprietors, and many of them in London affected to be amazed, although it was an event that might easily have been discounted, on the strength of preceding rumors. Their alarm was particularly grounded on the allega- tion in the suit on which the Receiver was appointed that the second consolidated mortgage bonds were a fraudulent issue, fraudulently placed; that none of them was in the hands of bona-fide purchasers, and that even if such were the case the Company was liable only in the amount it had received from them, something less than one-half the outstanding charge. This possible extinguishment of $1 5,000,000 of obli- gations at one blow, taken in connection with the altogether wretched showing of the Company's finan- cial and physical condition as promising any return in the future for the investment that might be left intact, was such an unheard-of reward for their hav- ing responded, only the year before, to the Com- pany's distressful appeals — although at a tremendous "shave" — that the English bondholders clamored loudly for the taking of summary proceedings for redress. The shareholders, now fully confirmed in the belief — which by this time would have needed no further confirmation to less credulous persons — that the slops which had been thrown to them in 1872 and 1873 in the shape of dividends were simply abstracted from their own property and returned to them, and seeing their shares sunk to scarcely a nominal price in the market, with no visible pros- pect of their ever again rising to even a respectable showing, clamored more loudly than the bondholders for redress. The foreign proprietors had the power to foreclose at once if they so decided, as they owned all of the first and second consolidated mort- gage bonds, and most of the fifth mortgage bonds. In truth, Mr. O. G. Miller, of Dundee, Scotland, one of the largest holders of Erie securities in Great Britain, and especially of the securities in default, did take steps in Scotland toward a hostile fore- closure, but was induced to suspend proceedings to await subsequent events. According to an inventory of the property of the Company, taken under an order of court issued by Judge Donahue May 26, 1875, the valuation of it was placed at $40,000,000, in round numbers, and $60,000,000 including bonds. The inventory was taken by Col. George F. Balch. In its original form it filled 120 large volumes. These were reduced to nineteen folio volumes, which were condensed into three volumes, of enormous size, for the use of the Supreme Court. The work cost $100,000. Every possible bit of property imaginable was taken into account, even to the number of spikes in the 1,800 miles of track, which number was recorded in all seriousness and solemnity as 21,600,000. The inven- tory was not completed until August, 1877. June 9, 1875, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pany of New York, one of the defendants in the Receivership action, filed an answer to it and ob- tained an order from Judge Donahue extending the Receivership to mortgages held by the Trust Com- pany. June 15th the Trust Company brought suit against the Erie Railway Company, and James Brown and J. C. Bancroft Davis, as Trustees, to have the mortgage which they held foreclosed. On the same da}' J. C. Bancroft Davis, as Trustee, began a suit to foreclose the fifth mortgage and the mortgages sup- plemental thereto. Judge Donahue extended the Receivership in both of these suits, appointing Hon. James C. Spencer Referee in the Davis action, to pass, decide, and report on the accounts and vouchers and doings of the Receiver, and to take testimony for the use of the Receiver in the manage- ment of the questions that might arise during the Receivership. December 21, 1875, Judge Donahue issued an order in the suits of the People, the Trust Company, and the Brown-Davis suit, ordering Ref- eree Spencer to report on the accounts and doings of the Receiver in the People's suit so far as already examined, to cover the questions of final accounting and discharge of the Receiver and release of his bondsman in that suit, " it being understood the same was about to be discontinued " ; also the costs and allowances and compensation and expenses to be paid by the Receiver to defendants as trustees, and to others who appeared in the People's suit, and also the charges of the Referee for services. In this country some feeble attempts were made to interfere with the turn affairs had taken, chiefly under the direction of a ridiculous, fussy, and med- dlesome person named John Livingston, although =44 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Col. Sylvester IT. Dunan, the Auditor of the Com- pany under Watson, whose revelations as to the dividends precipitated the downfall of that admin- istration, came to the surface once more as a protest- ant, and as quickly disappeared. In May, 1S75, an act was passed by the New York Legislature amend- ing the act of April, 1872, by which amendment the time for holding the annual election for the Erie Directors was changed so that after the election of July. 1875, no elections should be held until Novem- ber. 1876, and in November every year thereafter. This was to bring the election soon after the end of the fiscal year, instead of three months before it ended. John Livingston saw danger in this, and, as the self-appointed representative of what he called the Erie Protection Committee of London, he got together twenty-five stockholders of the Company on July 12, [875, and declared to them that the en- suing election of July 14th must be carried against the Jewett management. This incident has no im- portance in this history, only through the fact that it resulted in the first contest in an election for Erie Directors that had occurred for many years. The opposing ticket was made up as follows: Cornelius Vanderbilt, William H. Vanderbilt, William K. Van- derbilt, Moses Taylor, Percy R. Pine, J. E. Burrill, D. R. Pearson, William L. Clinch, George J. Whit- ney, Samuel Sloan, Francis K. Thurber, Charles K. Dyer, Samuel F. Berger, Augustus Schell, Chester W. Chapin, E. N. Hollinger, G. A. Hollinger. Livingston appeared at the election. S. L. M. Barlow offered to vote on proxies for 236,000 shares, and was challenged by Livingston. The inspectors, ex-Judge William D. Shipman, George Ticknor Curtis, and James H. Fay, overruled the challenge, as they did the challenge of ex-Governor Morgan, who voted on 5,000 shares. The Jewett ticket received 251,735 votes, the opposition casting 750. The following was the first Board elected under the Receiver: George F. Tallman, Henry G. Stebbins, Samuel Sloan, Marshall O. Roberts, Edwin D. Morgan, John Taylor Johnston, Hugh J. Jewett, R. Suydam Grant, New York; Herman R. Baltzer, Staten Island; John I',. Brown, Portland, Me.; Thomas Dickson, Scranton ; Solomon S. Guthrie, Buffalo; Giles W. Hotchkiss, Binghamton ; Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk; Homer Ramsdell, Newburgh; J. Lowber Welsh, Philadelphia. Livingston immediately issued a circular to the stock and bondholders declaring that the election was illegal as to Packer, Guthrie, and Dickson, because the) - were not stockholders under the law, and he notified the Directors that he would contest the election in the courts. The motion to set aside the election was made before Judge T. E. West- brook August 13th, after one adjournment, and Judge Westbrook promptly denied the motion, which was the end of the Livingston attempt to overthrow the Erie management. Dunan's effort to revolutionize the affairs of the Company was based on the Receiver's monthly reports, which Dunan declared were misleading. They might have been so, but the question was not one that seemed to interest the public, far less one that excited it, for the public had long since given over the task of attempting to unravel the distract- ing mysteries of railroad reports. However, the alleged insincerity of the Receiver's statements rasped the sensitive soul of Dunan, and, through one J. Warden Gedney, a meeting of persons interested was held September 20, 1875, to consider the Dunan allegations. Dunan was present, and on the strength of his remarks it was resolved that foreclosure pro- ceedings should be brought at once on the sterling bonds, then due, so that the property might be placed in the hands of its true owners, the bond- holders. It was further resolved that B. H. Cheever, S. P. Dinsmore, and T. N. Matthews be a committee to see this done, and to retain Charles O'Connor and Dexter A. Hawkins to do it. It is not on record anywhere that they ever did it. But the disturbed condition of things among the English stock and bondholders was tending toward events of a nature to arouse more serious apprehen- sion in the minds of the Receiver and his advisers than these ridiculous outbreaks in New York could possibly excite, and if the affairs of the Company were to be conducted to the issue contemplated by Receiver Jewett, it was not only plain, but entirely necessary, that amicable relations must, as soon as possible, be induced between the justly agitated for- THE STORY OF ERIE 245 eigners and the Directors in the new order of things in Erie, so that all interested might work in har- mony toward a common end. The revelations as to James McHenry and Bischoff- scheim & Goldschmidt, regarding their stewardship or handling of Erie financial affairs entrusted to their disposition, and as to the Atlantic and Great West- ern entanglements, had removed those individuals signally from the confidence of foreign investors, and the management of the latter's interests was no longer entrusted to them. Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., a man experienced in railroad financiering and management, was selected by the London Commit- tee of Erie bond and shareholders as Chairman, and he was commissioned to come to this country, in- vestigate, consult with Receiver Jewett, and report to the Committee what measures it was best to take to protect and preserve foreign rights in the Erie Railway Company. It was through the mediation of Sir Edward that the impatient Scotch bondholder, Mr. O. G. Miller, was induced to defer his hostile foreclosure proceedings, and to subsequently become conspicuous in efforts to bring about an amicable settlement. Sir Edward Watkin arrived in New York early in August, 1875. Unable, owing to an accident to Receiver Jewett — who had been recently thrown from his carriage, by which mishap his right leg was broken — to have an interview with him, Sir Edward made a leisurely tour of the Erie lines and the At- lantic and Great Western system, informing himself thoroughly upon their condition and needs. He •was in this country until October, when he returned to London to make his report. September 30, 1875, Judge Donahue granted an order authorizing Receiver Jewett to take such ac- tion as he might deem advisable to accomplish the purpose set forth in an affidavit made by Charles G. Barber, Secretary to the Receiver, the purport of which was to recognize the interest of the foreign bond and shareholders, so that the bondholders might have a voice in the formulating of such plans as would best tend to aid the Receiver in his duties and hasten the rearrangement or reorganization of the Company, and in the expenditure of the net earnings that otherwise would be applied to the pay- ment of the interest in default on their holdings, such voice to be heard through a committee representing such bondholders or bond and shareholders, whose advice the Receiver should consult in the expen- diture of such earnings; that the committee might open an office in London, necessary to their duties, their expenses to be paid by the Receiver out of his funds, and make a monthly report of the earnings and expenditures; that the laws of New York be so amended as to permit the foreign bond and stock- holders a representation from their number in the Board of Directors; that the Receivership should be terminated as soon as the Company could be relieved of its unjust and fraudulent engagements, originating in former managements — by negotiation, if possible, or, failing in that, by foreclosure; that Mr. John Morriss, legal adviser of Sir Edward Watkin and the London Erie Committee, be associated with the counsel of the Erie Railway Company and the Re- ceiver in the undertaking. This was a concession toward recognition of the rights of the foreign pro- prietors and creditors that was wise and judicious, saved much annoying and expensive litigation, and was intended to hasten the time when the Com- pany's affairs might be placed in a condition to be safely, prudently, and efficiently conducted by a corporation. John Morriss made his report to the English bond and stockholders October 1 8th, and it was another discouraging event in the long list of discouraging events in the history of their investment in Erie, indicating, as it did, heavy sacrifices to be made by them, one of which was that as the fixed charges of the Company exceeded the net earnings by $1,000,- OOO, they would have to subordinate their claims to such charges and to the floating debt. Sir Edward Watkin accompanied Mr. Morriss's report with an extended address, in which he reviewed the past managements of Erie, to their great disadvantage, and criticised freely some of the acts of President and Receiver Jewett, but summed up with a hopeful view of Erie and confidence in its future, if the Com- pany could be put on its feet again and in the hands of honest and capable management. Soon after the report, the Erie bondholders in London appointed a Committee of Consultation to 246 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES prepare a scheme of reorganization. On December 3. [875, Judge Donahue granted an orderauthorizing iver Jewett to remit $10,000 to John Morriss, in London, for the purpose of prosecuting the claim of Erie Railway Company against James McHenry and the London Banking Association for $1, 000,000 each. The proceedings in equity to foreclose on the fifth mortgage against the Erie Railway were begun in the court of Pike County at Milford, Pa., December 24. [875. H. J. Jewett was appointed Receiver, with bonds at $30,000, similar proceedings having been begun in New Jersey and New York City in November. These were amicable suits brought by the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company and the Trustees of Erie mortgages. Sir Edward Watkin submitted to the English pro- prietors of Erie, on December 16th, a scheme to be carried out under foreclosure by a committee of which Governor Samuel J. Tilden was to be invited to take the Chairmanship. The plan proposed to give the bondholders the voting power until the position of the undertaking was retrieved, and the fixed liabilites reduced to a level with the net rev- enue, by reducing onerous rent charges and the gements of interest on the first and second mortgage bonds, as follows : Holders of the former and of the sterling 6 per cent, bonds to receive mortgage bonds of the same class for interest at the existing rates to March 1, 1876; thereafter until 1880 the interest to be pay- able in gold at 6 per cent., and after that time at 7 per cent., the Company being entitled to redeem prior to 1880 at 105 for Erie second mortgage, in- cluding the convertible gold bonds. Two classes of gold sterling mortgage bonds, running ninety years, were to be substituted, the first for 60 per cent, of the principal, carrying interest at 6 per cent, and payable in bonds of the same class from the date of default, until March, 1877, and thereafter in gold ; the second for 40 per cent, of the principal, carrying 4 per cent, interest, and payable only out of net earnings until 1881, and thereafter 5 per cent. The dividend on the preferred stock was to be reduced to 6 per cent. Assessments were to be car- ried at the rate of three in the hundred on the pre- ferred stock, and six in the hundred on the common stock, shareholders to receive for the amounts thus paid third mortgage bonds to bear 5 per cent, inter- est, payable only from the net earnings, and also shares in the reconstructed Company. This scheme was adopted in principle by the bond- holders in London at a meeting held January 4, 1876, subject to modifications to be made after consulta- tion with the Receiver and the American bond and stockholders. A committee was appointed and em- powered to execute the scheme. O. G. Miller and Robert Fleming, of Dundee, Scotland, were made this committee. They undertook the task, and sailed for New York on January 30, 1876. Thomas Dick- son, Samuel Sloan, and E. D. Morgan were ap- pointed a special committee to confer with Messrs. Fleming and Miller during their stay in this country, and negotiate the terms of the reorganization scheme. The representatives of the London Committee arrived at New York the first week in February, and about the middle of March the scheme, with modi- fications and additions, was agreed upon and for- warded by Messrs. Fleming and Miller to London to be submitted to the foreign bond and shareholders. The plan seems not to have been yet in form to meet the approbation of all parties, for it was still in abeyance in July, 1S76, when Receiver Jewett was in London, having gone abroad both on account of impaired health and in connection with the affairs of the Erie Railway Company. He addressed a meet- ing of stock and bondholders in London July 13th, and made suggestions as to further modification of the reorganization plan. Soon afterward the plan was perfected to the satisfaction of the foreign con- tingent in interest, for it received the necessary signatures there August 28, 1876. The signatures necessary in this country to make the contract valid were not attached until January 15, 1877. With the exception of its legal verbiage, terms, and repeti- tions, the plan upon which the amicable reconstruc- tion of the Erie Railway Company, and the winding up of its memorable and by no means savory career, were effected, was as follows: There was to be no reduction of interest on the first consolidated mortgage bonds; the sterling 6 per cent, bonds to bear that interest up to September 1, THE STORY OF ERIE 247 1875, an d 7 percent, after that date; the first con- solidated bonds to fund their coupons of September 1, 1875, March 1, 1876, March 1, 1877, September 1, 1877, September 1, 1878, and September 1, 1879; coupon bonds to be issued in exchange for the funded coupons, payable in gold September 1, 1920, with 7 per cent, interest, and to be secured by a deposit of the funded coupons, the interest to date from September I, 1877, on their entire amount. The coupons of the first consolidated mortgage bonds falling due September 1, 1876 (but to be paid on December 1, 1876), March 1, 1878, March 1, 1879, an d March 1, 1880, to be paid in cash, the reconstruction trustees having power, at the request of the Receiver, to extend the time of paying the first coupon to March 1, 1877; the six coupons of these bonds intended to be funded to be forthwith deposited with the Reconstruction Trustees and receive in exchange certificates representing them, pending the preparation of the new coupon bonds, thus signifying their assent to the arrangement. The second consolidated mortgage bonds to fund their coupons as follows: Ten half-yearly from June 1, 1875, to December 1, 1879, inclusive, the coupons to be funded at the existing rate of interest on the bonds, 7 per cent., and funded coupon bonds to be issuedin the amounts bearing interest at the reduced rate of 5 per cent, from December i, 1877, to June 1, 1883, and thereafter at 6 per cent., the Recon- struction Trustees having power to postpone for six months the payment of the first coupon on these bonds, falling due June 1, 1878, at the request of the Receiver. The principal of the second consolidated and gold convertible bonds to be represented by new second consolidated mortgage bonds at 6 per cent, from December 1, 1879, anc ^ maturing December 1, 1969, the funded coupon bonds to mature at the same date. The second consolidated and gold convertible bonds to be deposited, with all coupons attached, with the Reconstruction Trustees, for exchange for certificates pending the conversion of the new secu- rities The property to be foreclosed, and the Trustees to buy the railroad in with such bonds and coupons thus deposited with them as might be advisable, a new company to be formed, the foreclosure to be obtained under one or more of the existing mort- gages best to carry out the scheme. One-half the shares of the new company to be issued in the names of one or more sets of Trustees, to be called the Voting Trustees, who should hold them for voting upon them until dividends had been paid on the preferred stock three consecutive years, certificates to be issued for the same, entitling the holder to receive all dividends declared on the shares held in trust; the Voting Trustees to be named by the Reconstruction Trustees, and empowered to fill their own vacancies, each Voting Trustee to be a sub- stantial bondholder at the time of his appointment, and to resign in the event of his ceasing to be such. The dividend power of preferred stock was re- duced from "jYi to 6 per cent., payable in currency, and dependent; on the net earnings, each shareholder to be admitted to the new Company, share for share, preferred for preferred, and common for common, but conditional on the payment of $3 gold per preferred share and $6 gold per common share, on or before March 1, 1877, the shareholders making such pay- ments to receive for the amount non-cumulative income bonds, without mortgage security, payable in gold on June 1, 1877, and bearing interest from December 1, 1879, payable in gold at 6 per cent., dependent on the net earnings. Shareholders had the option to pay on or before March 1, 1877, $2 gold per preferred share, or $4 per share for com- mon, then to be admitted to the new company without receiving income bonds, a further and final period to be fixed for the payment of assessments beyond March 1, 1877, but after that date an addi- tional charge of 7 per cent, on assessments was to be made; new shares to be issued to the amount of all shares in default, to be disposed of for the benefit of the new Company. (The date of this provision was subsequently changed to March 31st, the addi- tional assessment made 10 per cent., and time for coming in on the reorganization fixed at six months from that date.) All the new bonds were to be payable in London and New York, and to carry voting powers accord- ing to law, and made payable to bearer or registered in names of holders at their option. The cost of U8 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES istruction and foreclosure and all expenses nec- y in carrying out the scheme were to be paid out of the moneys to be raised by the scheme, or as the Trustees might determine. Reconstruction Trustees for the first consolidated mortgage and 6 per cent, sterling bonds were O. G. Miller, II. Rawson; for the second consolidated mortgage and convertible gold bonds, J. K. Cross, M.P., J. Westlake, O.C. ; for the shareholders, P. McLogan, M.I'., B. Whitworth, M.P. Independent Trustees, not representing any special interest, were Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., with a casting vote, and Z. W. Powell. The scheme was subject to modifica- tion in the judgment of the Reconstruction Trustees, and was signed as follows: E. \V. Watkins, M.P., Chairman; Cecil Beadon, K.C.S. ; J. K. Cross, M.P. ; Philip Rose, O. G. Miller, T. \V. Powell, B. Whitworth, M.P. ; J. Westlake, Q.C. ; Henry Rawson, P. McLogan, M.P. ; Robert Fleming, Lawrence Hayworth, J. M. Douglas, W. Leeming, W. Weir, J. C. Conybeare, A. H. Moncur. Signed in London, August 28, 1876; in New York, January 15, 1877, for the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, agents of the London Reconstruction Trustees, by R. G. Rolston, President. Before any substantial movement had been made toward the formulating of a plan, September 10, 1875, S. L. M. Barlow offered his resignation as a Director, and Mr. Jewett advised its acceptance. Mr. Barlow, owing to his relations with McHenry, although they had then ceased, was not acceptable to the existing foreign sentiment in regard to Erie management. Marshall 0. Roberts resigned at the same time. John P. Brown, of Portland, Me., and J. Lowber Welsh, of Philadelphia, were elected to the vacancies. Mr. Brown represented the interests of the Grand Trunk Railway Company. In the spring of 1877 James McHenry, becoming convinced that Receiver Jewett was determined to push the proceedings against the London Bank- ing Association, Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt, and himself, came forward and began an aggressive counter campaign against the Receiver. As early as May 10th he made a fierce attack on him at a meet- ing of his adherents at Guildhall Coffee House, London, charging him with mismanagement, corrup- tion, and duplicity. Going further, he sought once more the aid of Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, and a plan to oust the existing management and turn the Erie Railway Company once more over to the control of McHenry was formed. Originally this was intended to be a coup similar to the one of 1872, but there was different material in the Board of Directors, and that line of action was abandoned. Early in September rumors were abroad that General Sickles was to suc- ceed Jewett as Receiver of the Erie Railway Com- pany, and it was noticed that ex-Auditor Dunan was again in evidence as an expert in the best way to put Erie on its feet. According to the story of Joseph W. Guppy, before the Legislative Investigating Committee of 1879, General Sickles, October 1, 1877, sent one Charles O'Day to him with a request that Guppy should call on the General. Guppy called, and Gen- eral Sickles brought up the subject of the proposed movement against the Jewett management, and en- deavored to enlist Guppy in it. He declined to have anything to do with it. Sickles said to Guppy that if he would join them " and they were success- ful, they would divide the swag with him"; that " the parties in power had not quite stolen every- thing there, and there was something left, probably enough for all." Guppy persisted in his refusal to join the Sickles party. Subsequently he told H. D. V. Pratt what Sickles had solicited him to do. Pratt, in a conversation with Gould later on, repeated the information to him. On the morning of the day after Christmas, 1877, Gould sent Giovani Morosini, his private sec- retary, to Guppy, requesting the latter to call at his office. Guppy did so. " Guppy," said Gould, " if you will appear in behalf of the Jewett interest against the Sickles raiders, and testify as to what they have offered you to come in and aid them, Mr. Jewett will take that $10, OCX) in National Stock Yard stock and pay you par for it. With your testimony we can defeat the Sickles party and send them to State prison." Guppy held $10,000 in National Stock Yard stock, which, in 1877, had little intrinsic value. It had been given him on the formation of that company THE STORY OF ERIE 249 by Gould, in 1870, in lieu of an increase in his salary as Assistant to the General Superintendent. Guppy was in poor health in 1877. He declined to accept Gould's proposition because, for one reason, of the precarious state of his health, and, for another, that he did not care to be mixed up in the matter. Gould tried to induce him to change his mind, and failing in that, threatened to have Guppy examined ex-parte, and compelled to give his evidence. " Do not allow* that to be done," said Guppy; " I am sick, and do not want to be worried." " It is too late for me to interfere in the matter," replied Gould. " You had better do it cheerfully. Otherwise you cannot sell your stock." " Mr. Gould," insisted Guppy, "you must keep them away from me in this matter." I cannot control it now," repeated Gould. " Then," exclaimed Guppy, rising to take his leave, " I tell you that for your own good you had better keep them away from me! And, young man," said Guppy significantly, " you know what that means ! " Through counsel in the case, as well as H. D. V. Pratt, and by means of detectives, Gould continued his efforts to induce Guppy's aid for the Jewett side of the affair, but without success, and the inside his- tory of the Sickles raid never got into the courts. On March 22, 1877, the old suit of the Erie Rail- way Company, brought in July, 1870, by Gould and Fisk, to recover from Cornelius Vanderbilt the millions paid him in making the settlement by which the Erie escaped from the Drew- Vanderbilt war of 1868, and in which suit the plaintiff was defeated by a decision in Judge Barnard's court in January, 1871, came to the surface again. The case had been appealed by the Railway Company to the General Term of the Supreme Court, and in October of that year that court reversed the Barnard judg- ment. Vanderbilt took the case to the Court of Appeals, where the General Term was sustained. Pending a retrial of the case, it was settled out of court to the satisfaction of Vanderbilt, who, it was charged, was interesting himself in the opposition to the Jewett management. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, in the preliminary suits tending toward the reorganization of Erie, had acted in its capacity of trustee of the first consolidated mortgage, in conjunction with J. C. Bancroft Davis and others, as trustees of the fifth mortgage. On September 24, 1877, however, the Trust Company entered proceedings to press judgment in foreclosure under the claims of the holders of the second consolidated mortgage bonds. This opened the way for long, expensive, tedious, and complicated litigation, which James McHenrv and his coadjutors were quick to take advantage of. Acting on the proceedings taken September 24th, Judge Charles Donahue, in Supreme Court Cham- bers, New York, November 7, 1877, granted a decree of foreclosure in the suit of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. The old bonded debts of the Company, the mortgages on the New York and Erie Railroad, were in amount: First mortgage, $2,482,- 000; second, $2,174,000; third, $4,852,000; fifth, $709,500. The new mortgages were as follows: Sixth, made to the Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pany, $16,656,000, on which $2,573,245 in interest was due; seventh, containing two parts, one for $10,000,000, and the other for $15,000,000, on which $1,898,020.80 and $2,855,312.50 in interest became due on November 1st. The amount due by the Company on these accounts was $62,167,078.30. The place of sale of the property was fixed at New York City, date to depend on the close of the aux- iliary suits in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. George Ticknor Curtis was appointed Referee to sell the property. The sale was to be for cash, and subject to the Receiver's contracts. Agents having been appointed by the Bondholders' Committee to form a new Company under the law of New York State, the decree authorized the sale of the Erie Railway Com- pany's effects to the new corporation, provided it was the highest bidder. The accounts of the Re- ceiver were to be audited and passed upon by ex- Judge James C. Spencer, the amount found to be due the Receiver to be a first lien on the property, the Receiver having authority, also, to take bonds and coupons at their face value from the new Com- pany for the amounts due him. The date of sale was subsequently fixed and advertised for January 21, 1878, at the Merchants' Exchange, New York, at 12 o'clock, noon. 2. SO BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES November 14, 1S77. Judge Spencer had made his report to the court as Referee in the Receivership, under the order of Judge Donahue of December 21, Later in the month there were rumors that Attorney-General Fairchild would take measures to interfere with the proceedings on the ground that Jewett had been appointed in an irregular manner, and had paid William M. Brown, of the Attorney- General's office, $5,000 for making the affidavit on which Attorney-General Pratt had made the appoint- ment. This rumor proved not to be true, but was an emanation from the McIIenry camp, which was in charge of Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. There was this much of a disturbing element in the bearing of the Attorney-General, however. The original suit of the People against Jewett and the management of the Erie Railway Company (the Angell suit) was discontinued under written stipulation of Attorney- General Pratt, November 25, 1875. When the mat- ter was brought to the attention of his successor, Charles S. Fairchild, after the decree of foreclosure, the new Attorney-General was unable to find an order of discontinuance on record. December 24th he wrote Referee Spencer from Albany, saying that he had been requested by the attorneys of the Erie Railway Company and of Receiver Jewett to discon- tinue the action of the People against that Company. He said that he had also been requested by counsel representing stockholders and bondholders of that Company not to discontinue the action without examination of the plaintiffs into the Receiver's accounts. " I see that the plaintiffs do not appear to have had any notice," he wrote, " of the pro- ceedings before you as Referee, or to have been represented upon any hearing. I deem it my duty to examine into the Receiver's doings before giving my consent to the discontinuance of the action and the Receiver's discharge. I have requested Messrs. Barlow & Olney to represent me in this, and arrange with the various parties for an examination before you in the matter." At a hearing held in New York City, in pursuance of this request of the Attorney-General, on Decem- ber 27, 1877, all parties being represented by coun- sel, and the proposition being opposed by the defend- ants in the various cases, Trustee Spencer decided to reopen the reference, considering his report as being cancelled, and giving the plaintiffs a hearing in the new examination of the Receiver's accounts and vouchers. But long before Attorney-General Fairchild hail come to the aid of the plaintiff in the Angell suit, James McIIenry had set his forces working. On November 24, 1877, counsel for James McIIenry, John Henry Brown, and Charles Frederick Evans, English bondholders, began suit in the Supreme Court of Monroe County, N. Y., at Rochester, against the Erie Railway Company, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and others. The plain- tiffs claimed to be the owners of $91,000 of the first consolidated mortgage bonds of the Company, and the purpose of the suit was to demand an accounting on the first consolidated bonds and for the overdue interest on them ; the removal of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company as Trustees, and the appoint- ment of another; the forfeiture of the Trust Com- pany of all right to compensation for its services; and an injunction restraining it and others from pro- ceeding further with the reconstruction of the Erie Railway Company, the appointment of a receiver pending the suit, and the foreclosure of the first con- solidated mortgage and sale of the Company's prop- erty in entirety. The complaint in this case charged the Jewett Receivership with being illegal, corrupt, oppressive, and coercive. Similar suits were brought in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. November 27th the old Board of Directors was reelected by a vote of 548,802 to 29,929 for scat- tering candidates. December 7th, before Judge Donahue, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company answered the charges made by James McHenry, John Henry Brown, and Charles Frederick Evans in the suit brought by them in the Supreme Court at Rochester, entering a denial of them all, and asking that the plaintiffs be enjoined from further proce. cl- ings. Judge Donahue issued an order on the plain- tiffs, citing them to show cause why they should not be permanently enjoined, and pending the decision on that order, stayed the proceedings brought in Monroe Count}-. The new Erie litigation brought into the Supreme Court Chambers, before Judge James T. Brad)', such THE STORY OF ERIE 251 an array of counsel as few causes had ever summoned together at any one time in New York City or else- where. On December 23d, in behalf of the Eng- lish Bondholders' Committee, appeared Secretary of State William M. Evarts, ex-Judge Comstock, and Amos A. Redfield. Turner, Lee & McClure repre- sented the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. Joseph Larocque and William Wallace MacFarland appeared for the Erie Railway Company, and Dor- man B. Eaton was present to guard Receiver Jewett's interests. The McHenry party's counsel were ex- Judge Emott, Burnett & Hammond, Aaron J. Van- derpoel, Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, ex- Judge Ashbel Green, Hon. Daniel Dougherty of Philadelphia, Henry Arden, and Dunning, Edsall, Hart & Fowler. This latter firm appeared simply to argue a motion to compel Receiver Jewett to permit an examina- tion of the books in regard to the last election for Directors, and show cause why he should not be re- moved. Affidavits which, metaphorically, threshed over all the old straw of the alleged illegal Receiver- ship, its mismanagement, and the collusive acts un- der it, and counter-affidavits denying them, were read. The hearings and arguments on these and a multitude of similar actions, all exhibiting the re- sourcefulness of McHenry and his lieutenants — chief among them being James A. Reilly, not personally eminent, but useful to his long-time chief beyond calculation — and all, while based on strong technical points of law and urged by some of the best legal minds of the day, palpably the creatures of personal disappointment and private vengeance. They were prosecuted and defended with vigor, as were the numerous counter-suits, the ultimate result being in favor of Receiver Jewett. These being civil suits, and their matter threadbare and musty, they had but small interest to the public, but in January, 1878, the tactics of the opposition assumed a more dra- matic character, and enlivened the litigious events of the Erie as of old. Frank Piatt, claiming to be an English stock- holder in the Company, was selected as the medium through which this move was to be carried forward. He made affidavit that on November 23, 1877, Re- ceiver Jewett had sworn to the annual statement of the Company as being true in every particular; that the amount of the funded debt of the Company at that date was $54,271,844; the floating debt, $1,887,- 216. ii; and the amount of interest paid on the funded debt for the year covered by this report was $3,807,764.50, whereas, according to the Piatt affidavit, which was based on the affidavits of Charles Barrett and Alexander Robertson, experts in railway accounts, who claimed to have examined the Erie books under an order of the Supreme Court, the funded debt of the Company was actually $63,324,- 367.47; the floating debt, $4,861,533.86, and the interest paid for the year was only ^>/86,6jt,, instead of $3,807,764.50. Piatt charged that Jewett had sworn to the statement, knowing that it was false, with intent to deceive the bondholders and stock- holders of the Company. Ex-Judge William A. Beach was Piatt's chief counsel. Information that such a complaint had been made before Police Jus- tice Bankson J. Morgan, at Jefferson Market Court, was received by Mr. Jewett, and on the morning of January 30th he drove with his counsel, Dorman B. Eaton, to that court and appeared informally before Judge Morgan. Thus the issuing of a warrant for the Receiver's arrest was made unnecessary. Mr. Eaton demanded an examination in behalf of his client, and February 5th was fixed by the court as the day of such examination. Mr. Jewett explained the discrepancies in the figures of the statement he had sworn to and the figures as presented by Piatt by the declaration that the former did not show the amount of interest paid, but the amount of interest payable, the Receiver having so construed the requirement of the statute in that respect. As to his statement in regard to the debt of the Company, Mr. Jewett said that it would be for experts to determine whether it had been understated, as " the charge seemed to rest on details of book-keeping too complicated for ready explanation, and requiring experts to show upon what facts the returns in that regard should be based." Stephen Little, then Auditor of the Company, declared, in an affidavit, that the declarations of Accountant Robertson were false in every particu- lar, and that although the Receiver's books had been thrown open to him, he was incompetent to the task -5- BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES of ascertaining the truth from them, and that Bar- rett's affidavit was also based on wrong premises and was thus misleading. These experts had examined the books on the order of court granted in the suit of Isaac S. Fowler, December 15, 187;. February 5th Receiver Jewett appeared at Jeffer- son Market Police Court, with his counsel, ex-Judge Fullerton, Dorman B. Eaton, William Wallace MacFarland, and ex-Judge Comstock, and accom- panied by Thomas Dickson, President of the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal Company, ex-Governor Edwin D. Morgan, Marshall O. Roberts, J. Lowber Welch, of Philadelphia, J. D. Ayer, Secretary of the Reconstruction Trustees of London, and other dis- tinguished persons. Ex-Judge Fullerton said his client would waive examination and give bail for appearance at court. Ex-Judge William A. Beach objected strenuously. Judge Morgan decided that he would hear argument further on the question, and postponed it until February 6th. At the hear- ing on that day Judge Morgan decided that his duty was to proceed with the examination. Mr. Fullerton requested the justice to fix bail then, as Mr. Jewett had bondsmen present who desired to qualify. Judge Morgan refused to fix bail before the examination was held. Ex-Judge Comstock, of Jewett's counsel, then left the court-room. The hearing was proceeded with. Exciting examina- tions of witnesses were had. It was evident from the dilatory interferences and objections of Mr. Ful- lerton that the departure of Judge Comstock was to have a sequel, and that it would be of no effect if it did not appear before the examination was over. Judge Fullerton was cross-examining Robertson, one of the experts, when there was a bustle at the door, and Lawyer Joseph Stiner entered in haste, and waving a paper in his hand, exclaimed : ' Your Honor, I have here a writ of certiorari and habeas corpus, issued by Judge Donahue, command- ing the appearance of Hugh J. Jewett before him at Supreme Court Chambers at 1 o'clock to-d;iv." This rather dramatic interruption brought the pro- ceedings to a close, and Judge Morgan adjourned them until 10 o'clock next day. In the proceedings on the writ of habeas corpus before Judge Donahue, John R. Fellows argued the case for Receiver Jewett. Judge Donahue withheld his decision, and the exam- ination of Mr. Jewett in the police court was further adjourned pending the result. February 7th Judge Donahue decided that Judge Morgan must either commit, discharge, or hold to bail in the case. The order was served on Judge Morgan February 8th, and, although he declared his belief in the correct- ness of his judgment in the case, he held Jewett in $10,000 bail, which was furnished by ex-Governor Morgan. The proceedings were objected to all the way through by ex- Judge Beach, who appealed from the decision of Judge Donahue. The appeal was argued February 2 1st before Chief Justice Noah Davis and Judge Brady, at General Term of the Supreme Court, at New York. Ex- Judge William Fullerton and John R. Fellows ap- peared on behalf of Receiver Jewett, and William A. Beach in opposition. Decision was reserved, and not rendered until April 30th. The decision was that Judge Donahue's ruling under the habeas cor- pus proceedings was wrong, but that as the police justice had acted under it and accepted bail, there would be no remedy by reversing the order. The police magistrate had no further jurisdiction, and the matter now lay with the Grand Jury. May 9th the Grand Jury dismissed the complaint, and the effort of the McHenry contingent to use the crim- inal courts to serve a purpose they could not induce the civil courts to take cognizance of was foiled, much to their disappointment and to the damage of their prospects in the Erie litigation. The shrewd- ness and astuteness of ex-Judge Fullerton rescued Receiver Jewett from this unpleasant and critical dilemma. Receiver Jewett charged Col. George T. Balch with having been designedly the cause, in conspiracy with the sponsors of the attempted new " Sickles Raid" of 1877, of the criminal proceedings. Colo- nel Balch was a graduate of West Point, and had been for fifteen years, and up to 1862, an officer in the regular army. October 1, 1872, he entered the service of the Erie Railway Company, under Presi- dent Watson, as assistant to the Inspecting Engi- neer. He continued as such until January, 1873, when he was put in charge of the repairs and con- struction of Erie property at Jersey City and New THE STORY OF ERIE 253 York. July 1, 1873, he was appointed General Storekeeper and Inspector of Supplies for the Com- pany, which place he filled until May, 1874, when the office was abolished. When Mr. Jewett came into control of Erie, Colonel Balch was detailed to prepare a history of the Supply Department of the Company for the previous ten years, which he did so satisfactorily that President Jewett gave into his charge the compiling of the reports of the Com- pany made annually to the proper State officials of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Colonel Balch compiled these reports for the years 1874, 1875, 1876, and 1877, and, such was Mr. Jewett's confidence in him, according to his (Jewett's) sub- sequent declaration, his figures were accepted and sworn to by Jewett, both as President and Receiver, without the suspicion of a doubt as to their accuracy and truthfulness. Colonel Balch also had charge of the taking of the inventor}' of the Company's prop- erty, under the order of Court appointing the Re- ceiver in 1875, and by Receiver Jewett's direction. After Receiver Jewett's arrest on the charge of perjury in February, 1878, he began an investiga- tion. Colonel Balch had prepared the report for 1877, on the alleged falsity of which the arrest was made. The result of Jewett's investigation was that on May 7th he summarily dismissed Colonel Balch from the Company's employ, in a scathing letter in which he reviewed Balch's connection with the Com- pany, reminded him of the great leniency with which the writer had treated him on a previous occasion, when a certain act of his was not above suspicion, but for which Jewett had taken Balch's plausible explanation as satisfactory, and charging him with having been guilty — after having had sole charge of making out the annual reports of the Company to the State Engineer for several years, in the entire personal confidence of Mr. Jewett — of making state- ments in the report for 1S77 — which was verified as usual by the Receiver— that had led to Jewett's arrest on the charge of perjury, and then failing to come forward and assume the responsibility for the complication and exonerate the Receiver from blame. Moreover, the Receiver charged Balch with playing him false, making efforts to aid the conspiracy for the projected Sickles raid in 1877, and aiding and abetting other enemies of the Jewett management, with the hope and expectation of personal aggran- dizement. Balch replied in a long letter, recounting the history of the matters charged by the Receiver, and denying them all. Among those whom Mr. Jewett believed he had indubitable reason to suspect of treachery to him at this time was William Pitt Shearman, who had been Treasurer of the Erie Railway Company and Assist- ant to the Receiver, and Mr. Shearman was com- pelled to quit the service. Shearman always claimed that he was sacrificed because he would not recog- nize and approve officially matters of accounting which he believed to be wrong. It was originally for this that he was promoted, as he supposed, from the Treasurership, in 1877, to be Assistant to the Receiver, which promotion proved to be merely one in appearance. As Treasurer he had protested against the payment of accounts of the Receiver as irregular, and it was to get rid of his unpleasant presence in that office that he was made Assistant to the Receiver, Bird W. Spencer, who had been Assistant Treasurer, being then appointed as Acting Treasurer. Mr. Shearman soon found, however, that his acts as Assistant to the Receiver were regu- larly disregarded in the Auditing Department and the Treasury Department, both of which were sus- tained by the Receiver as against him. When the new Company was organized Mr. Shearman was left out of any participation in it, and the charge of treachery to Mr. Jewett and his management was offered as the reason. "If any action I ever took while connected with the Jewett management could be called disloyalty," Mr. Shearman said to the compiler of this History, in 1894, " it thus became all the greater an act of loyalty to the true interests of the Company." It is scarcely necessary to say that neither this move in the police court against Receiver Jewett, nor any other of the harassing litigation, would have been heard of had he proceeded in the management of the Erie Railway Company according to the lines McHenry had marked out, when he and his friends permitted Mr. Jewett's election as President in July, 1874; for McHenry was then still in control of the English stock, and without his assent neither Jewett 254 I'.KfWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES noi any one else proposed could have been chosen. has been seen. President Jewett repudiated the Watson lease of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, and, instead of leaving uncovered the Erie Treasury that it might be used to the benefit of that utterly insolvent corporation, and acknowledging the right of McHenry and his associates to $2,000,000 of Erie funds then in their possession as custodians, he actually closed the one and demanded the restitu- tion of the other, which, being refused, he sought the arbitration of the English courts in the matter. Hence, the righteous indignation of McHenry, and the discovery that Receiver Jewett was a fraudulent Receiver and a corrupt manager, and the litigation hindering and endeavoring to prevent any reorgani- zation of the Erie Railway Company that would for- ever destroy the McHenry interest and influence was the outcome. THE SALE THE STRUGGLE TO PREVENT IT. In all the history of Erie in the courts there is no record of such a struggle as the opponents of the Jewett Receivership made to prevent the sale of the Erie Railway and its property, or to change the terms and conditions of the sale, between the time the public notice of the sale was given until and up to the very hour of the day it at last took place. The struggle began January 18, 1878. Judge James T. Brady, in the Supreme Court, at New York City, granted an order postponing the sale of the railroad property sixty days, pending the outcome of litiga- tion then in the courts. Before Judge Barrett, the same day, in Supreme Court Chambers, Dorman B. Eaton appeared for the Receiver in the complicated situation of affairs that the action of Attorney-General Fairchild, Novem- ber, 1877, had induced. Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr., had in the meantime succeeded Fairchild as Attorney-General of New York, and his opinion was that the old suit of the People against the Erie (the Angell suit) should not be reopened, but should be discontinued. Amasa J. Redfield, who represented the Erie corporation, asked that the suit be discon- tinued, on the written stipulation made by Attorney- General Pratt in 1875, by which he granted leave to discontinue. Peter B. Olney appeared on behalf of Attorney-General Schoonmaker, and read a letter from him to the law firm of Barlow & Olney, in which he expressed a wish to be a passive agent in the disposal of the vexing question, and calmly handed the matter over to the adjudication of the court, upon the result of which his action would abide. Judge Barrett, however, declined to act as the adviser of the Attorney-General, and the case was adjourned. January 30th Turner, Lee & McClure and Amasa J. Redfield appeared before Judge Law- rence in Supreme Court Chambers in further argu- ment in opposition to the reopening of the case. Peter B. Olney, Ashbel Green, and Gen. Daniel E. Sickles represented the McHenry interest. Judge Lawrence took the papers. Early in February Attorney-General Schoonmaker wrote Barlow & Olney, his representatives at New York, that the office of the Attorney-General did not exist for the promotion of personal interests, and that before he consented to the reopening of the Receiver's ac- counts, after they had been approved by the Su- preme Court, and order a reexamination, he should require proof by affidavit as to why it was sought and what good it was expected to accomplish or how to prevent ; by whom the reaccounting was required, and by what right and when acquired; what of the Receiver's transactions were claimed to be fraudulent, and how the claimants were injured thereby; and whether there was not some other remedy. The case was never reopened. January 19, 1878,' Elihu Root, as attorney for Charles Potter, Samuel Bird, John Jones, Christina M. Edwards, Inslee A. Hopper, James M. Durand, Augustus F. R. Martin, Enos Runyon, Louis May, and James A. Reilly, claiming to hold 2,000 shares of Erie stock, obtained leave from Judge Barrett to sue Receiver Jewett, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and J. C. Bancroft Davis, on complaints and allegations presented. These charged fraud and mismanagement sweepingly — fraud on Jewett's part in obtaining the office of Director September 24, 1874; conspiracy between him and his friends in bringing about the Receivership, when the Com- pany's earnings were more than enough to meet all its liabilities, for the purpose of making large gains THE STORY OF ERIE 255 by means of "short" speculations in Erie stock, disposal of Erie if they succeeded in overthrowing Jewett's share in the profits of which, the complaint Receiver Jewett. All his information was hearsay, alleged, were, on one occasion, $70,000, and on as he had no personal knowledge of any wrongdoing another $140,000; fraud and irregularity in the fore- by an Erie officer. closure proceedings; fraud on the part of Jewett as While the Potter suit was pending in the courts, Receiver in granting rebates to the Delaware and most of the plaintiffs in the case made affidavit that Hudson Canal Company, and other shippers over their names had been used without their authority. the Erie; in misrepresenting the cost of the third February 19th, before ex-Judge Spencer, Referee, rail between West Junction and East Buffalo; and Henry Arden, as counsel for Charles and William in having credited himself with the payment of Zaggel and George Talbot, who had small judgments $85,233.85 more than it cost; in the making of con- against the Erie Railway Company, objected to the tracts with the Standard Oil Company and the New continuation of the reaccounting of the Receiver Jersey Lighterage Company; in the purchase of unless his clients' right to participate was acknowl- Pennsylvania coal lands; and in putting numerous edged and allowed. The settling of this question useless employees, including relatives and friends, in favor of the claimants would disturb and render on the Company's salary lists at extravagant salaries, void the entire foreclosure proceeding. It was op- through all of which the expenses of operating the posed in the Receiver's interest by Charles L. Atter- road had been unnecessarily increased $5,000,000 a bury, and on behalf of the Farmers' Loan and Trust year. The complaint attacked the legality of the Company by J. H. Henshaw. February 21st Ref- foreclosure proceedings, and declared that the scheme eree Spencer decided that it must be passed upon of reconstruction was promoted by fraud on and by the Supreme Court. Before it came to adjudica- deception of the court. The removal of Receiver tion in the courts, the judgments held by Arden's Jewett was demanded, and an injunction restraining clients were transferred to other parties, who dis- all further proceedings under the foreclosure was posed of them to Receiver Jewett. Elihu Root had asked for. become interested in the case as counsel, and on The defendants in the suit obtained an order for April 4, 1878, before Referee Spencer, denounced the examination of James A. Reilly, McHenry's the transaction as merely one to cover up the Re- agent, and Freeling H. Smith was appointed Ref- ceiver's accounts. eree to conduct it. Counsel for the defendants were As something of a relief to the monotony of the particularly anxious to obtain from Reilly the names Receivership litigation, the Farmers' Loan and Trust of the railway officials from whom he had obtained Company applied to Judge Donahue, February 26, the information on which the allegations of the com- 1878, for an order directing Receiver Jewett to pay plaint in the Potter suit were based. He declined it $7,500 of the Erie's money in his hands to defray to answer. The Referee held that he must answer legal expenses the Trust Company had been under, the question or be committed for contempt. Elihu owing to the annoying and harassing lawsuits the Root, Reilly's counsel, then obtained an order from affairs of the Company had involved the Trust Corn- Judge Lawrence, January 31st, directing Receiver pany in, because it had interested itself as Trustee in Jewett to show cause why Reilly's examination efforts to straighten out such affairs, and inasmuch should not be set aside or restricted in its scope, as it had thus far received only $4, 500 toward such The matter came before Judge Donahue February expenses. Judge Donahue granted the order. 1st, but he declined to interfere in the matter because The return of the order to show cause why James the order of Reference had not been made by him, McHenry should not be admitted as a party to the and because he considered the Referee fully com- suits of the Attorney-General, the Farmers' Loan petent. Reilly, February 9th, testified that he was and Trust Company, and J. C. Bancroft Davis acting in the interest of McHenry, General Sickles, against the Company, and also why the sale of the and General Barrett, who had an agreement as to the railroad should not be further postponed, was argued 256 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES before Judge Lawrence in the Supreme Court Cham- bers, March 20, 1S78. John A. Davenport appeared for McHenry. William Wallace MacFarland repre- sented Mr. Jewett, and objected to the proceei as being simply a device to secure the postponement ot the sale of the road. The matter was adjourned until next da}-, when a decision was rendered by ■ Daniels denying McIIenry's motion, on the ground that if McHenry and his associates had any just grievance it had its remedy in the Monroe County suit, Judge James T. Brady having sustained McHenry in that action the same day, denying the motion of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company to make permanent Judge Donahue's injunction restraining McHenry from further proceedings in that suit. In denying the Trust Company's motion, Judge Brady held that the charges of fraud and mis- management on the part of the Receiver made in the complaint in that suit "are sufficient in substance to justify the relief demanded (if true); and whether the\- are true or not is an issue which the plaintiffs in that suit have the right to present and to have determined therein." He held that the Trust Com- pany could not be allowed to prevent the investi- gation in regard to the performance of the trust. March 23d Judge Brady dissolved Judge Donahue's injunction. McHenry appealed from Judge Dan- iels's decision to the General Term, where, April iSth, Judge Lawrence decided that he had no case, and denied his application. March 21st the application of Albert de Betz, Morit/. Lewin Borchard, and Jules Levita, foreign bondholders, claiming to own $345,00x3 of the second consolidated mortgage bonds, to be made parties to the foreclosure suit, to present charges against the Receiver, examine his accounts, etc., was granted by Judge Daniels. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company disputed the claim of these plaintiffs to be bona-fide bondholders. March 22d another great array of legal talent appeared in the next move in the McHenry litiga- tion before Judge Lawrence. In McHenry's employ were Aaron J. Vanderpoel, Ashbel Green, Daniel E. Sickles, Elihu Root, and John A. Davenport. The Receiver had in his interest William Wallace Mac- Farland and Dorman B. Eaton. Herbert B. Turner and George F. Comstock looked after the Trust Company's interests. Peter B. Olncy and Luke F. Cozans represented the Attorney-General, who had been made a party to the suit. Mr. Cozans asked for an adjournment. Mr. Vanderpoel insisted that if an adjournment was allowed, the sale of the rail- road should be postponed, as it was proposed by the Receiver, he said, to sell $19,000,000 of property not covered by the mortgages under which the fore- closure was obtained. Postponement of the sale was opposed by ex-Judge Comstock and Mr. MacFar- land. Judge Lawrence withheld his decision, and on Monday, March 24th, Judge Daniels granted an order based on the suit of Albert de Betz, Moritz Lewin Borchard, and Jules Levita, the alleged for- eign bondholders, postponing the sale of the railroad thirty days. On the contention that they were not bondholders, William Allen Butler was appointed Referee to ascertain whether the plaintiffs in the action were bona-fidc bondholders; to report on the amount of lawful indebtedness incurred by the Re- ceiver in the execution of his trust, properly con- stituting a lien upon the mortgaged premises prior to the lien of the second consolidated mortgage; on the executory contracts properly made by the Re- ceiver, subject to which the mortgaged property should be sold ; on the charges against the Receiver, and the items of his accounts, etc. ; and to report a particular description of the property which should properly be sold under the judgment, and the amount of indebtedness and of outstanding bonds and cou- pons secured by the mortgage. April 4, 1878, Henry Arden, of counsel for de Betz, Borchard, and Levita, at a meeting before the Referee, sought to have his clients represented there, but as they had not yet established their claim as bondholders before Referee Butler, Referee Spencer ruled that they had no right to appear. The postponement of the sale for thirty days was made absolute. In case the counsel on behalf of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company should stipulate to deduct from the amount of the judgment such sums as should be found by Referee Butler not proper charges prior to the mortgage, and also to deduct any sums improperly allowed to the Receiver, besides stipulating that the applicants should, if they THE STORY OF ERIE 257 chose, be entitled to share in the benefits of the reorganization scheme, no further postponement should be allowed. If the Trust Company should refuse to make such stipulations, the sale would stand further postponed until the coming in of the Referee's report. The stipulations were agreed to. April 2nd Henry Arden came to the front again as the attorney of John Henry Brown and F. W. Isaacson, of London, who, as alleged stockholders in the Erie, also professed to be fearful of the result to their interests of the sale of the railroad, peti- tioned for a postponement of the sale, and a reopen- ing of the decree of foreclosure. General Sickles, for McHenry, was the backer of Arden in the latest effort, and all the old McHenry charges were re- hashed. The good faith of the action was doubted by the Receiver's counsel, and Judge Potter ad- journed the hearing until 9 o'clock A.M., April 24, at noon on which day the Erie sale was to be held. The counsel for the petitioners were A. J. Vanderpoel, ex-Judge James Emott, Ashbel Green, Daniel E. Sickles, Elihu Root, William A. Beach, H. L. Bur- nett, and Henry Arden. In opposition were ex- Judge George F. Comstock, Herbert B. Turner, William Wallace MacFarland, E. R. Bacon, and John H. Henshaw. When Judge Potter, pursuant to adjournment, opened Supreme Court Chambers that morning to hear the continuation of the argument for a post- ponement of the sale of the Erie Railway Company's property, few, if any, of the large number of persons present had any idea that the matter would be so summarily disposed of as to permit the sale to take place at the time advertised. The argument was resumed in such a stead)', thoroughgoing manner that it bade fair to last all day, if not longer. Ex- Judge Comstock spoke in defence of the motives and conduct of those opposed to McHenry's attacks. William A. Beach followed in a long speech, insisting on the rights of the stockholders, who, he claimed, should have been notified of what property was to be sold in time to enable them to form some kind of combination to protect their interests. Mr. Beach concluded his remarks at 11.35 A.M. Then ex-Judge Emott spoke a few words on the necessity of post- poning the sale. Twenty minutes before noon 17 Judge Potter put an end to the discussion by saying : " This is a very important matter. I have had little opportunity to give it any thought whatever, and only such as occurred in the progress of this discussion. It seems this decree was taken last November, and from that time to this there have been various applications, and now this one is made just at the eve of sale. If any injustice is done by the sale, any fraud practised, or any mistake made, the courts can relieve against it. I think the sale should take place." There was a sensation in court at this abrupt decision, which seemed to stun the counsel on both sides. In a moment, however, the counsel favoring the sale made a rush for the door of the court-room, and as soon as they reached the corridors they tele- graphed to have the sale proceeded with. An immense crowd had gathered in the Exchange salesroom by noon to witness the sale of the great railway at public action. The sale was to be under judgments of foreclosure obtained by the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company of New York as Trustee for the second consolidated mortgage bondholders, in the Supreme Court of New York; by the Elmira Iron and Steel Rolling Mills Company, before the New Jersey Master in Chancer}-, and by certain per- sons in the Court of Common Pleas of Pike County, Pa., before Judge Henry M. Seeley. Among those present at the sale were George Ticknor Curtis, the Referee for the sale; R. G. Rolston, President of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and Samuel Sloan, President of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company. Receiver Jewett was not present. At precisely 12 o'clock Bernard Smyth, the auctioneer, mounted the rostrum and began read- ing the description of the property, the decree of the court, and the terms of sale. The decree described the property to be sold as the railway from Piermont on the Hudson River to Dunkirk on Lake Erie; that from Newburgh, .X. Y., to the main line at Greycourt, N. Y. ; that from Hornellsville, N. Y., to Attica, N. Y., and " all other railways and property belonging to the Company in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey," and numerated the incumbrances on the 25» BETWEEN THE OCEAN' AND THE LAKES property, viz.: A mortgage of $2,483,000, with interest from November 1, 1877; a mortgage of §2.174,000, with interest from March I, [878; a for $4. 852,000, with interest from March 1, . a mortgage for - OO, with interest from October 1. 1877; a mortgage for $"09,500, with interest from December 1, 1877; the Receiver's indebtedness at the time of sale: the debt to the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, amounting to $16,656,000 gold, with accrued interest to Novem- ber 1, 1S77, aggregating $2,573,245, gold, and inter- est since that date, and all executory contracts exist- ing at the time of sale. Persons proposing to become bidders were also required to assume the auxiliary judgments and decrees obtained in the New Jersey Court of Chan- cer)-, and the Court of Common Pleas of Pike County, Pa. During the reading the auctioneer was interrupted by Lawyer Frank Piatt with a demand for an inven- tory. Referee Curtis announced that an inventory of the property of the Erie Railway Company, in eighteen large folio volumes, was at hand, and was open to the inspection of any intending bidder. No one undertook the task. Auctioneer Smyth asked for a bid. He was interrupted again by Lawyer Piatt, who entered a formal protest against the sale on the ground that it was impossible for any stockholder outside of the Reconstruction Committee to make a bid, because no opportunity had been given for an examination of the inventor}-. Auctioneer Smyth took counsel with ex-Judge Comstock, and on his advice proceeded with the sale. Fx-Governor Edwin D. Morgan bid $5,000,000. Mr. Piatt bid $5,500,000. Ex-Governor Morgan followed with a bid of $6,000,000. The auctioneer gave time for any further bidder to announce his bid, but none was made, and the property, rights, franchises, etc., of the Erie Railway Company were knocked down to ex-Governor Morgan for $6,000,000, the actual purchasers being ex-Governor Morgan, David A. Wells, and J. Lowber Welsh, of the Recon- struction Committee. Lx-Governor Morgan at once drew his check on the National Hank of Commerce of New York City for $720,000, and handed it to Referee Curtis, who sent it to the bank for certifica- tion. When it was returned certified, the prelim- inary papers were signed on both sides, and the assemblage quietly dispersed. The entire proceed- ings occupied just one hour. The sale was confirmed by the court April 25, 1S7S. April 27th articles of incorporation of the new- Company were filed in the office of the Secretary of State, and then the Purchasing Trustees formally conveyed the property to the new Company — the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Corn- pan}- — and the Erie Railway Company was no more. At 10.30 o'clock, April 27th, a meeting of incorpo- rators of the new Company was held at ex-Governor Morgan's orifice, 54 Exchange Place. Those present were R. Suydam Grant, Solomon S. Guthrie, Hugh J. Jewett, John Taylor Johnston, Edwin D. Morgan, Cortlandt Parker, Homer Ramsdell, Samuel Sloan, Henry G. Stebbins, George F. Tallman, J. Lowber Welsh, David A. Wells, William Walter Phelps, Charles Dana, J. Frederick Pierson, Theron R. Butler, and James J. Goodwin. The absentees were Herman R. Baltzer, who was in Europe; John B. Brown, of Portland, Me. ; Thomas Dickson, of Scran- ton, Pa. ; Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunk, Pa. ; Giles W. Hotchkiss, of Binghamton, and Marshall 0. Roberts. The following members of the English Reconstruction Committee were also named in the articles as incorporators: Sir Edward William Wat- kin, M.P. ; Oliver Gourlay Miller; Henry Rawson ; John Kynaston Cross, M.P. ; John Westlake, Q.C. ; Peter M. Logan, M.P.; Benjamin Whitworth, M.P., and Thomas WiLde Powell. At this meeting the following resolutions were adopted: Resolved, That this Board tender to Hon. Hugh J. Jewett its gratitude and sincere thanks for his able, wise, and energetic administration of the property and affairs of the Erie Railway Company, both as President and Receiver. Resolved, That we extend to him the emphatic assurance of our entire respect and confidence, and we denounce as utterly false, malicious, and defamatory the various loose, vague, and general charges of mismanagement and misconduct that have been brought against him in the course of the litigation in op- position t'> the scheme of reconstruction, and in various news- papers published in London. Hugh J. Jewett was elected President <>f the new Board, and A. R. Macdonough Secretary. Bird W. Spencer was named for Treasurer, but action as in THE STORY OF ERIE 259 regard to that office, Vice-President, and other Attorney-General Fairchild in November, 1877, had officials, was postponed until a future meeting, been continued from time to time until May 20, 1878, Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & MacFarland were con- when, on motion of the Attorney-General (Augustus tinued as counsel to the corporation. The benefits W. Schoonmaker having succeeded Charles S. Fair- ol the reorganization remained open to all inter- child in that office), against the protest of the oppos- ested in the property who chose to unite in it. ing counsel, Judge Donahue issued a further order Nearly all the bondholders and a majority of the appointing Judge Spencer Referee in the People's stockholders had given their adhesion to the plan, action, under which order the accounts of the Re- and all others had six months in which to come in, ceiver already rendered were to be accepted, but the by paying the 4 per cent, installment on the pre- Attorney-General was clothed with power to reexam- ferred stock and 6 per cent, on the common. ine them and require more specific accounts from May 7th Judge Donahue confirmed the Receiver's the Receiver, if he thought advisable, and to ascer- accounts, and authorized the transfer of the Erie tain what property or assets Mr. Jewett as Receiver Railway Company's assets to the New York, Lake had disposed of or held, not covered by the lien Erie and Western Railroad Company. Mr. Jewett of the mortgages foreclosed, and what interest the was discharged from further liability and duty as Farmers' Loan and Trust Company had in such Receiver, except as concerned the discharge of his assets or property, the Referee to report the testi- indebtedness as such Receiver, and the defending mony and his opinion to the court. This order also and prosecuting of suits against or by him in that gave the Attorney-General leave to ask, if he deemed capacity. it expedient, for the appointment of a Receiver in George Ticknor Curtis was awarded, May 16, 1878, place of Mr. Jewett. The Attorney-General saw by Judge Donahue, $13,50x3 as fees and $3,500 as nothing in the situation that warranted him to take expenses for clerk hire, etc., for his services as Ref- any action under Judge Donahue's order, eree in the foreclosure and sale of the Erie Railway The action under which this order was obtained property. was the result of allegations made subsequent to the April 21, 1878, Judge Van Vorst, at Special Term sale of the Erie Railway, that the Receiver had in- of the Supreme Court, gave judgment for $103,- eluded in the properties sold under the foreclosure 647.50, with interest from August 14, 1877, to Henry a large and valuable amount which was not subject Bischoffscheim, successor to Bischoffscheim & Gold- to lien, which action made the sale irregular, and schmidt, for services in negotiating for Receiver furnished ample grounds to have it declared illegal Jewett bonds under the agreement with President and void. The property alleged to have been thus Watson, May 8, 1872. The court gave Mr. Jewett sold was the Grand Opera House property, the river leave to answer on paying costs. May 3d Bischoff- front property, and the leasehold of the property in scheim's counsel applied to Judge Donahue for an West Street, New York, occupied as the general order compelling Mr. Jewett to deposit a sufficient offices of the Erie Railway Company; real estate sum to meet the possible outcome of that suit, along the line of the railroad, in New York and New Judge Donahue denied the petition, and decided Jersey; leaseholds of various kinds, and the terminal that Bischoffscheim's success on the first suit was property at Buffalo; coal lands in Pennsylvania; fatal, because it showed that the companies that docks, stock-yards, car companies ; securities held as were parties to the foreclosure suit in which Mr. collateral in trust, book accounts against McHenry, Jewett was Receiver were not parties to Bischoff- the London Banking Association, the Atlantic and scheim's suit, which put an end to that harassing Great Western Railroad Company, and the Hillside move in the McHenry warfare. Iron and Coal Company; patent rights, etc. The examination in the cancelling of Referee Judge Spencer filed his report as Referee, October Spencer's report on the Receivership and the re- 31, 1879. It was accompanied by his opinion on the opening of Receiver Jewett's accounts, requested by questions raised by the Attorney-General. He held 200 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES that all the property alleged to have been sold ille- gally was covered by the mortgage, and passed by losure sale, and that consequently Mr. Jewett did not acquire, hold, or dispose of any property or assets not covered by the mortgage of the Erie Rail- way Company to the Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pan\ . The opinion of the Referee was sustained and approved by Judge Donahue, and confirmed by him November 25, 1879. The same day Judge Donahue confirmed the acts of the Receiver, and placed him in possession of the new Com- pany. According to the report of the Referee, the amount of cash received by Receiver Jewett on May 26, 1876, as part of the assets of the Erie Railway Company, was §52,495.42. During his term as Re- ceiver he sold securities to the amount of §62,360.47. From May 26, 1875, to May 31, 1878, he borrowed on notes and certificates to meet the expenses and obligations of the Receivership, $13,342,088.29. He repaid those loans during that time to the amount of §1 1,970,710.32. At the close of his Receivership he was indebted on such notes and certificates $1,371,372.97. The Receiver's disbursements during his term were for the current expenses of the management and operation of the railroad ; the expenses of real estate; principal and interest on money borrowed from time to time; payments on indebtedness exist- ing at the time of the Receivership, and subse- quently, under direction of the court; payments for purchase of capital stock and bonds of other cor- porations, by order of court; advances made to coal companies, purchase of rolling stock, real estate, rails, etc., and all the necessary expenses of the oper- ation of the road. The aggregate amount thus dis- bursed was $10, 867,326. Mr. [ewett was continued as Receiver by order of Judge Donahue, on petition of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, in proceedings brought to trans- fer the property of the Erie Railway Company to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, although he was President of the latter Company. This was to enable him to defend .suits and settle up much unfinished business of the Re- ceivership, lie was discharged as Receiver of the Erie Railway Company, however, and his bondsman released. The Receivership proceedings were begun under Attorney-General Pratt, continued through the administration of Attorney-General Fairchild, and terminated under Attorney-General Schoonmakcr. The regular counsel engaged in them were: Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, and Luke F. Cozzens, of New York, for the Attorney-General; Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & MacFarland for the Erie Railway Com- pany; Dorman B. Eaton for J. C. Bancroft Davis; Charles L. Atterbury for the Receiver; and Turner, Kirkland & McClure for the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. The Erie paid in counsel fees during the Receivership upward of $400,000. Thus the Erie Railway disappeared after seven- teen years of existence, the lingering victim of what it would be the broadest charity to designate as gross mismanagement on the part of those into whose hands the larger part of its career had been confided. If it had been otherwise, the Erie Railway Company would not have died a disreputable bankrupt, but would have existed as a profitable, influential cor- poration, with an honored and unsullied name. The Erie Railway Company had succeeded the unfortu- nate New York and Erie Railroad Company, which had also closed a memorable career under a cloud. It started forward practically unhampered by its obligations. Its funded debt was $19,831,500, its capital stock being the old New York and Erie's chartered capital and the addition of the preferred stock under the terms of reorganization, altogether $19,973,200. There was no floating debt. The cost of the road and equipment up to January 1, 1862, was $39,704,700. The road earned a dividend of 5 per cent, on the preferred stock in 1862; 3^ per cent, on the preferred and y/2 on the common stock in the first half of 1863; 7 per cent, on the preferred and 8 per cent, on the common stock in 1S64; the same on both stocks in 1865 ; 7 per cent, on the pre- ferred stock in 1866, and the same in 1867. From that time until its sale in 1878, the Erie had never earned a dividend, although, as we have seen, divi- dends were declared and paid. After the years of stock jobbing, corrupt manipulation for personal THE STORY OF ERIE 261 ends, and management for individual revenue only had at last done their work, and in consequence of it, the Erie Railway died a bankrupt. The Com- pany's accounts showed that the capital stock had been increased to more than four times its original amount, and was $86,536,910. The funded debt was $54,271,814, or nearly three times what it was in 1862, and the floating debt was $1,159,060.46. Moreover, the cost of the road and its equipment stood charged on the books at $1 17,445,120.54 — an addition of nearly $80,000,000 in seventeen years, or about $4,500,000 a year, alleged to have been ex- pended in improvements and construction, when the actual condition of the railroad, its equipment, its capacity, and its belongings generally, gave abun- dant evidence that if more than $5,000,000 had been appropriated to honest construction and equipment in all these years, the Erie Railway Company had made a bad bargain. IV. THE BURDEN TOO HEAVY. The period of the Jewett Receivership had been marked by many disturbing events, not the least of which was the memorable strike of July, 1877, which paralyzed the business of the Company for nearly two weeks, a time as much longer being required to so arrange operations on the road that traffic could be regularly resumed. The Centennial year of 1876 came during the Receivership, when the Erie Rail- way Company carried 5,000,000 passengers without a single passenger receiving injury or a piece of bag- gage being lost. Notwithstanding the great busi- ness of that year, the road was operated at a loss of more than a million and a quarter of dollars, the deficit the preceding year having been over $1,350,- OOO. The deficit of the strike year of 1877 was $1,300,000. The business for 1878 up to June 1st, the day the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company's life began, showed a loss of $203,000. The first statement of operations made by Mr. Jewett as President of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, was for the period between June 1 and September 30, 1878, and was as follows: Gross earnings, $5,192,681.22; operating expenses, $3,272,748.77; total net earnings from all sources, $1,930,479.93; rentals on leased lines, $311,047.75; total net revenue, $1,619,432.18. De- ducting interest on mortgages and loans (not bonds), premium on gold, etc. ($47,482.02), and interest on the funded debt ($743,403.70), left a balance to the credit of profit and loss of $828,546.40. Combining the eight months of the fiscal year, the operations for which were reported separately under the Re- ceivership, the statement showed earnings for the year of $15,644,978.09; operating expenses, $10,635,- 863.67; net earnings, $5,000,114.42; net revenue, deducting " losses from various sources," $4,913,- 075.69. Deducting interest, rent claims, expenses of foreclosure, reorganization, etc., the profit for the year was $625,431.77. The gross earnings of the leased and unleased lines and branches were esti- mated at between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000. The leased lines showed a net loss of $283,744.26. The funded debt, excluding prior lien bonds of $2,500, - OOO, was reported at $66,818,203.69, which made, total funded debt and stock indebtedness, $152,072,- 603.69. Taking the circumstances all together, Mr. Jewett was of the opinion that the Company's pros- pects were fairly encouraging. But the first six months of 1879 failed to bring a realization of this hope. The earnings had fallen off largely. The quantity of business was large, but transportation rates were low, owing to a war of rates between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Com- panies. The work of improving the terminal facilities at Jersey City, New York, and Buffalo, which in- cluded the building of costly grain elevators, was progressing, as was the important work of complet- ing the double-tracking of the line. These, and many other needed improvements, were absorbing largely of the Company's earnings. " But," said Mr. Jewett, in June of that year, " there is no reason why the plans of the reorganization cannot be made a perfect success, or why the Company should not be able to comply with all the obligations which it assumes in adopting such a plan." The question of leasing the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad was the uppermost one in the affairs of the Company during 1879. This company 262 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES . in the hands of a Receiver for the third time, January, 1880, that those proceedings culminated in and its prospects wore anything but bright. The the sale of the Atlantic and Great Western property. courts of three Stati s New York, Pennsylvania, and the reorganization of the company as the New and Ohio— were trying to straighten out its affairs, York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company, and had been so engaged for three years. The com- For more than three years after that the new com- pany owed $6o,O0O,O0O. Reorganization could soon pany was sanguine enough to believe that it could be effected if the company could raise between exist as a corporation independent of permanent §4,000,000 and $5,000,000. The New York. Lake coalition with any other company, but at last recog- Erie and Western Railroad Company was willing nized the impossibility of it, and April 6, 1883, and anxious to guarantee and pay the interest on agreed to a lease of its property to the Erie for bonds to the necessary amount in return for a lease ninety-nine years. The property thus acquired by of the railroad, although the road had scarcely suffi- the Erie was sorely dilapidated, but it was the Erie's cient equipment to run a train over a division. The only salvation if that Company were to have ever a United States Rolling Stock Company had been secure connection for its Western business. The organized some years before to equip the road with terms of the lease were criticised, and even con- broad-gauge cars, but the railroad company had not demned in many quarters, but the time was at hand paid the obligations due on them, and the rolling when criticism of any measure the Erie management stock company had taken possession of the cars, might favor was a natural sequence of events, the -railroad company still owing $1,000,000 for the use of them. The proposed arrangement between Toward the close of 1880 the condition of the the Erie and the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- Company's business, according to the reports, seem- road Company was substantially that the Trustees ing to warrant it, foreign holders of preferred stock of the latter were to raise money on construction became dissatisfied that no dividends were paid on bonds sufficient to standard-gauge the road and such shares. President Jewett claimed that the true equip it, which bonds were to be placed at the dis- meaning of the reorganization plan was that the posal of the Erie for the purpose. The net earnings profits were to be applied to the improvement and of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad were to additions to the Company's property, so that its be divided in proportion of two-thirds to that com- earning capacity might be increased, with the intent pany and one-third to the Erie. The cost to the of enhancing the interests of all holders of obliga- latter Company, at a guarantee of 6 per cent, on lions, bond and stock, and consequently he was not kxi.OOO of bonds, $300,000 a year, was regarded justified in diverting the profits for the benefit of as a mere bagatelle in return for an independent any one class of creditors. He did, however, recom- through trunk line connection to and from the West, mend the payment of the coupons on the income The proposed lease of the Atlantic and Great West- bonds, which was done by order of the Board, made em Railroad to the Erie aroused James McHenry November 30, 1880. The stand taken by Mr. again. He had induced his fellow-countrymen to Jewett, however, in the matter of not paying divi- invest something like $50,000,000 in the stock of dends, did not tend to lessen the dissatisfaction of that company, and nearly $70,000,000 in its bonds, the foreign shareholders, and the dissatisfaction in- The entire property was not, and never had been, creased, so that it took the form of such opposition worth $10,000,000. This company had been the to the Jewett management that the Reorganization isof all McHenry's litigation with the Erie, and Trustees of London, who held a majority of the lied him to think that it was likely to pass into voting power, resolved to use it against President the control of his hated foe. He and his associates, Jewett at the annual election in 1881. William H. although in a minority, were able to retard the Vanderbilt was offered the Presidency, the English- necessary proceedings looking to a reorganization of men being willing to throw the Erie into his hands, the company to such a degree that it was not until and on his refusal to accept the place, Jay Gould THE STORY OF ERIE 263 was actually solicited to resume the control of Erie that the English stockholders had forced from him in 1872! Mr. Gould declined the offer, time and his remarkable facility having placed him in charge of better things. The opposition was allayed, how- ever, by Mr. Jewett changing his policy, and at the election of 1881 the Jewett ticket was chosen almost unanimously. The Board decided to pay a dividend of 6 per cent, on the preferred stock, and the coupons on income bonds. The new Directory was: Theron R. Butler, Charles Dana, Thomas Dickson, Harri- son Durkee, R. Suydam Grant, Jacob H. Schiff, Solomon S. Guthrie, Hugh J. Jewett, John Taylor Johnston, William Martins, Edwin D. Morgan, Court- landt Parker, Henry G. Stebbins, William L. Strong, of New York; Francis N. Drake, of Corning, N. Y. ; Homer Ramsdell, of Newburgh, N. Y. ; J. Lowber Welsh, of Philadelphia, Pa. Messrs. Schiff, Martins, and Drake succeeded Messrs. James R. Keene, John Frederick Pierson, and James J. Goodwin. The year 1882 was marked in the affairs of Erie by a memorable rate war, and by the efforts of the New York Central Railroad Company and its aux- iliary contingent to cripple the Erie by closing to it a}l connections west of Buffalo and Salamanca. The manner in which these difficulties were met and overcome, handicapped as the Erie was by its nu- merous other harassing troubles, should stand con- spicuously forward as a manifestation by the Jewett rt'gimc of extraordinary genius in railway manage- ment. Advantages that the Erie Company enjoys to-day are due, in a large degree, to the alertness, determination, and rare foresight that characterized the men then in Erie, who found themselves pitted against adversaries whose strength and equipment would have discouraged and disheartened lesser men. The annual meeting of the stockholders for 1883 had some exciting features, and it was evident that a cloud was rising on the horizon of Erie affairs, and that it was likely to gather in proportion and por- tent. Mr. Jewett had the control of affairs still in his hands, but his vote on the proxies he held was challenged by Stockholder Brenkendorf, who came to the front when the question of the approval of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio lease came up. He charged that the holdings were not in the names of their rightful owners. Mr. Jewett was obliged to swear that to the best of his knowledge and belief he was entitled to vote on his proxies. The lease was approved by seven-eighths of the stock and bonds voted. James D. Fish, President of the Marine Bank of New York, which had become the depository of the Erie funds, was elected to the Board, in place of ex-Governor Morgan, who had died during the year. Mr. Jewett, in his statement of the results of the Company's business for the year, said the surplus earnings were $1,265,484.98. The Board of Directors elected was composed of Theron R. Butler, Charles Dana, F. N. Drake, Thomas Dickson, Harrison Durkee, James D. Fish, R. Suy- dam Grant, James J. Goodwin, Solomon S. Guthrie, Hugh J. Jewett, John Taylor Johnson, Courtlandt Parker, John Frederick Pierson, Homer Ramsdell, Jacob H. Schiff, William L. Strong, and J. Lowber Welsh. A dividend of 6 per cent, on the preferred stock was declared, payable in January, 1884. President Jew r ett, broken in health by his labors, threw them off for the time and went South after the November election. It was evident, early in 1884, that a crisis was im- pending in Erie affairs. The Jewett management had been in control nearly ten years — the longest continuous regime in the history of the Erie — and the wonder was that it had sustained itself so amaz- ingly well. The patient and accommodating Eng- lish share and bondholders had once more become aroused, and in the spring of 1884 they held a meet- ing at London, and sent a committee to this country to investigate the Erie situation, and find out if they could if there was any ground for hope that Erie would ever make any return for all the millions of money that had been delivered over to various of its alluring managements. This committee was T. W. Powell and J. Westlake. Rumor was busy all winter long to the effect that the dissatisfaction with the Jewett management, its methods, and the results of its policy was such that its retirement, either voluntary or compulsory, was to come to pass at an early day. The statement was put forward with such positiveness that it had the BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES bearing of indisputable fact, that the interest on the second consolidated mortgage bonds, due June 1st, would be passed. Early in the spring it was declared on the Street that the Company was borrowing money, or trying to borrow money, on commercial paper, to help it over impending trouble. President Jewett, as late as April, denied the prevailing rumors that the road was in wretched condition ; that the Company was borrowing money on commercial paper at a large discount, or that the management was on the eve of resigning at the demand of dissatisfied stockholders, and declared that the affairs of the Company were in perfectly satisfactory shape; that it had expended nearly $14,000,000 in betterments of its property under his management, and that " President Jewett and the Board of Directors have no intention of resigning, and they know of no earthly reason why they should be accused of such an intention." Perhaps, if an entirely unexpected termination in the career of highly accredited financial concerns had not intervened at this critical time in the affairs of Erie, time might have borne out President Jewett's estimate of his Company's situation and condition ; but the hand of Fate was busy. The fact was that the Company had then applied, or did soon after- ward apply, to the Wall Street firm of Grant & Ward for a large loan on its notes, as security for which 11,000 shares of the stock of the Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad Company were deposited with the firm. Moreover, the Erie had placed with the same firm §1,150,000 of the bonds of the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad Com- pany, to be sold for the Erie's account. Pending these negotiations, on Ma}- 6, 1S84, the Marine National Bank closed its doors, to the consternation of Wall Street and the entire financial world. This was followed by the immediate failure of Grant & Ward, whose transactions were closely allied to those of the bank; in fact, it was the peculiar transactions of the house of Grant & Ward that carried down the bank. James D. Fish, President of the bank, was a member of the Erie Directory. His bank was also the accredited depositor)' for the Erie funds. In- stantly the direst reports affecting the affairs of the Railroad Company, as connected with these failures, were set afloat, one to the effect that the Treasurer of the Company was involved in a compromising way with the transactions of Grant & Ward, through his relations with the Marine Bank as such officer. It was found that Grant & Ward had hypothecated the §1,100,000 of stock deposited with them by the Company; had also negotiated the Company's notes separately, and had hypothecated the Chicago and Atlantic bonds for their own use instead of nego- tiating them for the Erie. This was most unfortunate for the Company. It was in need; and although President Jewett and the Directors returned cheering words to all inquirers, and declared that everything was all right, and that disturbing rumors and untoward appearances were misleading, Secretary MacDonough, May 23, 1884, made official public announcement that the Company would not paj- the interest on its second consoli- dated mortgage bonds, due June 1st. This, he said, was only a temporary postponement, and was made necessary by the great falling off in the earnings for the first half of the year. Under the terms of the reorganization of 1878, payment of Erie bonds could not be enforced for three years after default, which alone kept the Company out of a Receiver's hands in June, 1884. Following closely on the heels of this default, the Company, July 1st, failed to meet the interest on its Car Trust bonds, class G. The Auditing Department, however, made optimistic statements to the public, from which could be evolved the conclusion that Erie, instead of being in hard lines, was. actually in excellent form. The fact was, though, that the treasury was empty, and the Company bankrupt. The Erie estate, by the Company's official showing, was §150,311,883.15, although a valuation one-third less than that would have been an extremely liberal one. A prominent holder of Erie securities at this time declared that the Company "owns not more than §90,341,859, and its liabilities are §178,089,495. 19. The indebtedness outside of the stock is more than the amount of the assets, and the stock is worthless and the road bankrupt." The truth of the charge was not chal- lenged. But in spite of all the disclaimers that the Com- pany was in straits or the management unpopular, THE STORY OF ERIE 26 = or that there was any thought or intention of aban- doning its policy or of changing its personnel, July 14, 1884, President Jewett placed in the hands of the Board the following letter: New York, July 14, 18S4. To the Board of Directors of the Xew York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company : Gentlemen: — Ten years ago this day I was elected Presi- dent of the Erie Railway Company, with the understanding (which was immediately thereafter put in the form of a con- tract) that I was to serve for a term of ten years. Upon the dissolution of that company and the organization of this company, that contract, perhaps, became inoperative, but I felt it to be my duty to serve the company for the full time if such service was desired, regardless of any contract obligations, and so advised the members of this Board. I, however, never contemplated a longer official connection with the company. For ten years I have devoted my entire time, with all the skill and ability I am possessed of, to the care and management of these companies, to the absolute and entire neglect of my private business and personal interests, looking forward to the end of the ten years when I could return to them, and, to some extent, reinstate them to the condition in which I left them. For some time past I have, with great care and anxiety, been reviewing the details of the improvements, extensions, and management of the properties, interests, and business of the companies since my connection with them, expecting to realize that I had made many mistakes, and fearing that I might find some of a serious and. perhaps, dangerous character. That I have made mistakes there can be no doubt, but I am gratified to find and to be able to say that upon such a careful review of the whole period I can find no transaction of importance that, with the same lights only which were then before me. I would not now repeat. With the same lights and the additional ex- perience I now have, in many instances I would perhaps have advised a different line of action and of policy. If. therefore, there was nothing else involved, and the business of the country was in a happy and prosperous condition (which is all that is necessary to a healthy and prosperous condition of this com- pany), after tendering to you my most sincere thanks for. and unqualified appreciation of, your uniform kindness to and co- operation with me in the discharge of my official duties. I should tender to you my resignation as President of this com- pany. But in view of the disordered and disorganized state of affairs and of business generally, as well as of the business and interests of this company. I can do nothing more at present, therefore, than to place before you the facts and to remain subject to your will and pleasure, with the distinct understand- ing, however, that I cannot consent to a reelection so as to have devolved on me in the future, as in the past, all the duties of supervising and directing the detailed management of the various departments and interests of the company. With the greatest consideration and respect, I remain, Yours very truly. H. J. Jewett. and R. Suydam Grant to take the matter into con- sideration, and to devise some satisfactory plan of action. During their consideration of the subject many men of prominence in railway affairs were mentioned as being men whose services would be desirable as an assistant to Mr. Jewett. John King was at last decided upon as being the one who would be the most likely to meet all the requirements of the case, but the committee did not purpose making any selection at all, unless it could be accompanied by assurances that would relieve the Company from its pressing financial necessities. The following let- ter opened the way for action by the committee: New York, August 18, 1884. Hon. H. J. Jewett, President Xew York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company : Dear Sir: — I am satisfied from representations made to me by Messrs. Powell and Westlake, representatives of the Euro- pean interests in your company, that if I am elected Assistant President of your company for the time being, with the under- standing that I am to be elected President at the annual meeting in November next, the funds needed to retire the floating debt of the company and to place the company upon a safe financial basis will be furnished, and it is upon this assurance that I consent to accept the position referred to. I am, very respectfully yours, etc., John King. This letter was endorsed as follows: We have given Mr. King such assurance as above mentioned. T. W. Powell, J. Westlake. Thereupon the committee, August 21, 1884, ln a resolution unanimously adopted, appointed John King Assistant President of the Company, and to take Mr. Jewett's place as President at an early date, to be determined by Mr. Jewett. The resolu- tion also directed that a contract be made with Mr. Jewett, after his resignation as President, " whereby his counsel, advice, and aid in the management of the affairs of this Company may be secured as Chair- man of the Executive Committee, or otherwise, for the term of one year after such resignation, at his present salary." The Board appointed a committee consisting of The report of the English representatives, Messrs. Thomas Dickson, J. Lowber Welsh, Jacob H. Schiff, Powell and Westlake, was published in London, 266 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES September 12th, and its character was such that the Company's second consolidated bonds fell from 59 to 56, and there was a great scramble in Wall Street to get rid of holdings in those securities. The float- ing debt of the Company (according to this report), for which immediate funds were necessary, was $4.477.3 16 > and $5,750,000 (Car Trust bonds to be cared for early in the future) could be properly added to that amount. The committee said that the Com- pany's credit had been unable to withstand the strain the Grant & Ward failure put upon it, and that the Company should without delay raise a permanent loan of $5,000,000 on available securities. In com- menting on the condition of Erie affairs, as this report showed them to be, the London Telegraph said: Some explanation is wanting regarding the Erie's liability of $5,750,000 for future installments to car trusts, extending to May, [892. But, anyway, it is difficult to conceive that the English public, however skillfully approached, will lend another million pounds, or half million, even, with no better guarantee for the future management of the road than the substitution of Mr. King for Mr. Jewett as President. The report met with indignant disapproval on the part of the English shareholders, and they con- demned universally the suggestions of the Commit- tee that they come forward to the aid of the Com- pany once more. This did not tend to the benefit of the Jewett influence as a factor in outlining or dictating the future policy of the Company, but as late as the middle of October that influence still aspired to predominance in the management. Octo- ber 16th John King, James A. Raynor, Ogden Mills, and J. G. McCullough were elected Directors to fill vacancies. Mr. Jewett's resignation as President was made as of effect November 1st, and Mr. King was elected to succeed him on that date. Presi- dent Jewett said the Company's prospects were bright, notwithstanding the depressed conditions of business throughout the country. He defended his lease of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, although it had as yet shown no profit- able return to the Company. The future, how- ever, would show the wisdom of the arrangement, he declared. The opposition to the retention of Mr. Jewett as Chairman of the Executive Commit- tee, which had always been held by the President of the Company, made itself known as the annual election approached. This opposition was cham- pioned by I. & S. Wormser, the bankers, and they solicited proxies from the foreign stockholders for use at the election, to elect a Directory that would give President King the authority ami support it was claimed he was entitled to in the management of the property. The result of this was that Mr. Jewett, before the election came round, notified the Board that he would decline to assume the Chair- manship of the Executive Committee, and wrote President King and others who held voting proxies that he intended to withdraw from the Board and all further connection with the Company, and requested that his name be not presented as a member of the Direction for the coming year. According to the last annual report of the Jewett management, which was for the year ending Septem- ber 30, 1884, the result of operations for that year was as follows : Gross Earnings $22,715,06097 Operating Expenses 16.358,077 74 Net Earnings $6,356,983 23 Interest, Rentals, etc., paid $5,375,736 18 Interest passed, June 1 1,679,870 00 Total $7,055,606 18 Net Earnings 6,356,983 2i Deficit $698,62295 Decrease in Gross Earnings from 1883, including the Operations of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad $1,164,811 87 Increase in Working Expenses. . . 9'3.494 62 Decrease in Net Earnings $2,078,306 49 Decrease in Gross Earnings, ex- clusive of the New York. Penn- sylvania and Ohio Railroad... $2,979,595 4') Decrease in Working Expenses.. 1,509.362 29 Decrease in Net Earnings $1,470,233 20 Gross Earnings of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Rail- road, under the Lease $4,018,458 73 Working Expenses 4.288,739 98 Loss in Operating the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad $270,281 25 Stock, Bond, and Trust Obligations. Capital Stock. Issued $85,332,000 00 Funded Debt 75,268,485 10 Car Trust Obligations, payable in Installments to 1892 5,666,00000 THE STORY OF ERIE 257 Debts Due and Past Due. Loans Payable $2,255,392 94 Bills Payable 1.053,418 05 Accrued Interest 2.888.961 25 Rentals of Leased Lines 410.846 18 Rent Due New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad 327,604 81 Pay Rolls, etc 3,582,406 15 Total $10,518,629 38 Due the Company from Agents, etc., including $355,115.82. cash on hand 9.162.963 09 Leaving Cash Assets Less than Immediate Lia- bilities $1,355,66627 At the election November 26th not a remnant of what might have been regarded as Jewett influence was perceptible. John King voted on the entire English holding of stock, some $23,000,000. John G. McCullough voted the Park and Mills interests, aggregating $38,000,000. Among the large stock- holders of Erie then were Drexel, Morgan & Co., $1,155,000; Philadelphia Savings Fund Institution, $1,000,000; E. D. Morgan & Co., $650,000; August Belmont, William A. Wheelock, E. E. White, W. B. Dinsmore, and others, holding $200,000 to $500,- 000. They all gave their proxies to Wormser & Co. and R. Suydam Grant for the election. The follow- ing Board of Directors was chosen : John King; William Whitewright, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union Trust Com- pany; J. G. McCullough, President of the Panama Railroad Company; Ogden Mills; William A. Wheelock, of the Central National Bank; W. B. Dinsmore, President of the Adams Express Com- pany; William Libby, formerly of the house of A. T. Stewart; James A. Raynor; George M. Graves, Vice-President of the Bank of the Metropolis ; Henry H. Cook; George W. Quintard, President of the Pennsylvania Coal Company; William N. Gilchrist; Jacob Hayes (all new men); William L. Strong, the dry-goods millionaire, and subsequently Mayor of New York; J. Lowber Welsh, of Philadelphia; Court- landt Parker; James J. Goodwin, of Drexel, Morgan &Co. The Board met and elected John King President; Charles G. Lincoln, Treasurer, in place of Bird W. Spencer; Edmund S. Bowen, Vice-President ; A. R. Macdonough, Secretary. Charles G. Barber, Mr. Jewett's chief lieutenant, resigned. Mr. Jewett was not present at the meeting. No resolution of regret that he was severing his long connection with the Company was offered. This was an act of discour- tesy which placed the ending of the Jewett manage- ment in the light of being an enforced one rather than a voluntary retirement, and seemed to be an official and emphatic answer in the negative to the question : Did the Company make a good bargain with Mr. Jewett in securing his services in 1874, on his own terms ? and to stamp with official approval the opinion that events had failed to carry to reali- zation his declaration, made on taking control ten years before, that he had " accepted the Presidency of the Erie Railway Company with the determina- tion, if possible, to place the road on such a basis as will enable it to compete successfully with the other great trunk lines." Were these conclusions just ? The history of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company under President Jewett had been one of advancement toward the ideals other managements had professed but never attained. During the Jewett administration the road was laid with steel rails entire; the double track was com- pleted between New York and Buffalo ; the gauge was reduced from the unfortunate six foot to the standard; the terminal facilities at Jersey City were enlarged, improved, and to a great extent made new; grain elevators were erected both at Jersey City and Buffalo; the rolling stock and machinery of the road were brought up to the best standard of excellence then obtainable, with every modern appli- ance, including air-brakes, and gas-lighting of passen- ger trains ; an equable traffic agreement with, and what had seemed to be a wise and profitable lease of, the long-coveted Atlantic and Great Western Railroad were secured, that company having been reorganized as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company; new branch connections were obtained; the coal properties of the Company in Pennsylvania were consolidated and fused into the present invalu- able and profitable possessions of the Erie; unde- sirable contracts with outside corporations, such as the Jefferson Car Company and the National Stock 26S BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Yard Company, were settled and discontinued to the Company in the coal lands in Pennsylvania, known ,f the Company, and the Erie generally as the stock of the Northwestern Alining and Ex- placed in position, as far as its physical condition change Company, might be consolidated with the was concerned, to compare favorably with the best Shawmut Company, owning lands adjoining and sur- railroads of the day. More than these. President rounding the Erie property, in Elk and Jefferson Jewett had built and put in successful operation a counties. To effect this a mortgage was to be exe- railroad which, in connection with the New York, cuted on the property to secure bonds to the amount Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, gave the Erie an of $4,000,000, which were to be disposed of by ex- independent line of its own between New York and Judge W. D. Shipman as Trustee. The consoli- Chicago. This was the Chicago and Atlantic Rail- dated company was then to be transferred to the road, from Marion, O. It released and relieved the Receiver of the Erie Railway Company by the ex- Erie from dependence on rival lines for the courtesy change of 5,000 shares of Northwestern stock for of travel over them, and is to-day the link that $1,366,667 of the bonds at par, subject to the pay- makes the Erie Railroad a successful competitor of ment of the balance due on the purchase of the lands all the other trunk lines for Chicago business and of the Northwestern Company, amounting to $544,- traffic to and from the great West. He had fought 000, the Shawmut Company to receive mortgage to a successful termination most vexing and harass- bonds in payment for its interest in the mortgaged in°- litigation, thus removing that great obstacle from premises. This was to be followed by the consolida- te path of future managements. tion of the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad Were not these things, then, sufficient to warrant Company, the Pittsburg, Buffalo and Rochester his approval by the stockholders, instead of sub- Railroad Company, and the Brandy Camp Railroad mitting him to implied condemnation? It would Company, with a capital stock of $4,000,000 in shares certainly seem so. of 100 each, 22,900 shares to be delivered to the Erie Railway Company, the consolidated company to Receiver Jewett, early in his administration, be- guarantee the principal and interest of the $4,000,000 came convinced that the Pennsylvania coal lands bonds of the Northwestern Mining and Exchange purchased and leased during the Watson administra- Company; the name of the new consolidated com- tion, might be made profitable to the Company, if pany to be the Pennsylvania and Erie Coal and Rail- properly handled, instead of being a bad bargain, as road Company. The proceeds of the bonds, or a he had at first believed and announced. These lands sufficient amount, were to be used in building rail- included 8,000 acres in fee, and large tracts in lease- roads and developing the coal lands in connection hold and mining right, located in Luzerne (now with the railroads named. Lackawanna), Wayne, and Susquehanna counties, The purposes and advantages of this arrangement and 14,000 acres in fee, and 13,000 acres in mining were to be the obtaining of cheaper coal for the use right, located in Elk and Jefferson counties. The of the Erie Railway Company, the opening up of a former were anthracite, the latter bituminous coal rich but then isolated and undeveloped country, and lands. The anthracite property cost $2,236,663, and the ultimate production of coal so much greater than the bituminous lands $1,094,029. Two companies the needs of the Company as to create a remunera- had been formed under the laws of Pennsylvania to tive business in merchantable coal, and the arrange- operate and develop these lands — the Hillside Coal ments were consummated. and Iron Company for the anthracite region, and As no mention was made in any of these negotia- te Northwestern Mining and Exchange Company tions of the possibilities or probabilities, as an oil- for the bituminous region. producing region, of the country the Erie Railway In 1S75 Receiver Jewett had obtained an order Company was then about to largely control, it is from Judge Westbrook permitting the execution of a safe to assume that the parties interested were of contract by which the property of the Erie Railway those who thought lightly, if they thought at all, of THE STORY OF ERIE 269 the prospects of McKean County, Pa., and the adja- cent districts as a petroleum field, although even then many wells were down at and about Bradford — flowing wells and fair producers — and speculators and operators were flocking thither from all parts of the old oil country in Venango County. Even if the factor of petroleum had not subsequently come in to make the Erie Railway Company's consolidated interests still more valuable, Receiver Jewett's plan of dealing with the coal lands would have been wise and profitable. At the time the arrangement was made, the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad (Bradford Branch of the Erie) was earning perhaps $2,500 a month. A year later, the receipts from freight and passengers between Bradford and Carrol- ton, at the junction with the main line of the Erie, 24 miles, were over $2,500 a day. This was the rail- road that Cornelius Vanderbilt denounced in 1868 as the worthless road that had been foisted upon the Erie to enrich the Directors concerned in organizing it. His allegation was undoubtedly true at the time. The Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Rail- road was but a sorry one. It came into the posses- sion of the men who unloaded it or the Erie Railway Company, in 1867, at a profit of $75,000 apiece to them, although they were Erie Directors, but they would have been glad to have bought it back again in 1S76 at many times the amount of the profit they made by disposing of it to the Erie Railway Com- pany. They had builded for the Erie much better than they knew or suspected, otherwise they would have builded for themselves alone. The wonderful oil reservoir from which was poured forth unceas- ingly for more than ten years the yield of petroleum that supplied the world's demand had been tapped, and the Bradford Branch of the Erie became for the time its most valuable collateral property. The suits that had been brought against James McHenry by Mr. Jewett as Receiver of the Erie Railway Company, and so continued by him as Presi- dent of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Rail- road Company, having passed through all the varied and tedious methods of procedure in the courts of this country, and been decided upon by the English Court of Chancery, invariably against McHenry, were at last passed upon finally April 24, 1883, in the United States District Court at New York, before Judge Coxe and a jury. The ground of the Jewett contention was that McHenry, as an agent of the Erie Railway Company, had, in 1873, 1874, and 1875, sold certain securities on behalf of that Company, and failed to account to it for the pro- ceeds. This was the transaction in the bonds that President Watson had left in London to be dis- posed of, in 1873-74. The jury in the final action before Judge Coxe found for the Company in judg- ment to the amount of $1,406,813.96. This made the aggregate amount of judgment the Company had obtained against McHenry nearly two millions and a half of dollars. The Company held 11,477 shares of the stock of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad, and 13,000 Atlantic and Great Western extension certificates, representing a like number of the shares of the same stock. These securities were to be turned over to McHenry on satisfaction of the judgment. He submitted various propositions in writing to President Jewett, all of which were declined. He came to this country in the spring of 1884, for the purpose, it was thought, of settling the matter. He did not do so, and was preparing to return to Europe, when, April 9th, Jewett secured an order for his arrest in supplemen- tary proceedings. McHenry then came to terms, and surrendered his claim to the securities, turning them over to the Company at a valuation of $1,500,000. That left $800,000 due on the judgment, which McHenry gave a written agreement to pay, one-half in one year and the balance in two years. The order of arrest was then vacated, and McHenry sailed for home. The litigation had been in the courts more than six years, had virtually ruined McHenry, and had not a little to do with bringing about the bank- ruptcy of Erie. CHAPTER XX. ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHN' KING, PRESIDENT, AND JOHN KING AXD J. G. McCULLOUGH, RECEIVERS— 1884 TO 1895. I. RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM! A Start Toward It — A Stubborn Floating Debt — Ex-President Jewett Resents His Treatment by the King Management, ami Erie Once More Dances Attendance on Courts and Lawyers — Another Erie Dividend, and the Last — ing Reports of the Prospects, but Doleful Actual Results — Erie Again Tottering Under Its Burden. II. Ix THE Old Rdl 1 - The Floating Debt Asserts Itself — The Use of Interest Money to Quiet It Compels Default — Receivers Appointed ike Charge of the Company — The Drexel-Morgan Plan to Rescue It from Its Dilemma — The Tlan Opposed as neither tical nor Just — A New Plan of Reorganization Submitted and Approved — The Efficiency of a Sioo,ooo,ooo Blanket Mortgage — Sale of the Railroad, and the Forming of a New Corporation — The Erie Railroad Company Arises from the Ruins of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, the Erie Railway Comoany, and the New York, Lake Erie and 'Western Railroad Company. I. RETRENCHMENT AXD REFORM. THE avowed policy of the new administration was " Retrenchment and Reform." Retrenchment was begun at once by cutting down salaries. Mr. Jewett had been receiving $40,000 a year as President of the Company. Mr. King's salary was fixed at $25,000 a year. Other officers were reduced in pay from 30 to 50 per cent. The offices of Assistant to the President and Assistant Secretary were abol- ished. Other changes in the executive and operat- ing departments, all on the score of economy, were made, and much of the luxurious space in the Coal and Iron Exchange Building in Cortlandt Street that the late Executive Department had occupied was abandoned for more modest quarters higher up in the same building. Rigid economy and curtail- ment were enforced in all departments, and it be- came a matter of comment that if Erie could be lifted out of trouble by saving money in running its business, Erie was surely on the high road to ways of pleasantness and peace. It soon became evident that Mr. Jewett had de- parted from the Erie fold with no very warm feeling of cordiality toward the new order of things. This was first shown when he vigorously opposed the pro- p d removal of the office of the Chicago and Atlan- tic Railroad Company, of which he was President, from Chicago to New York, by which move, and the removal of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio offices from Cleveland to New York, the new man- agement declared that it could save $50,000 a year. The Grant & Ward notes of the Jewett administra- tion also came to the front early to plague the King management, in a suit brought by Walter S. John- son, Receiver of the Marine National Bank, against the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company and the Chicago and Atlantic Railway Company, to recover on thirty notes, made by the latter Company in February and March, 18S4. and endorsed by the former. The amount of the notes was $405,000. The Erie management denied liabil- ity for the notes on the ground that its name as endorser was wrongfully used by Treasurer Bird W. Spencer, or some other person, and that no consider- ation had been given for them. The further charge was made that fraud had been committed upon the Company in the issuing of the notes by Grant & Ward to the Marine Bank, and that Bird W. Spencer, James D. Fish, and Grant & Ward acted in collu- sion, Spencer being a director in the bank, and Fish being its President, as well as a member of the firm of Grant & Ward. This suit was subsequently com- promised. The Company paid $310,000, and the hypothecated securities were returned to its treasury by the Marine Bank. President King was not satisfied with the arrange- ment ex-President Jewett had made by which he secured the completion and control of the Chicago and Atlantic Railway as a link in the Erie and New JOHN KING. THE STORY OF ERIE 271 York, Pennsylvania and Ohio line to Chicago, and refused to contribute toward the payment of the interest on the $6,500,000 Chicago and Atlantic bonds, according to the agreement made by Jewett between that company, the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, and the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company. Jewett, as President of the Chicago and Atlantic Railway Company, charged that President King was divert- ing freight and passenger traffic from that line to other lines. Early in May, 1885, Jewett brought proceedings before Judge Donahue, in the New York Supreme Court, to compel an accounting from the Erie, and an order was issued by the court direct- ing that Company to keep the agreement with the Chicago and Atlantic. Ex-President Jewett also opposed the Erie's efforts to maintain traffic relations with the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. In 1882 Mr. Jewett, as President of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, had effected an arrangement by which a transfer of a majority of the stock of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Rail- road Company was placed in his name, trust certifi- cates being issued to the owners of the stock, on which 3 per cent, semi-annual dividends were guar- anteed by the Erie. The stock was held by Mr. Jewett, subject to a voting proxy as the Erie Direct- ors might decide. The continuance of the relations with the Cincinnati connecting line was extremely desirable to the Erie, but at the annual election in June, 1885, it was evident that the ex-President of Erie, in whose name the stock still remained, in- tended to vote it so that the Erie would be ousted from its relations with that road. The Erie Com- pany took measures to compel him to vote the stock according to the spirit of the contract, but on his behalf a stockholder of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad Company asked for an injunc- tion restraining him from delivering the proxy to the Erie, or to restrain the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton officers from counting the votes if they were so cast. The Superior Court judges before whom the case was argued at Cincinnati, May 26, 1885, decided that the contracts under which the stock was obtained for the Erie in 1SS2 were invalid, and that the proxies could neither be voted by ex-President Jewett nor by the Erie. The Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad Company began suit against the Erie, February 6, 1885, claim- ing that the interest on a mortgage for §1,500,000, which had been guaranteed by the Erie in return for the lease of that railroad, had been permitted to go to default, January 1st. The complaint charged that the Erie was insolvent, and had been so since the first of the year, and demanded that the Com- pany be enjoined from using its gross receipts until the amount of interest, $345,000, was paid. In the fall of 1885 the haunting floating debt began to be troublesome, and in November of that year the Company negotiated a loan on the pledge of the Long Dock property to pay the floating debt, by funding the coupons of the second consolidated mortgage bonds and the second consolidated funded coupon bonds, of June and December, 1884, June, 1885, and June, 1886, into a 5 per cent, gold bond due in 1969. According to the first annual report of the King management, the earnings of the railroad for the year had fallen short of the expenses $1,376,943.55. The burden of bonded debt was telling severely on the capacity of the property to sustain it, the outlay for interest alone having been nearly as much as the net earnings, which were $4,587,055.98. The working expenses showed a decrease over 1884 of $2,010,- 561.01. There was a decrease of $692,301.36 on the net earnings. As Trustee under the agreement between the Erie and the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad Company, ex-President Jewett held control of the latter Com- pany, and the feeling between him and the new Erie management made the relations of the two roads anything but pleasant. President King was desirous that the Chicago and Atlantic should pass to the control of his management, as that railroad was his only outlet to Chicago in direct connection with the Erie. The terms of the lease of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad to the Erie he charged were so onerous that they could not be maintained without loss to the Erie. On this ground he twice had the terms modified. March 5, 1886, determined to bring about the removal of Jewett -7- BETWEEX THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES from the control of the Chicago and Atlantic Rail- possible, President King had recourse to the courts. On that day the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company of New York asked for the appointment of a Receiver for the Chicago and Atlantic Company before Judge Walter O. Gresham, at Chicago, on the ground that the company was in default of inter- est on bonds. The motion was opposed by coun-t 1 in the interest of Mr. Jewett. The plaintiff cited the Jewett hostility to the Erie, and declared that he was diverting business from that railroad by using the Chicago and Atlantic against it, although the Chicago line had been built by Erie funds to make it an adjunct of its own as a western outlet. The hypothecating of the $2,500,000 second mortgage bonds of the Chicago and Atlantic Railway Company with Grant & Ward as collateral for a loan, under the Jewett management, was referred to, and the claim was urged that the Western company was indebted to the Erie in that amount, this being before the settlement of the Grant & Ward trans- action. April S, 1886, Judge Gresham decided that Jewett had been made Trustee of the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad Company simply because he was President of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, and could be relied upon to control the road as the western outlet of the Erie. Judge Gresham held that the holders of the past due and unpaid coupons were entitled to their money, irre- spective of the arrangement between the two com- panies, and that if the}- were not paid it would become necessary to appoint a Receiver. A Re- r was subsequently appointed, and August 12, 1887, the road was sold to the Erie for $6,000,000, and August 31, 18S7, the company was reorganized as the Chicago and Erie Railroad Company, with all the stock in possession of the Erie, which gave that Company virtual ownership of the line. S. M. Eel- ton, First Vice-President of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, was elected President of the new company. Eben B. Thomas, Second Vice-President of the Erie, was made Gen- eral Manager. The annual Eric report for 1886 showed an in- crease in net earnings of the entire system over those of 1885 of $3,915,984.37, and an increase of expenses of $2,041,121.41. The earnings were sufficient to pay expenses and leave a surplus of $14,610.95. Nearly $2,000,000 were expended in work on the road " that should have been done in previous years," the report declared — ballasting, train-sheds, cross-ties (the laying of ties alone costing $708,- 193.08); 10,000 tons of steel rails were put down; $450,000 worth of new rolling stock was added; $214,000 was expended in ballasting. The follow- ing Board of Directors was elected for the ensuing year : John King, J. G. McCullough, J. Lowber Welsh, Courtlandt Parker, Henry H. Cook, William Libby, William A. Wheelock, William Whitewright, George W. Quintard, Ogden Mills, William L. Strong, Will- iam B. Dinsmore, Morris K. Jessup, James J. Good- win, William N. Gilchrist, Josiah Belden, Joseph Ogden. John King was reelected President; S. M. Felton, First Vice-President; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; A. R. Macdonough. Secretary ; Ed- ward White, Treasurer. To all outward appearances Erie was sailing smoothly along toward a safe harbor at last. The annual report for 1887 sparkled with statements of increased earnings, increased surplus, increased ton- nage, increased passenger traffic, increased rates, in- creased steel rail-laying, increased equipment quota. The same Board of Directors was elected, the same officers; the same policy prevailed: " Retrenchment and Reform." In 1888, 13,000 tons of new steel rail-- were laid, and forty-one new locomotives purchased. November 27, 1889, the Board of Directors — which was the same, except that S. M. Felton, Jr.. had succeeded Joseph Ogden, and W. F. Reynolds had taken the place of Director Dinsmore, who died in 1888 — resolved to resume payment of interest on the Company's income bonds in January, 1890, the first interest that had been paid on them in nine years. January 21, 1890, the Board voted that a dividend of 1 per cent, on the preferred stock had been earned and was payable for the quarter ending December 31, 1 SS9, and would be payable quarterly thereafter. ' The time had arrived when extraordinary expendi- tures for improvements and the necessities of the THE STORY OF ERIE ?73 property were no longer necessary." The dividend was made payable February 14, 1890, with the dec- laration by the Board that it was believed that " the dividend- could not only be maintained, but grad- ually increased, the property at the same time being kept up in good condition." This was the most reassuring news that had come from Erie quarters in many a day. President Jewett had paid some dividends, not many years before, and he had made declarations anent them every bit as rosy as these later ones from his successors. But people had forgotten that. And they knew little about that persistent floating debt that stalked about in Erie's marble halls. The dividend was paid. The year passed. At the annual election of 1890 S. M. Felton, Jr., whose rather arbitrary ideas of railroad management, and habit of asserting them, had not met with the approval of some members of the Board, retired as a Director and First Vice-Presi- dent, and was succeeded by Eben B. Thomas, whose practical methods and capacity had made a much different impression on the Directory. President King was reelected. The annual report halted a little. Business had been large, but rates low, due to the action of rival lines. The dividend which was to have been " payable quarterly" right along, and " gradually increased," was not declared this year, but the Board resolved to pay the interest on the income bonds, January 15, 1S91. The dividend was not resumed. It was the last Erie dividend up to elite I [898). Disorganization, if not demoralization, of railroad rates continued. The floating debt grew apace. The burden of Erie was slowly but surely getting to be more than it could bear. II. IX THE OLD ROLE OF BANKRUPT. From early in 1893 the inability of the Company to maintain itself against the effects of continued decrease in earnings, and the pressing demands of creditors whose accounts were past due, had been believed in and talked about by a very confident por- tion of Wall Street, and the ease with which Erie stock yielded to every hostile assault of the bear element showed that there was nothing back of it to sustain it or to give it stability. The management is of the Company, while not admitting that the future was dark, did not deny that difficulties were con- fronting it as a result of the floating debt, which was said to be upward of $6,000,000, an estimate that subsequent revelations proved to be much below the actual fact. Yet as late as March 19, 1893, the New York Times' money article was thus positive in its treatment of a prevailing rumor: " An absurd rumor has got into circulation that the Erie is in danger of a receivership. This is nonsense. The company had a floating debt at the date of its last report of about $5,- 000.000, which is probably rather larger now, and doubtless it is experiencing trouble with its paper from the conditions of the money market. That is the extent of its difficulties. In June it has to meet the interest on its $25,000,000 of second consols, but in these bonds there is what might be called an emergency clause, expressly drawn to enable the company to tide over times of difficulty, whereby it is entitled to postpone the payment of six consecutive coupons on the bonds before foreclosure proceedings can be instituted. The company has availed itself of the privilege in the past, the outstanding funded coupons representing the defaulted interest. Previous to this the seconds had declined to 40 or 50." June 11, 1893, Vice-President Thomas, in denying rumors as to financial troubles of the Erie, said: ' The interest due on bonds June 1st was paid, and the interest due July 1st is provided for. The Erie is in as good condition financially to meet its obliga- tions as at anytime in the years the present manage- ment has been in charge." That Erie was in such " a condition financially " was undoubtedly the exact truth, for at no time within those years had the Company been in any better condition to meet its obligations than it was in June, 1893. The Company was bankrupt dc facto when it passed to its new control, and that the time when it must become a bankrupt de jure was held off so long was a striking demonstration of the tact and resourcefulness which the new regime had been able to bring to bear in the management of the Com- pany's unpromising affairs, and in judicious shifting and manipulating of the heavy burdens Erie bore upon its chafed and weary shoulders. But the in- evitable was simply being postponed, and the further postponement could be of but short duration, so short that, Juh- 25, 1893, the Executive Committee of the Board, acting under previous resolutions passed by the full Board, came to the relief of the ■74 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES strained situation by deciding to place the Com- unsecured. A large part of the debt was owed to pany in the hands of Receivers, and the motion for connecting lines, which would withdraw traffic the appointment of them was made before Judge arrangements unless the over-due accounts were Lacombe, of the United States Circuit Court, the settled. The interest on the first mortgage bonds same day. His appointees were President John of the Company was to fall due September 1st, and King and Director John G. McCullough, they hav- December 1st the interest on the second mortgage ing been selected by the Directors for the task. In bonds was to be payable. The former amounted to explanation and justification of this proceeding, the $720,894, and the latter to $1,255,030. Calls for Board made the following statement :" This measure margins were becoming more frequent and more was taken purely in the interests of the road and its pressing, and to save the collateral deposited, and creditors. Within the last few weeks, during the to prevent the Company from falling into the hands severe money stringency, the floating debt of the of the creditors, some of whom were by no means Erie (which everyone knows has existed for the past friendly to it, Receivers were asked for. few years) became impossible of renewal, and in July 26th the papers in the action were filed in order to not sacrifice the best interests of the Com- court, and Judge Lacombe approved of the bonds- pany, it was decided to place the road in Receivers' men, D. O. Mills and J. Lowber Welsh, who quali- hands and preserve the system intact, and preserve fied in $500,000 each as securities for the Receivers, and develop the transportation business of the Com- The announcement of the Receivership, although pany. The owners of its securities should not sacri- the probability of it had been long discounted, had fice their holdings because of this step. The names a disastrous effect in Wall Street, it being quickly of the Directorate of the Erie are a sufficient guar- followed by a sharp decline in all kinds of railroad anty of the honest and intelligent management of securities, although just why Erie's troubles should the interest committed to their hands." have caused so general a " slump " in the market is The formality necessary to conserve the legal to this day not exactly clear. It was, to be sure, a requirements of the proceeding was a complaint time of universal suspicion, and the bears of the entered by Trenor L. Park, in which he set forth Street used it to its full value and reaped their har- that he was a creditor of the Company to the extent vest. That there was no real cause for the alarm of $200,000 in bonds and other securities. Decern- that seized holders of railroad stocks was shown by ber 1, 1892, to meet a pressing necessity of the Com- the rapid recovery of the Street from the excitement pany, he had advanced, on a demand note, $34,000. of the 26th, the tumbling stocks rallying next day This the Company was unable to meet. The com- to almost the position they held when the news of plaint averred, furthermore, that the net earnings Erie's fourth failure reached the Street, of the Company were diverted from their proper During the succeeding five months the manage- channels, and a floating debt of over $5,000,000 had ment bent its efforts toward evolving a plan of re- been contracted for improvements, wages, traffic organization of the finances of the Company, the balances, and other expenses. Other creditors were result of which labor was submitted to the bond and pressing their claims against the Company, and there shareholders January 2, 1895. The circular through was danger of attachments and court proceedings which it was submitted stated that Drexel, Morgan that would prove to be detrimental to the holders of & Co., of New York, and J. S. Morgan & Co., of the mortgage bonds if these were not prevented. A London, had agreed to assist in carrying out the large part of the liabilities consisted of loans made plan, which involved the making of a mortgage to by banks, trust companies, and individuals, part of run for one hundred years, covering the property of which had been secured by the depositing of col- the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad lateral by the Company, but the depressed state of Company, the leasehold of the New York, Pennsyl- the stock market had greatly reduced the value of vania and Ohio Railroad Company, and the stock of that collateral. Many of the loans were entirely the Chicago and Erie Railroad Company, thus giving THE STORY OF ERIE 275 control of the entire line between New York and Chicago, and securing bonds limited to the amount of $70,000,000, bearing interest at 5 per cent, from December 1, 1893, principal and interest payable in gold. Of this mortgage, $33, 597,400 was to be used to acquire the second consolidated mortgage bonds of the reorganization of 1878, conditioned on each depositor of such bonds subscribing and paying in 90 per cent, and interest for additional bonds and interest, in the proportion of a $1,000 new bond for each $4,000 of second consolidated bonds deposited; $4,031,400 to acquire the funded coupon bonds of 1885, at par, on the same conditions of deposit; $508,008 to acquire the income bonds, at par, each depositor of such bonds to subscribe and pay 90 per cent, and interest for additional bonds of the new issue to the amount of income bonds deposited. Of the proposed new mortgage bonds, $9,915,208 were to be for subscription by depositors of second con- solidated mortgage bonds, funded coupon bonds, and income bonds, as above; $6,512,800 were to be reserved to acquire or provide for the first lien bonds and collateral trust bonds of the reorganization of 1878, on such basis as the new mortgage should pro- vide; $15,485,184 were to be specially set apart and used, under proper restrictions, only for construc- tion, equipment, the acquisition of new property and betterments, etc., to an extent not exceeding $1,000,000 in any one year, except that the bonds thus reserved might be further used in any year to the extent of $500,000 if necessary, in order to acquire existing Car Trust liens; the second consol- idated and funded coupon bonds of 1885 to be kept alive, when acquired, and deposited with the Trus- tee, who was to hold them as long as might be deemed necessary for the protection of the new bonds. The circular dwelt particularly on the peculiar terms and conditions of the second consolidated mortgage bonds, which had practically precluded the Company from securing the necessary funds for the expenditures that had confronted it for years in pro- viding for the development of the transportation facilities and the protection of the Company's prop- erty. " It is true," the circular stated, " that the conditions which have confronted the Company were contemplated in 187S, when the second consolidated mortgage was created, and, with this in mind, a pro- vision was inserted in it to the effect that no fore- closure rights should accrue to the bondholders unless the Company should default in the payment of six successive coupons. This peculiar provision has at all times deprived the second mortgage bonds of the market character they would be entitled to under ordinary circumstances, and if the legitimate requirements of the Company had been properly provided for. The necessity of procuring construc- tion funds by defaulting in interest obligations is, of course, discreditable to the Company and disas- trous to its second mortgage bondholders, and the possibility of its recurrence at any time is a constant menace to the latter; but so long as no other means are available, its recurrence is almost a matter of necessity." In such a situation it was the unanimous opinion of the Board that such change should be made as would obviate the perplexing difficulties, which they thought might be done by creating a new mortgage to run one hundred years, to acquire outstanding obligations as outlined above. This arrangement, it was claimed, would provide for the floating debt, then nearly $9,000,000, and for the outstanding Car Trust obligations, amounting to $6,000,000, and the fixed charges of the Company would not be in- creased. In a circular of even date, Drexel, Morgan & Co. and J. S. Morgan & Co. warmly endorsed the plan (which was but natural, as it had been drawn up from suggestions submitted by them), and urged its prompt acceptance by the holders of the securities affected by the proposed reorganization. Analyzed, this reorganization scheme meant that a cash contribution of $9,000,000 was asked, not from the stockholders, but from the second consol- idated mortgage bondholders, to whose rights those of the stockholders were subordinate. These bond- holders were to consent that the interest on their bonds should be reduced from 6 per cent, per annum to 5 per cent., and that their security should be weakened by increasing the total amount secured by their mortgage from $40,000,000 to $70,000,000, of which $70,000,000 they were to receive an amount !7 6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN" AND THE LAKES equal to that which they held of the $40,000,000 tie, and, besides, were to purchase 22^ per cent. more at 90 cents on the dollar in cash. The practi- cal result was to have been that the holder of §4,000 of the $40,000,000 bonds at 6 per cent, would have paid $900 in cash and become the owner of $5,000 in bonds of the 5 per cent. $70,000,000 issue, thus receiving as compensation for the $900 an increase of annual income from $240 to $250. This plan met with prompt opposition from promi- nent holders of Erie securities, or representatives of Erie bondholders. Such capitalists and representa- tives of capitalists as Kuhn, Loeb & Co. ; August Belmont & Co. ; Hallgarten & Co. ; Vermillye & Co.; the United States Trust Company; J. D. Probst & Co. ; Charles J. Peabody, Agent of the Astor Estate; and E. H. Harriman were among these. They suggested, and, in fact, insisted on, material modifications of the reorganization plan, so that it might be more equable and just to those who were to make sacrifices to carry it forward. Jan- uary 30, 1895, these objectors to the plan addressed President King in a letter on the subject. He re- plied, February 5th, saying that all the points the writers submitted had been fully considered in for- mulating the plan proposed by the Company, and that subsequent consideration had confirmed him in the opinion that the modifications asked for were not for the best interests of the Company. Soon afterward a " Protective Committee," con- sisting of E. 11. Harriman, Henry Burdge, of Hall- garten & Co., John J. Emery, and Sidney Webster, was appointed by the protesting bondholders to organize and press the opposition to Drexel, Morgan & Co.'s plan of reorganization, and endeavor to secure the desired modifications. The Committee retained Evarts, Choate & Beaman as their counsel. March 1st the Committee addressed a circular to the Company, in which the objections to the reorganiza- tion scheme were set forth as follows: '.—That by enlargement of the issue from which the bonds lo be exchanged for ours are to be taken it reduces our security by more than one-half. Second— That no pr. > alent is offered for the reduc- tion of interest on our bonds. Third.— That the n to purchase new bonds at more than their value (being in effect an assessment 011 the bondholder) is an unjust and hitherto unheard of imposition by a debtor upon a secured creditor. Fourth. — That if an assessment may be forcibly demanded and collected by a debtor of a second creditor for the preserva- tion of the debtor's property and to keep it in his control, this plan does not go far enough. The contribution demanded is not sufficient to put the company on a sound and interest- paying basis. Fifth. — It calls for no effort or sacrifice on the part of the debtor company to preserve its property and redeem it from insolvency. Sixth. — The scheme, if successful, would tend to establish a dangerous precedent which would be a discredit to American railroad finance, violating the plain obligations of the contract of security, and tend to increase distrust in all American rail- road securities. We also regard as objectionable, considering the relation of the parties, the language of the circular of the company and its bankers, containing an implied threat of punishment to those declining their proposition, and the scant consideration given to suggestions by the bondholders for a modification of the scheme. March 6, 1894, in a circular letter to the holders of the bonds to be affected by the proposed reorgan- ization, Drexel, Morgan & Co. gave notice that de- posits of outstanding bonds made after March 21, 1894, " if received," would be subject to such pen- alties as they might see fit to thereafter fix. The same day, at a meeting of the stockholders, at which 630,000 shares were voted upon (623,000 being voted by President King), the reorganization scheme was ratified. March 14, 1894, Evarts, Choate & Beaman gave their clients a long and exhaustive opinion on the question of the impairment of bondholders' legal rights by the Drexel, Morgan & Co. scheme, hold- ing that the plan was fatally defective in that respect, and could not hold in law. The Protective Com- mittee, on the strength of this opinion, appealed to the bondholders not to deposit their bonds with Drexel, Morgan & Co., under the fear that failure to do so would destroy the life of their securities, but to delay such deposit in the interest of a modified plan. But in spite of these efforts of the opposition to show bondholders how onerous the terms of the Erie reorganization plan were to them, by far the larger part of them accepted it and agreed to pay in the $9,000,000 it demanded from them. The entire issue of bonds for the new $70,000,000 mortgage was printed, and deposited with the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company as Trustee, March 16, 1894. The mortgage was formally re- THE STORY OF ERIE 277 corded April 18th, but May 30th Drexel, Morgan & Co. announced that owing to opposition to the plan of reorganization the new bonds would not issue until certain legal questions were settled. June 19, 1894, John J. Emery, for himself and other bond- holders, through James C. Carter, Charles C. Bea- man, and Charles B. Atterbury as counsel, sought an injunction from Judge Ingraham in the Supreme Court, Chambers, to restrain the issue of the bonds, which motion was denied. But an obstacle more difficult to overcome than injunctions or tedious law-suits had intervened to discredit the reorganization plan, bring about its eventual abandonment for another, and spare the second consolidated mortgage bondholders the sac- rifice demanded from them. The interest on the bonds in default being only $2,4010,000 a year, and that on the proposed new issue being $3,500,000, it was inevitable, unless the business of the road greatly improved, that a default on the new bonds should speedily take place. Such default was actually made on the first coupon of the issue. It has never been figured out yet how it was expected that a road that could not earn enough to pay an obligation of $2,400,000 could start in, under even more depress- ing circumstances, and earn enough to pay a debt more than a million dollars greater than that amount. Recognizing the danger that beset their plan through this default on the very threshold of its existence, Drexel, Morgan & Co. issued a circular, December 10, 1894, in which they announced that unless depositors of bonds, according to the require- ments of the reorganization plan, would consent to waive payment of the June and December coupons until the earnings of the road after December 1, 1894, were sufficient to pay them, the plan would have to be abandoned. No call had been made for subscriptions, and $32,000,000 out of $38,000,000 of the second consolidated mortgage bondholders had deposited their bonds as requested. A majority of the bondholders had acceded even to the making of this additional sacrifice by April, 1895, but yet the stability of things did not seem to be of a character calculated to assure the future of either the reorgan- ization plan or the welfare of the Company under it, so a new plan was subjected to the processes of evo- lution. It was fashioned into form August 26, 1895. This reorganization scheme proposed to consolidate, in the ownership of a single new corporation, there- after to be created, the properties belonging to the New York, Lake Erie and Western, the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the Chicago and Erie Railroad Companies, and forming a continuous line of railroad from New York to Chicago, with numer- ous branches. Upon this consolidated line and its branches the new corporation was to place a mort- gage for $175,000,000, bearing interest at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum, of which $35,000,000 was to be prior in lien to the remaining $140,000,000, called general lien bonds. The corporation was to have common stock to the amount of $100,000,000, first preferred stock to the amount of $30,000,000, and second preferred stock to the amount of $16,000,000. The common stock, the preferred stock, the $35,000,- OOO prior lien bonds, and $30,000,000 of the $140,- 000,000 general lien bonds were to be issued at once, leaving $110,000,000 of the general lien bonds to take up unmatured existing mortgage bonds and to provide for improvements. To supply the ready money needed to carry out the scheme, the Erie stockholders were called upon to contribute $12 per share on the common stock and $8 per share on the preferred, making in all $10,000,000, besides which $15,000,000 of the prior lien bonds were to be sold to a syndicate at 95, yielding $14,250,000 more. According to the figures given by the Company in the promotion of this plan, the annual fixed charges of the new company for the rentals and the interest left undisturbed by the proposed reorganization were these: Interest on Bonds of the Erie System Proper $2,112,727 Rental on Leases of that System 1.609. iKS Interest and Rentals of the New York, Pennsyl- vania, and Ohio System 1.261,019 Interest and Rentals of the Chicago and Erie Rail- road Company 615,000 Total $5,687,934 Adding to this the interest at 4 per cent, on the proposed issue of $35,000,000 prior lien bonds, amounting to $1,400,000, and of 3 per cent, on $29,433,000 general lien bonds, amounting to -7 s BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES $882,990, made a total of $7,970,924. For the year the net earnings of the separate properties of which 1894 the new consolidated system was to be com- posed were but §7,400,000, which left a deficiency of $570,924 to be made up out of increased net earn- ings in the future. l:i the circular submitting this plan it was an- nounced that the net earnings of the properties were for several years prior to 1893-94 sufficient, on an average, to pay not only the proposed fixed charges, but also to leave a surplus of $1,500,000 for the stockholders. The Company candidly admitted, however, that nearly the whole of this $1,500,000 was derived from trackage paid by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which income ceased in 1892. The estimate of fixed charges under the new plan being $7,850,000 per annum, to pay this the net earnings would have not only to equal those of 1893-94, but exceed them by $450,000. This plan was entered into subsequent to the de- cree of foreclosure sale of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad property, which decree issued from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, August 21, 1895. Under the plan, upward of 750,000 shares of the common and 82,000 of the preferred stock were deposited with the Reorganization Committee, Charles H. Coster, Louis Fitzgerald, and Anthony J. Thomas, who also held upward of $32,700,000 of the second consolidated bonds of 1878, upward of $3,700,000 of the funded coupon 5 per cent, bonds of 1885, and upward of $475,000 of the income bonds. The actual assessment on the stock to be deposited was $18 a share on the common and $12 on the preferred, a deduction of $6 per share on the former and $4 on the latter being allowed if shares were deposited on or before September 20, 1895, and the assessments paid in four equal installments on September 20, October 21, November 21, and December 23, 1895. The new plan was received with general favor. In the first place, warned by the failure of the plan of January, [894, wherein new bonds were rated at higher figures than their intrinsic merits justified, the committee had made a more thorough examina- tion into all the affairs— great and small— of the Erie, and arranged their plan accordingly. Then, in order to justify the severity with which the junior bonds and shares of the old system were to be treated, the Committee found itself obliged to make a confession which, no doubt, it was loath to put in print — that the alleged surpluses shown in the annual reports for the five years previous to 1894 were at least twice as large as the actual earning capacity of the Company. This was the second time the truth had been bluntly told about Erie, the first being the memor- able uncovering of the Company's true condition by President Jewett in the spring of 1875. That feature of the Erie plan which contemplated one organization to control all the lines and proper- ties was heartily commended. Any one who had followed the train of vicissitudes that had attended the Erie's efforts to compete with rival lines by de- pendence on the uncertain tenure of traffic arrange- ments with alien lines, and the fleeting advantages of leases of connecting lines, or control of them by dickering for their stock, could see at once that such a consummation as this could not fail to add greatly to the efficiency of the system as a whole. The new plan also provided several millions of new capital for pressing improvements, a thing from whose lack the Erie had suffered from its earliest days. The road was sold under foreclosure November 6, 1895, for $20,000,000. Francis Lynde Stetson, rep- resenting the purchasers, Charles H. Coster, Louis Fitzgerald, and Anthony J. Thomas; and David McClure, representing the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, appeared before Judge Lacombe, in the United States Circuit Court, November 9th, and asked for a confirmation of the sale. William Wal- lace MacFarland, representing the New York, Penn- sylvania and Ohio Railroad Company, interposed a formal objection on the ground that he did not think the court had jurisdiction to foreclose the mortgage. November nth Judge Lacombe dismissed the objec- tion, and confirmed the sale. The New York, Lake Erie and "Western Railroad Company, which had been comprehensive only in name, ceased to be, and the Erie Railroad Company, its great scope being in no sense represented by its title, succeeded to the demesne, rights, titles, and franchises of the old Com- pany, and to rights, titles, and franchises in efforts THE STORY OF ERIE 279 to secure which various of the new Company's pre- decessors had called up many troubles to sorely plague them. The plan of readjusting and reorganizing the Com- pany was in the hands of Charles H. Coster, Louis Fitzgerald, and Anthony J. Thomas. They had wide discretionary powers. The certificate of incor- poration of the Erie Railroad Company was filed in the office of Secretary of State John Palmer, at Albany, N. Y., November 14, 1895. The incor- porators or temporary directors named were Temple Bowdoin, Charles H. Coster, J. H. Emanuel, Jr., A. H. Gilland, A. B. Hopper, Thomas W. Joyce, W'alterS. Kermeys, J. P. Morgan, Jr., Francis Lynde Stetson, Mortimer F. Smith, W. T. Townsend, J. H. Tierney, and E. B. Thomas. The capital stock of the Company, as fixed by the plan of reor- ganization, was $146,000,000, divided into 300,000 shares of non-cumulative 4 per cent, first preferred stock; 16,000 shares of non-cumulative 4 percent, second preferred stock; and 1,000,000 shares of com- mon stock, each class being of a par value of $100 per share. The first preferred stock had the prior call for dividends (non-cumulative) at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum, beginning with June 30, 1896, out of the undivided net profits of the Com- pany, whenever, in the opinion of the Board of Directors, a dividend might be declared. The sec- ond preferred stock was entitled to no dividend, except when there should remain a surplus undi- vided net profit after a dividend on the first pre- ferred stock had been paid. Dividends on the com- mon stock were payable out of the surplus only that might remain after both the preferred stocks had been paid full dividends from the profits of any fiscal year. Under the plan of reorganization a mortgage or trust deed was given to secure two series of bonds, known respectively as prior lien bonds and general lien bonds. The authorized issue of the former series was §35,000,000, bearing interest at 4 per cent., and of the latter issue $140,000,000, with in- terest at 3 per cent, until July 1, 1896, and 4 per cent, thereafter, interest and principal of both series to be paid in gold, the life of the mortgage being one hundred years, or until January, 1996. The prior lien bonds, as their name indicates, had priority over the general lien bonds in regard to payment of principal and interest, and the rights of their holders could not be affected by foreclosure of the lien of the general lien bonds. Out of the $35,000,000 of prior lien bonds, $15,000,000 were issued at once, and the proceeds, together with the cash received from assessments of stock, used for reorganization purposes and for taking up outstanding obligations of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, as follows : Reorganization First Lien Bonds, issued under the Mortgage of October 5, 1878 (Principal) $2,500,000 Collateral Trust Bonds, secured by Trust Deed of November 1, 1882 (Principal) 3.344.000 Equipment Trust Obligations to mature within three years, estimated at (Principal) 2,000,000 Any Floating Indebtedness of that Company or the Chicago and Erie Railroad Company, or any Company in its System, and any Certificates and other Indebtedness of the Receivers of the New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railroad Com- pany, estimated at 11.500.000 The balance of the issue of prior lien bonds was reserved for use as follows: $14,400,000 for the pur- chase of the railroad and property of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company, subject to a mortgage of $8,000,000; $5,000,000 for the enlargement and improvement of terminal facilities at Jersey City, Buffalo, and elsewhere; reducing grades; constructing double track, and purchasing additional equipment. The cost of the Nypano (which has come to be the official designation of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad) involved an annual fixed charge of $1,741,386, which, in the light of the average net earnings of that road since 1885 ($1,811,758), was not an unwise responsibility to assume. From the total of the general lien bonds, $30,927,- 000 were issued at once for reorganization purposes. Of the remainder, $79,918,000 were reserved to take up at or before maturity outstanding bonds of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Com- pany, the Chicago and Erie Railroad Company, and the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company, and of other lines, lands, and properties in which the Company was interested, as lessee or 28o BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES stockholder; $8,636,000 to acquire the stock of com- panies subsidiary to the Erie system; §4,092,000 to take up equipment bonds and trust certificates, notes, or obligations; 817.000,000 for new construc- tion, betterments, equipment, and acquisition of new property along lines leased or controlled by the Company, or in which it was interested as a holder of a majority of stock, not over $1,000,000 of the reserved bonds to be thus used in any one year after January I, 1898. This new mortgage specifically provides that all outstanding divisional liens (except the New York and Erie first mortgage bonds of 1845, which might be extended at maturity, and which were extended, May 1, 1897, for forty years), must be paid at maturity and cancelled, or acquired and pledged, or cancelled and renewal bonds pledged, under the mortgage, thus in time making the prior lien bonds an absolute first mortgage, either by direct lien or through collateral trust, on the entire consolidated properties, except on the Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad, on which there is a lien not intended to be retired by the general lien bonds, and on which those bonds will be a mortgage subject to the prior lien bonds. The mortgage (or more prop- erly, the mortgage deed) is substantially a first lien, either by mortgage or by collateral trust, upon the Company's principal coal properties, upon its water transportation lines (including valuable terminal prop- erties appurtenant thereto), and upon its valuable local railroads in New Jersey and near Buffalo; a second lien (subject only to some of the divisional mortgages) upon the remaining coal properties; upon the terminals at Jersey City; upon the Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad; upon the Buffalo terminal properties, other than those upon which it is a first lien; and upon the entire line from Salamanca, N. Y., to Chicago; and a second consolidated mort- gage upon the lines of the original New York and Erie Railroad Company, between Piermont and Dun- kirk. The denomination of the bonds issued under this mortgage is $1,000 each. The Company is obligated to the payment of all taxes, present or future, on the bonds. Following is a list of bonds and stocks pledged under the mortgage: Bonds. Title. Date. Int. Rate %. Principal Payable. Total Issue. Amount Pledged. Buffalo, Bradford ,\: Pittsburg RR. 1865 7 Jan. 1896 $580,000 $185,000 Chic. & Erie RR. Income bonds. 1890 5 Oct. 1982 10,000,000 9,776,000 Middletown & Crawford RR . . 1871 4', Apr. 1 92 1 66,000 57,200 Newark & Hud- son RR 1871 7 Sept. 1901 250,000 250,000 N. Y. L. E. & W. Dock Improve- ment Co 1883 6 |uly 1913 4,000,000 604,000 N. Y. L. E. & \V. Coal & RR. Co. IS82 6 May 1922 3,000,000 1,900,000 Paterson, Newark & N. Y. RR. Co. 1868 7 Jan. 1878 500,000 499,000 Suspension Bridge & Erie Junction RR 1870 7 July 1900 I ,000,000 35,000 Total $13,306,200 Stock. Name of Company. Total Capital. Amount Pledged. Basis of Ex. % of Par. Arnot & Pine Creek RR $255,000 200,000 40,000 I.OOO.OOO 2,286.400 250,000 950 OOO lOO.OOO 3,000,000 19,100 90,200 96,190 1,000,000 2,095,450 800,000 122,200 I 50,000 250,000 145.750 604,400 500,000 250,000 100,000 405,800 433.350 500,000 189,700 391,200 1,000,000 I 50,000 $255,000 200,000 40,000 1 ,000,000 2,189,000 125,000 823,000 IOO.OOO Buffalo.Bradford & Pittsb'g Buffalo Creek RR RR. IO Buffalo, N. Y. & Erie RR Chicago & Erie RR 150 Cleveland & Mahoning Vy. RR. 225 18,750 6l,000 1 ,000,000 2,095,450 8o0,000 So.OOO 250,000 Goshen & Deckertown RR .... Hillside Coal & Iron Co 70 Jefferson RR IOO Middletown & Crawford RR.. . 20 70 Newark & Hudson RR Newcastle & Shenango Vy. RR. N. Y., L. E. & W. Docks & Im- IO 604,400 500,000 250,000 100,000 Northwestern Mining & Ex- Paterson, Newark & N. Y. Pavonia Ferry Co RR. Rochester & Genesee Valley RR. IOO 125 IOO Suspension Bridge & Erie J tion RR unc- 499,200 189,700 390,900 1,000,000 I 50,000 Tioga RR., preferred Tioga RR., common 20 Union Steamboat Co Union Dry Dock Co Total $17,294,340 $12,722,700 All of the companies named above whose stocks are not pledged as collateral under this mortgage, are secured to the Erie by long leases. THE STORY OF ERIE 281 All classes of stock in the new corporation are vested in Voting Trustees, who are to hold it, under a trust agreement with the Committee, for five years, and for such further period as may elapse before a 4 per cent, cash dividend is paid on the first pre- ferred stock, the trust to be terminated, however, at the discretion of the Trustees, they to issue stock trust certificates entitling registered holders to re- ceive stock certificates for the number of shares stated in the trust certificates, and payments to the amount of dividends collected by the Voting Trus- tees upon those shares, which are, with all voting powers and other interest, to remain vested in the Voting Trustees until the shares shall become deliv- erable according to the provisions of the stock trust certificates. Registered owners of prior lien or gen- eral lien bonds without coupons, or registered coupon bonds, or persons in whose names coupon bonds stood registered within one year prior to the date of a meeting, have the right to vote after the termina- tion of the Voting Trust, one bond of $1,000 entitling the holder to the same vote as ten shares of stock. The Voting Trustees named under the plan were J. Pierpont Morgan, Louis Fitzgerald, and Sir Charles Tennant, Bart., and they are still in office (1898). None of the $5,000,000 prior lien nor of the $17,000,000 general lien bonds reserved for construc- tion requirements was used. Of the fund received from the Reorganization Committee for early con- struction requirements and improvements, amount- ing to $4,343,850.13, to which was added the pro- ceeds of $383,000 of New York and Greenwood Lake prior lien 5 per cent, bonds received from the Com- mittee ($363,850), making total cash received $4,707,- 700.13, there was expended for construction and equipment and old Car Trusts $3,467,036.39, leaving still available $1,210,663.74 ' n cash. The Reorganization Committee submitted their final account to the Board early in 1896, which, after examination, was approved and accepted. The bal- ance turned over to the Company by the Commit- tee far exceeded the expectation of the Board, and amounted to $8,469,163.35, consisting as fol- lows: Cash $4,343,850 13 Securities for Construction Purposes 2,750.655 22 Securities for General Use 55,732 00 Securities held in Trust to be Pledged under the First Consolidated Mortgage Deed 1,318,926 00 Total $8,469,163 35 CHAPTER XXI. ADMINISTRATION OF EBEN B. THOMAS— 1895 TO 1899. lation — End of the Atlantic and Great Western-New York, Penn- '""J ii' Betterment of t Purpose, Proving Its Wisdom — For the first Time in Its the Fathers — To What the Forty-six Miles of Railroad Grown, II. Bui A1 v. i : What the Kehabilii after All Its Years of Tribulation —$300.- • d by Its Stocks and bonds — And Erie became bankrupt Once Because It Could Not I'a\ (4 Owed for Interest. I . 'I 111 new Erie Railroad Company took possession of its property and assumed its operation Decem- ber 1, 1895, with the followii i/.ation: Officr-. I.. B. Thomas, President; W, F. Mer- rill, lent; A. Doi . Third lit; '•■ G. Cochran, Fourth Vice-Presi- Middleton, Secretary; Edward White, I •■ r< ' , J. T. Warm, Auditor. I>ir ars a to th€ future of Erie. I the author, in his search throi the of that time foi tomt i icpn ision of oi I rii on th< subject, fou of the m ' interviewer in lii y of the ' lompany, nulating was not forth- ithouf 1 it in the lat< ' 1 i tory of Erie. H Pn iidi nt 'I homas felt that he ty task, and one who • 1 ■ b idi him I for prayi i ful ■■ he I.- pi the knowledge to himself and went i" wor] He 1 bly at work thr< i years. Chronicles of the affairs of Erie have filled scarcely a column's space in any newspaper in all that time. In court corridors and chambers, where erstwhile in the one it had become a byword and in the other a monopolizer of the dockets, the name of Erie has gradually grown less and less famil- iar, until now it is but a memory. Legislative halls have not rung with indignant eloquence provoked by Erie's alleged transgressions, nor conscienceless lobbyists swarmed, like unclean birds of prey, to share, as of old, loot from Erie's helpless treasury. The long-fostered policy of temporizing with disaster was cast aside three years ago. The knife was thrust in to the root of the evil that held Erie prone under its spell. Behold the result. The work of consolidation was pushed steadily and so rapid]}- that at the submitting of the Compan first annual report, September 15, [896, which report included only the first seven months of possession, from January 1 to June 30, 1896, the management able to state that the following subsidiary lines had been merged into, or otherwise practically con- solidated with, the Erie Railroad: " The Buffalo and Southwestern. — The unsatisfac- tory lease to the old Company of this line (based on of its gross earnings) was assumed by the new Company, the entire capital stock of the Buffalo and Southwestern Company having been viously purchased by the Reorganization Com- mittee, and that company was duly merged into the Erie Company November 19, 1895. In exchange ^ e^c-^>£~&*-Q /; -> THE STORY OF ERIE 283 for the capital stock of the Southwestern Company, the Erie issued 1,200 fully-paid shares of its com- mon stock and bonds to the amount of $1, 000,000, secured by a second mortgage on the Southwestern Road, bearing 5 per cent, per annum interest. The road was thus obtained at an annual charge of $50,- 000, and interest on its first mortgage of $1,500,000 at 6 per cent., or a fixed total annual charge of $140,000, which will in due course be still further reduced by taking up the latter mortgage with the Erie's 4 per cent, general lien bonds." The New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. — The long-conflicting, costly, and harassing relations of the Erie with this railroad were at last set at rest forever by an agreement whereby the Erie should operate the road at a fixed annual rental until it could be sold under foreclosure proceedings and reorganized into the Erie system. " After due pro- ceedings in the courts, the property was sold at pub- lic auction February 25, 1896, and purchased by a committee in behalf of the Erie. Corporations called The Nypano Railroad Company were incorporated under the general law of the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and consolidated into one, under the same title, to which was deeded the property of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Com- pany, purchased at the sale. The Nypano Company took the property, subject to $8,000,000 prior lien bonds, bearing 4^ per cent, interest, the rentals of the old New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company's leased lines, and the outstanding Car Trusts. It issued common capital stock to the amount of $20,000,000, and a mortgage to the amount of $20,000,000, bearing 4 per cent, interest per annum. This entire capital stock, and all the bonds issued under the latter mortgage, are owned by the Erie, and are deposited with the Trustee under the first consolidated mortgage, as additional security. The Erie, therefore, became the owners of the Nypano Railroad Company, and secured a line from Salamanca, N. Y., to Dayton, O., with branches to Youngstown and Cleveland, and in pay- ment therefor issued $14,400,000 of its new prior lien 4 per cent, bonds, $7,960,000 of its first pre- ferred stock, and $16,986,000 of its common stock, .receiving in the adjustment $742,320 in cash. Proper reservation of Erie's securities was made to retire the liens on the Nypano property as they mature." Thus passed out of existence a corporate body which from its birth, more than thirty years before, had been a curse to its projectors, had brought ruin to successive owners, and had been the means of heaping upon the Erie a large portion of that moun- tain of ills under which the Company had staggered so helplessly through a quarter of a century of its career. It was but retributive justice that the Erie should absorb the source of all that evil, and turn it toward its own good at last. Lockport and Buffalo Raihvay. — The Company accepted an assignment of the lease of this road from the Suspension Bridge and Erie Junction Rail- road Company, acquired the ownership of its entire capital stock, and, November 25, 1895, merged it into the Erie Company. The road runs from Lock- port, N. Y., to Tonawanda, N. Y., a distance of 15^ miles, and is a valuable feeder to the Com- pany's main line. It was subject to a mortgage of $140,000, bearing 7 per cent, interest, which lien was satisfied on maturity, October 1, 1897. Erie International Railway. — The Erie took a lease of this railroad, and subsequently, becoming the owner of its entire capital stock, merged the Inter- national Company into the Erie Railroad Company November 27, 1895. The Erie International Rail- way Company had no funded debt. The railroad is four miles long, and gives the Erie access to the International Niagara Bridge at Buffalo. Suspension Bridge and Erie Junction Railroad. — This railroad forms the Erie's Niagara Falls line, running from East Buffalo, N. Y. , to Suspension Bridge, N. Y., a distance of 24 miles, and gives the Erie connection with the Canadian lines. The Erie leased the railroad, acquired the entire capital stock of the company, and merged it into the Erie Rail- road Company April 3, 1896. This railroad is sub- ject to a mortgage of $1,000,000, of which amount $965,000 is held by the public, the balance by the Erie. Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad. — This road extends from Painted Post, N. Y., to Buffalo, N. Y., a distance of 14°/^ miles, and gives the Erie the greater part of its Rochester line and secures its 284 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Buffalo terminal. The advisability of acquiring a more absolute title to this property than a leasehold was apparent. The Erie purchased the entire cap- ital stock of this Company, and merged it into the Erie Company April 3, 1896. It has a funded debt of $2,380,000, bearing 7 per cent, interest, and matur- ing June 1, 1916. The Union Steamboat and Union Dry Dock Com- panies. — The Union Steamboat Company owning the entire capital stock of the Union Dry Dock Com- pany at Buffalo, the latter was merged into the former June 11, 1896; and, the entire capital stock of the Union Steamboat Company being owned by the Erie, that corporation was merged into the Erie Railroad Company June 30, 1896, thus doing away with the maintenance of two separate corporations and bringing the management of the Lake Line and Dry Dock into the parent Company. The Erie also purchased all the stock of the Tioga Railroad Company, excepting six shares, the owners of which could not be found ; all the capital stock of the Arnot and Pine Creek Railroad Company, and about two-thirds of the capital stock of the Elmira State Line Railroad Company. These three roads had formed parts of the Erie system through leases or ownership of stock. By this consolidation the Erie became the absolute owner of those properties, which command sole entry, from the East, to the valuable semi-bituminous coal fields and the great farming and lumber regions of Tioga County, Pa. Avon, Gcneseo and Mount Morris Railroad. — This railroad, from Avon, N. Y., to Mount Morris, N. Y., a distance of nearly 18 miles, had long served as a feeder to the Erie, and was held under a lease at an annual rental of $13,600, being 6 per cent, upon its capital stock. As the road was being operated at a loss, the new Erie Company decided not to assume the lease unless a material reduction in the rental could be secured, which was accomplished, a new arrangement being effected as follows: Two and a half per cent, upon the capital stock for four years, 3 per cent, for the fifth year, and 3^ per cent, there- after. The Erie's suburban lines, running almost exclu- sively within the State of New Jersey, had enjoyed so steady a growth that they at times severely taxed the facilities of the Erie at the Jersey City terminal. The New York and Greenwood Lake and the New Jersey and New York Railroads, using that terminal as tenants, and the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, operated upon a percentage basis, had paid practi- cally nothing for the valuable terminal facilities they enjoyed. As a remedy for this unequal condition of affairs, the Company declined to assume the North- ern Railroad of New Jersey contract on the reorgan- ization, and notified that company, and the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway and the New Jersey and New York Railroad companies, that they would be required to bear their equitable proportion of the cost of operating the Jersey City terminal. The result has been that all of these roads have passed virtually within the control of the Erie, the Northern Railroad and the New Jersey and New York Railroad by purchase, and the New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad by lease. April 28, 1897, an important contract was con- cluded between the Company and the authorities of Jersey City, by which all Erie grade crossings in that city, between the Hudson River and Bergen Tunnel, a distance of \ l /± miles, are to be eliminated by the elevation of the tracks of the Company and depres- sion of certain streets. The contract also provides for the construction of two or more additional tracks over or through Bergen Hill, above and adjacent to the present two tracks in the tunnel, also lying within the boundaries of Jersey City. Under the contract the Company began the work November 1, 1897. The work is to be completed, as far as the streets east of the tunnel are concerned, on or before Jan- uary 1, 1900. A company, called the Penhorn Creek Railroad Company, was organized to execute that part of the agreement relating to the work to be done between the east end of the tunnel and Pen- horn Creek, which latter is the western boundary of Jersey City. This great work of elevating the tracks of the Erie is progressing. Work now in progress (1898), looking toward the still further improvement of the line, embraces the laying of third and fourth tracks; eliminating grade crossings at Buffalo; elevating the tracks at Jersey City; erecting new stations and other buildings; lay- ing of 90-pound steel rails, and the further improving THE STORY OF ERIE 285 of the terminal facilities at Cleveland, the work already completed there having reduced the cost of handling coal and ore from 67 cents per car to 52 cents per car, besides greatly facilitating the loading and unloading of freight. The cost to the Erie of the Buffalo improvements alone will be §750,000. In line with its policy of consolidation, the Com- pany, in February, 1898, decided that it would be advisable to go beyond fields that were direct and natural feeders of the Erie main line, and add to the Erie system a property that, owing to the situation of the Company's interests in the anthracite coal regions, and to the importance of certain items of local traffic, notably that of milk, might well be regarded as a property so closely allied to the Erie that a consolidation of its interests with those of that Company would be not only good business policy for the present, but a guarantee of supremacy in a field certain to be sought by competitors at no far distant day. Accordingly, February, 1898, that property was secured to the Erie by the purchase of a large majority of its stock. This property was the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and its leased and controlled lines, including the Wilkes- Barre and Eastern Railroad. This railroad system extends from Jersey City to Middletown, N. Y., to Stroudsburg, Pa., thence to Wilkes-Barre, Pa. To purchase this property the Erie's capital stock was increased §26,000,000 by an authorized issue of 130,000 shares each of the first preferred and the common stock. It was also deemed wise by the Board to strengthen the traffic relations of the Company with the Phila- delphia and Reading System, and a trackage contract was made with the Fall Brook Railroad Company which gives the Erie the use of that road for freight traffic between Corning. X. Y., and Williamsport, Pa., connecting at the latter point with the Phila- delphia and Reading Road, and giving it a through line, under its own control, to and from the West to the Reading territory. This arrangement went into force early in 1897. Gross Revenue from Operation $17,017,376 59 Operating Expenses and Taxes 12.877.423 87 Net Income from Operation $4,139,952 72 Income from Securities Owned 55-546 26 Total Income $4,195,49898 Interest and Rentals Paid 4.043.789 55 Balance — Credit to Profit and Loss $151,709 43 The second annual report (1897) stated the income account for that year as follows : Gross Revenue from Operation $31,497,030 92 Operating Expenses and Taxes 23.332,242 58 Net Income from Operation $8,164,788 34 Income from Securities Owned, etc 3l3oi3 3° Total Income $8,478,301 64 Interest and Rentals 8,126,282 77 Balance — Credit to Profit and Loss $352,018 87 The report for 1898 is an exhibit still better: Gross Revenue from Operations $33,740,860 16 Operating Expenses and Taxes 25.438,037 95 Net Income from Operations $8,302,822 21 Income from Securities Owned, etc 4 ! 3-367 59 Total Income $8,716,189 80 Interest and Rentals 8.082.273 04 Leaving a Balance — Credit to Profit and Loss— of $633,916 76 The Company is, therefore, apparently earning its fixed charges with ease, and enough more to leave a handsome surplus. Moreover, the hideous spectre — the floating debt — that haunted for so many years successive managements of Erie, and not only would not down, but steadily grew in hideousness, has been exorcised of its spell at last, and has taken its dis- quieting presence elsewhere. The floating debt has disappeared. At least the last Erie report declared: "The Company has no floating debt." For the first time in its history the Erie is paying as it goes. Out of its own pocket ? Time will tell. The report of Erie Railroad Company's income As the result of the reorganization and consolida- account for the fiscal year of 1896 made this show- tion under it, this is the stupendous development of ing: the Greater Erie: 286 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES MILES OF ROAD OPERATED, JUNE 30, 1898. Owned by Ekii; Railroad Company or Controlled by Ownership of Entire Stock. Long Dock Company's Railroad — Passen- ger Station, Jersey City, N. J., to Bridge Creek, Jersey City. \. J Newark and Hudson Railroad — Bergen Junction, X. J., to Newark, X. J Paterson, Newark, and New York Rail- road — Newark, N. J., to Paterson, X. J. Bergen County Railroad — Rutherford Junction. X. J., to Ridgewood Junction, X. J Arlington Railroad — Newark Junction, X. J., to New York and Greenwood Lake Junction. X T . J Bergen and Dundee Railroad — Garfield, N. J., to Passaic. X. J Piermont, X. Y.. to Dunkirk, N. Y Ea 1 I'ortal Bergen Tunnel, Jersey City, N. J., to Junction with New Jersey Junction Railroad Company's Tracks.. Arden Junction, X. Y., to Yail's Gate Junction, N. Y Greycourt, X. Y.. to Newburgh, X. Y. .. . 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. 2.56l 5-620 II.326 9.821 I. I6O 2.450 446.636 • 433 12.642 18.731 Jefferson Railroad : lloiiesdale Branch. West Hawley. Pa., to Honesdale, Pa 8.180 Jefferson Branch, Lanesboro, Pa., to Carbondale, Pa 36.510 Moosic Mountain and Carbondale Rail- road — Winton, Pa., to Marshwood, Pa. Hornellsville, X. Y, to Buffalo. N. Y. .. . East Buffalo, N. Y., to Suspension Bridge, N. Y International Junction, X. Y.. to Inter- national Bridge, N. Y Erie and Black Rock Railroad — Black Rock Junction. X. Y.. to Black Rock, X. Y Tonawanda, X. Y., to Lockport, X. Y.. .. Painted Post, X. Y, to Attica. N. Y. (via Avon) 109.012 Conesus Lake Railroad — Conesus Lake Junction, X. Y., to Lakeville. X. Y Buffalo Creek Railroad Junction, Buffalo, N. Y., to Jamestown, X. Y Erie Breaker, Pa., to Edgerton Breaker, Pa ' 4.210 92.161 24.010 4.500 1. 140 15.120 1. 610 66.360 '.500 New York, Lake Erie and Western Coal and Railroad Company's Railroad : Main Line. Crawford Junction, Pa., to Johnsonburg, Pa Alton Loop, Alton, Pa., to Riderville Junction, Pa Toby Branch. Brockwayville, Pa., to Dagus Mines, Pa Mead Run Branch, Brockport, Pa., to Shawmut, Pa 29.920 1. 126 2.100 2.561 4-51/ 0.606 9.821 305.900 ■433 6.330 3-IS0 35-190 92.161 5-340 4.500 21.310 Daguscahonda and Elk Branch, Daguscahonda, Pa., to Dagus Mines, Pa 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. 5-500 Nypano : Salamanca, N. Y., to Dayton, 388.040 Buchanan Junction, Pa., to Oil City, Pa 33.780 Silver Creek Junction, O., to Coal Mines, O., including both North and South Branches 7.77° Chicago and Erie Railroad — Marion Junc- tion, O., to Indiana and Illinois State Line, near Hammond, Ind 249.570 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. Total 1,606.499 491.819 Controlled by Ownership of Over a Majority of Stock. New York and Greenwood Lake Rail- way : Main Line. New York and Greenwood Lake Junction. N. J., to Sterling Forest, N. J YYatchung Railway. Forest Hill, N. J., to Main Street, Orange, N. J Caldwell Railway, Caldwell Junction, N. J., to Caldwell, N. J Roseland Railway, Caldwell, N. J., to Essex Falls, N. J Ringwood Branch, Ringwood Junc- tion, X. J., to Ringwood, N. J Neiv Jersey and New York Railroad: Main Line, New Jersey and New York Junction, N. J., to Nanuet Junction Main Line. Spring Valley, N. Y., to Haverstraw, N. Y Stony Point Branch, Stony Point Junction, N. Y., to Stony Point, . N. Y New City Branch, New City Junction, X. Y., to New City, N. Y Middletown and Crawford Railroad — Crawford Junction, N. Y., to Pine Bush, N. Y Elmira State Line Railroad — State Line Junction, N. Y-, to Pennsylvania State Line Tioga Railroad: Pennsylvania State Line to Hoytville, Pa Tioga Junction, Pa., to Lawrenceville, Pa. (State Line) Morris Run Branch, Blossburg to Morris, Pa 39.261 4- 163 4.500 •947 2.789 20.634 10.905 1.042 4-293 11.950 11.050 6.509 51.091 3-500 3560 THE STORY OF ERIE 287 Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburgh Rail- road : 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. Main Line. Carrollton, N. Y., to Gilesville, Pa 26.170 West Branch, Bradford, Pa., to Ter- minus 5240 Total 194.824 23.000 Trackage Rights. 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. N. J., to Suf- fern, N. Y. Leased. Paterson and Hudson] River Railroad, Brid S e Creek Paterson and Ramapo - Railroad, Union Railroad, Montgomery and Erie Railroad — Goshen, N. Y., to Montgomery, N. Y Goshen and Deckertown Railroad — Goshen, N. Y., to Pine Island. N. Y... Pennsylvania Coal Company's Railroad — Hawley Branch, Lacka waxen, Pa., to West Hawley, Pa Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad — Avon, N. Y., to Rochester, N. Y Avon, Geneseo, and Mount Morris Rail- road — Avon. N. Y.. to Mount Morris, N. Y Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railway — Cleveland. O., to Pennsylvania State Line, including line from Youngstown, O., to Hazleton, O Niles and New Lisbon Railroad — Xiles. O., to three miles south of New Lis- bon. O Liberty and Vienna Railroad — Mosier, O., to Coal Mines below Vienna, O Westerman Railroad — Centre of Mill St., Sharon, Pa., to Pennsylvania State Line Sharon Railway — Centre of Mill Street, Sharon. Pa., to Pymatuning, Pa., in- cluding Middlesex Branch from Fer- rona, Pa., to West Middlesex, Pa Sharpsville Branch — Boycc. Pa., to Fur- naces at Sharpsville, Pa New Castle and Shenango Valley Rail- road, West Middlesex, Pa., to New Castle, Pa Youngstown and Austintown Railway — Youngstown, O., to Leadville Mines and Branch to Manning and Tippecanoe Shafts Canal Branch — Girard, O., to Crab Creek, Youngstown, O 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. 28.682 10.430 II.64O I5.6IO I8.4OI I/.7OO 80.8lO 36.250 6.800 2.O9O 14.790 1-550 16.730 8.490 6005 Total 275.978 Operated Uxder Agreements. 28.6S2 65.760 9+442 Northern Central Railway — Southport Junction, N. Y., to State Line Junction, N. Y 2.094 Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. Johnson- burg, Pa., to Brockwayville, Pa 27.760 7.800 Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. Ridgway, Pa., to Daguscahonda, Pa 5.000 Garnersville Railroad — Miners Creek, N. Y., to Garnersville Print Works 1.000 Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad — Indiana and Illinois State Line, near Hammond, Ind., to Dearborn Station, Chicago, 111 19990 19990 New Jersey Junction Railroad — Junction with New Jersey Junction Railway Company's Tracks to Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Docks at Weehawken 3.015 3.015 Fall Brook Railway — Corning, N. Y., to Newberry Junction, Pa 109.200 Total 168.059 Recapitulation. 30.805 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. Owned by Erie Railroad Company, or Controlled by Ownership of Entire Stock 1,606.499 492-979 Controlled by Ownership of over a Ma- jority of Stock 194.824 23.000 Leased by Erie Railroad Company 275.978 94-442 Operated Under Agreements 26.050 21.540 Trackage Rights 168.059 30805 Northern Railroad of New Jersey — Ber- gen Junction, N. J., to Nyack, N. Y. .. . 26.050 1ST TRACK. 2D TRACK. 21.540 Total 2.271.410 662.766 Note. — There are 3.960 miles of third and the same of fourth track on the New York Division, between the western opening of the Bergen Tunnel and Rutherford, N. J. II. BUT AT WHAT COST ! The Erie, by the heroic treatment of its new pos- sessors, is brought up out of the slough of despond wherein it so long floundered, but at what cost! Upon the broadened and strengthened shoulders of the Company is a burden of more than three hun- dred millions of debt, which the railroad, that was originally to have been placed between the Hudson River and Lake Erie at a cost, " liberally esti- mated," of. less than $7,000,000, is, with the aid of its collateral railroads, expected by its creditors to pay, and once this same railroad became a bank- rupt property because the Company could not pay $40,000 due for interest ! The cost of Erie's present jSS BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES independent position among the great railroads of the world may be thus exhibited: March II, 1898, the Company's capital stock was increased by 130,000 shares of first preferred stock, and 130,000 shares of common stock, for the purpose of acquiring the ownership of the New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad. The greater portion of the authorized increase of the capital stock has been issued and used for the purpose stated, and the total issue now stands as follows : Non-cumulative four per cent. First Preferred. . $42,844,000 00 Non-cumulative four per cent. Second Preferred 16,000.000 00 Common 112,246.30000 Total Capitalization $171,090,300 00 The outstanding bonded indebtedness of the Erie Railroad Company, which includes the debts inher- ited from the New York and Erie Railroad Company, the Erie Railway Company, and the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, is (June 30, 1898) $137,044,100. The list of the mortgages rep- resenting this debt is a long and varied one, and the following grouping of the lot, with a description of the Erie property covered by each mortgage, cannot fail to be of interest to the general reader, as a curi- ous chapter in Erie history, and of great value to the investor and to the railroad financier as a matter of reference. An asterisk (*) indicates that the stock of the Company thus marked is pledged under the first consolidated mortgage, with distinct agreement that the present indebtedness, if any, upon this prop- erty shall not be increased, and at maturity shall be paid off or acquired, and renewal bonds pledged under the first consolidated mortgage, to the end that ultimately said mortgage, either by direct mort- gage or through collateral trust, shall be the first lien on the entire system. Erie Railroad Company's ioo-Year First Consolidated Mortgage Deed, Prior lien bonds, $30,000,000. Issue, 1895. Principal payable January 1, 1996; interest, 4 per cent., gold, payable January and July, $1,200,000. De- nomination of bonds, $1,000. Genera! lien bonds, $31,- 032,000. Issue, 1895. Principal payable January, 1, 1996 ; interest, 4 per cent., gold, payable January and July, $1,241,280. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. This mortgage is a first lien upon the Company's principal coal properties, upon its water transporta- tion lines, including valuable terminal properties appurtenant thereto, and upon a number of profit- able local lines in New Jersey and near Buffalo; a second lien (subject only to some of the divisional mortgages) upon the remaining coal properties and upon the railroads leading to all the coal properties, upon the terminals at Jersey City, upon the Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad, and the Buffalo ter- minal properties other than those upon which it is a first lien, and upon the entire line from Sala- manca to Chicago, and a second consolidated mort- gage upon the line of the original New York and Erie, between Piermont and Dunkirk. Covered by this mortgage are the following important properties: *Thc Hillside Coal Company s property. — This com- pany owns in fee 6,614 acres of anthracite coal lands in Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wayne counties, Pa.; 1,960 acres of surface lands, and has mineral rights in 1,566 acres, on which there is no mortgage except this one. Capital stock, $1,000,000, all owned by the Erie. * The Northwestern Mining and Exchange Com- pany s property. — This company owns in fee 8,520 acres of bituminous coal lands, and has mineral rights in 5,654 acres in McKean, Elk, and other Pennsyl- vania counties. The entire capital stock of the com- pany, $500,000, is owned by the Erie. *The Blossburg Coal Company's holding of 6,107 acres of bituminous coal lands in Pennsylvania. — The capital stock of this company, $1,000,000, is owned by the Erie. The leasehold rights in the Paterson and Ramapo and the Paterson and Hudson Railroads, which form the main line of the Erie from Suffern, N. Y., to the east portal, Bergen Tunnel; all of the stock of the Paterson, Newark and New York and the Newark and Hudson railroads, which form the Newark Branch, and of the Bergen County Railroad (Bergen Short-cut), the Long Dock Company, and the New York, Lake Erie and Western Docks and Improve- ment Company (Weehawken, N. J.), and $1,900,000 of the bonds of the New York, Lake Erie and West- ern Coal and Railroad Company, are also pledged under the general mortgage. THE STORY OF ERIE 289 New York and Erie Railroad Company's First Mort- gage, currency, $2,482,000. Issue, 1S45. Principal pay- able May, 1937 ; interest, 7 per cent., payable May and November. Covers 446.63 miles of the railroad. Annual interest, $99,280. This is the amount still unpaid of the original mortgage for $3,000,000, issued under the enabling act of 1845, by which it was possible to continue the work of constructing the railroad westward from Middletown, N. V. It is a first mortgage on the main line, Piermont to Dunkirk. The mortgage was extended in 1867 to May, 1897, and in Way, 1897, to May, 1937. The interest paid by the Company on this original loan amounts (1898) to more than three times the principal of the debt, and to nearly half as much as the entire cost of building the rail- road from Piermont to Dunkirk, which was, in round numbers, $23,000,000. New York and Erie Railroad Company's Second Mort- gage, gold, $2,149,000. Issue, 1849. Principal payable September, 1919 ; interest, 5 per cent., payable March and September. Covers 446.63 miles of railroad. Denomina- tions of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $107,450. Issued (original amount $4,000,000) to provide funds for continuing the construction of the railroad west of Binghamton, and to purchase rolling stock. It is a second mortgage on the main line, Piermont to Dunkirk. The mortgage was extended in 1859 to September, 1919. Interest reduced from 7 to 5 per cent., and principal and interest made payable in gold. New York and Erie Railroad Company's Third Mort- gage, gold, $4,617,000. Issue, 1853. Principal payable March 1, 1923 ; interest, 44 per cent., payable March and September. Covers 446.63 miles of the railroad. Denom- ination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $207,765. This is a lien on the main line, Piermont to Dun- kirk. Principal and interest were originally payable in currency. The mortgage was extended in 1883 to March, 1923; interest reduced from 7 to 4^ per cent., and principal and interest made payable in gold. The original amount of the issue of this loan was $5,200,000, and these bonds were the first ones for which the Company had to borrow money to pay the interest on. 19 New York and Erie Railroad Company's Fourth Mort- gage, gold, $2,926,000. Issue, 1857. Principal payable October 1, 1920; interest, 5 percent., payable April and October. Covers 465.36 miles of the railroad. Denom- ination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $146,300. A fourth mortgage on the main line, Piermont to Dunkirk; also a first mortgage on the Newburgh Branch, Newburgh to Greycourt, N. Y., and a mort- gage on the leasehold rights in the Union Railroad, Paterson and Ramapo Railroad, Paterson and Hud- son Railroad, and the Long Dock Company, together forming the line from Suffern, N. Y., to Jersey City. The mortgage was extended in 1880 to October, 1920 ; interest reduced from 7 to 5 per cent., and principal and interest made payable in gold. New York and Erie Railroad Company's Fifth Mort- gage, gold, $709,500. Issue, 1858. Principal payable June I, 1928 ; interest, 4 per cent., payable June and December. Covers 465.36 miles of railroad. Denomina- tion of bonds, $200 and $1,000. Annual interest, $28,380. Fifth mortgage on the main line, second mortgage on the Newburgh Branch, and second mortgage on the leasehold rights in the New Jersey railroads and Long Dock Company. It was extended in 1888 to June, 1928; interest reduced from 7 to 4 per cent., and principal and interest made payable in gold. Buffalo Branch First Mortgage, $182,600. Issue, 1861. Principal payable July 1, 1931 ; interest, 4 per cent., gold, payable January and July. Covers 60.92 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $200 and $1,000 Annual in- terest, $7,304. First mortgage on the Buffalo Branch, from Hor- nellsville, N. Y., to Attica, N. Y. It was extended in 1891 to July, 1931 ; interest reduced from 7 to 4 percent., and principal and interest made payable in gold. This is balance due on the mortgage issued during the Receivership of Nathaniel Marsh (1859- 61) for the purchase of the Buffalo and New York Railroad, to secure a Buffalo connection, the Erie having been hampered by previous arrangements with that company in the running of its trains between Hornellsville and Buffalo. Erie Railway Company's First Consolidated Mortgage, $16,891,000. Issue, 1870. Principal payable September, 1, 1920 ; interest, 7 per cent., gold, payable March and 290 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES September. Covers 526.28 miles of railroad. Denomina- tion of bonds, $1,000 or ,£200. Annual interest, $1,182,- 370. Sixth mortgage on the main line, third mortgage on the Newburgh branch, and second mortgage on the Buffalo Branch. Also mortgage on leasehold rights in the Union Railroad, Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad, Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad, Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad, and the Long Dock Company. Issue was limited to $30,000,000, of which $13,065,000 was reserved to retire the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth mort- gage bonds of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and the Erie Railway and Buffalo Branch first mortgage bonds. This loan was the famous Gould issue of bonds, wise in its intent, but a good intention belated and fallen on evil times. New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company's First Consolidated Mortgage Coupon Bonds, $3,699,500. Issue, 1878. Principal payable September, 1, 1920; interest, 7 per cent., gold, payable March and September. Covers 526.28 miles of railroad. Denomina- tion of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $258,965. These bonds are secured by the same property as the above consolidated mortgage, they having been issued to fund coupons from the bonds of that issue, which coupons are held as collateral security. These bonds were provided for in the reorganization plan of 1878. With this included, the total outstanding debt of the Erie under the Erie Railway Company's first consolidated mortgage is $33,663,077. Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad Company's First Mortgage, gold, $1,500,000. Issue, 1877. Principal pay- able July 1, 1908; interest, 6 per cent., payable January and July. Covers 66.36 miles of railroad. Denomina- tion of bonds, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. Annual in- terest, $90,000. First mortgage on the above railroad, Buffalo Creek Railroad Junction, Buffalo, to Jamestown, N. Y. Erie Railroad Company's Second Mortgage on the Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad, gold, $1,000,- 000. Issue, 1895. Principal payable July I, 1908 ; interest, 6 per cent., gold, payable January and July. Covers 66.36 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. An- nual interest, $50,000. This mortgage covers the same property as the Buffalo and Southwestern first mortgage, and was placed to facilitate and insure consolidation of that railroad with the Erie system in 1895. Newburgh and New York Railroad Company's First Mortgage, $250,000. Issue, 1868. Principal payable January I, 1929; interest, 5 per cent., gold, payable Jan- uary and July. Covers 12.64 miles of railroad. Denom- ination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $12,500. First mortgage on that railroad, Arden Junction to Vail's Gate Junction, N. Y. Consolidated with Erie in 1895. This railroad is the " Newburgh Short-cut." It was built by a corporation entitled the Newburgh and New York Railroad Company, which was composed of the leading men in control of the Erie in the time of President Berdell and later under the Eldridge and Gould regimes. The rail- road was to be the link that was to bring about the much-vaunted Erie connection with Boston and the East, by means of the railroad then exploited under the name of the Boston, Hartford and Erie, of un- savory memory, and of contact most unfortunate to Erie interests. * Bergen County Railroad First Mortgage, $200,000. Issue, 1881. Principal payable April 1, 1911; interest, 6 per cent., payable April and October. Covers 9.82 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $12,000. First mortgage on that railroad, Rutherford Junc- tion, N. J., to Ridgewood Junction, N. J. Stock $200,000, all owned by the Erie. ♦Buffalo, New York and Erie First Mortgage, $2,380,- 000. Issue, 1876. Principal payable June I, 1916; inter- est, 7 per cent., payable June and December. Covers 140.25 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $166,600. First mortgage on Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad, Painted Post, N. Y., via Avon, to Buffalo, N. Y. The total capital stock of this Company is $950,000, of which $946,000 is owned by the Erie. This road was leased by the Erie in 1S63 for four hundred and ninety years. Rental 7 per cent, on stock, interest on bonds, and $5,000 for organization expenses. THE STORY OF ERIE 291 ♦Chicago and Erie Railroad First Mortgage, $12,000,- 000. Issue, 1890. Principal payable May 1, 1982 ; inter- est, 5 per cent., gold, payable May and November. Covers 249.57 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $600,000. First mortgage on the Chicago and Erie Railroad, Marion, O., to Illinois-Indiana State line, near Ham- mond, Ind. ; also mortgage on leasehold rights in the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, on $1,000,000 of capital stock of Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, and on $240,000 capital stock of the Belt Railway of Chicago, being one-fifth interest in the stock of each of said companies. The entire capital stock of the Chicago and Erie is owned by the Erie. Chicago and Atlantic Railway Terminal First Mort- gage, gold, $300,000. Issue, 1888. Principal payable July 1, 1918 ; interest, 5 per cent., gold, payable January and July. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual inter- est, $15,000. First mortgage on lands situated along the line of the Chicago and Erie Railroad, formerly known as Chicago and Atlantic Railroad, in the States of Ohio and Indiana, together with all depots, engines, freight and car-houses, and all other improvements on the lands. ♦Jefferson Railroad Company's First Mortgage, $2,- 800,000. Issue, 1869. Principal payable January I, 1909; interest, 5 per cent., gold, payable April and October. Covers 36.51 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $140,000. First mortgage on the Jefferson Railroad, Carbon- dale, Pa., to Susquehanna, Pa., 36.51 miles. Entire capital stock $2,095,450, owned by the Erie. Jefferson Railroad Company (Honesdale Branch), First Mortgage, $204,000. Issue, 1867. Principal pay- able July I, 1927 ; interest, 4+ per cent., payable January and July. Covers 8.18 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $9,180. First mortgage on above railroad, on Honesdale Branch, Honesdale, Pa., to Hawley, Pa., S.18 miles. The mortgage was extended in 1887 until 1927; interest reduced from 7 to 4*4 per cent. Jefferson Railroad Company (Honesdale Branch), Second Mortgage, $96,000. Issue, 1869. Principal payable January 1, 1929; interest, 6 per cent., payable January and July. Covers 8.18 miles of railroad. Denom- ination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $5,760. Second mortgage on same property as above. It was extended in 1889 until 1929; interest reduced from 7 to 6 per cent. *Long Dock Company's Consolidated Mortgage, $7,- 500,000. Issue, 1885. Principal payable October 1, 1935 ; interest, 6 per cent., gold, payable April and October. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $450,000. First mortgage on 577 acres of land and land under water, located at Jersey City, including the tunnel through Bergen Hill, the lands used by the Erie for depot and track purposes, and the strip of land 100 feet wide extending from the terminus of the Pater- son and Hudson Railroad at the west portal of the tunnel, to the Hudson River; also mortgage on alL buildings constructed or to be constructed, and all tracks, etc. On this property there are about 48 miles of track, many large warehouses and docks, ferry slips, passenger depot, machine, boiler, and car repair shops, and other structures. Estimated value of all, $16,000,000. These bonds are redeemable by lot at no, but " only from the proceeds of sale of such lands as may be sold ... as not necessary for the purposes of the Company." Capital stock,. $800,000, all of which is owned by the Erie. * New York, Lake Erie and Western Docks and Im- provement Company's First Mortgage, $3,396,000. Issue, 1883. Principal payable July 1, 1913 ; interest, 6 per cent., payable January and July. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $203,760.- First mortgage on 94.17 acres of land and land under water at YVeehawken, N. J., having a shore front of 2,558 feet, together with grants and leases from State of all riparian rights in front of property. Original consideration for the lands alone, $2,342,- 708. Property situated south of West Shore Rail- way terminals and north of the Delaware and Hud- son Canal Company's terminals. Depth of water, 25 feet. Property improved with 8 piers, varying in length from 700 to 1,000 feet, and in width from 40 to 100 feet; also a coal trestle 1,000 feet long, and a cold storage warehouse about 200 feet square, shops, etc. Structures are kept insured for 80 per cent, of value. About 25 miles of railroad track are laid on the property. The mortgage also covers the floating equipment of this Company, consisting of 2Q2 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ferry-boat, barges, car floats, lighters, etc. This property constitutes the main freight terminal of the Erie in New York Harbor. The total issue of these bonds was $4,000,000, of which $604,000 and the entire capital stock of the company are owned by the Erie. New York, Lake Erie and Western Coal and Rail- road Company's First Mortgage, $1,100,000. Issue, 1882. Principal payable May 1, 1922 ; interest, 6 per cent., payable May and November. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $66,000. New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Com- pany's Prior Lien Mortgage, gold, $8,000,000. Issue, 1880. Principal payable March 1, 1935 ; interest, 4|< per cent., gold, payable March and September. Covers 429.59 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000, or .£200; $500, or £100. Annual interest, $360,000. First mortgage on main line of the Nypano, Sala- manca, N. Y., to Dayton, O., 383.04 miles; branches to Oil City, Pa., 33.78 miles, and to Coal Mines, O., "]."]"] miles. This mortgage matured March, 1895, and was extended forty years, interest being reduced from 6 per cent, to 45^ per cent. First mortgage on the main line of the above com- pany's railroad, Crawford Junction, Pa., to Johnson- burgh, Pa., 29.92 miles, and branches 27.72 miles; -total, 57.64 miles; also on 14,120 acres of coal lands owned in fee, and the mining rights in 8,057 acres additional. Total issue of bonds, $3,000,000, of which $i. 900,000 is owned by the Erie. The entire ■capital stock, $500,000, is owned by the Northwest- ern Mining and Exchange Company. * Suspension Bridge and. Erie Junction Railroad Com- pany's First Mortgage, $965,000. Issue, 1870. Prin- cipal payable July 1, 1900; interest, 7 per cent., payable January and July. Covers 24.01 miles of railroad. De- nomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $67,550. First mortgage on the above railroad, East Buffalo Junction, N. Y., to Suspension Bridge, N. Y., via Niagara Falls. The total issue of bonds was $1,000,- 000, of which $35,000 is owned by the Erie. Of the capital stock, $500,000, all but $800 is owed by the Erie. Elmira and State Line Railroad Company's Mort- gage, $160,000. Issue, 1875. Principal payable October 1, 1905 ; interest, 7 per cent., payable April and October. Covers 6.50 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $500 and $1,000. Annual interest, $11,200. First mortgage on the Elmira and State Line Rail- road, New York-Pennsylvania State line to Northern Central Railroad Junction, Elmira, N. Y. Principal and interest guaranteed by the Tioga Railroad Com- pany. Leased to that Company in 1876 for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. Stock $90,200, of •which $61,000 is owned by the Erie. * Tioga Railroad Company's First Mortgage, $239,500. Issue, 1852. Principal payable November I, 1915 ; inter- est, 5 per cent., gold, payable May and November. Covers 38.89 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $500 and $1,000. Annual interest, $11,975. First mortgage on the above railroad, from the coal-beds near Blossburg, Pa., to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, near Lawrenceville. The mortgage was extended in 1872 until 191 5 ; interest reduced from 7 to 5 per cent. Stock — $391,200 common, $189,700 preferred — is all owned by the Erie, except $300 of common. Tioga Railroad Company's Tioga Extension First Mortgage, $265,000. Issue, 1875. Principal payable October 1, 1905 ; interest, 7 per cent., payable April and October. Covers 6.50 miles of railroad. Denomination of bonds, $1,000. Annual interest, $18,550. First mortgage on the Tioga extension, extending from a point on the main line south of Lawrence- ville, Pa., to the terminus of the Elmira and State Line Railroad at the New York-Pennsylvania State line. Recapitulating the above summary, the outstand- ing obligations of the Company (June 30, 1898) are : Capital stock $171,090,300 Bonded debt 137,044,100 Erie total indebtedness $308, 1 34,400 FIXED CHARGES. Following are the sums the Erie must provide for annually, to pay the charges against it, over and above its operating expenses: THE STORY OF ERIE 293 Interest. New York and Erie Railroad Company First Mort- gage Bonds $99,280 New York and Erie Railroad Company Second Mortgage Bonds 107,450 New- York and Erie Railroad Company Third Mort- gage Bonds 207,765 New York and Erie Railroad Company Fourth Mortgage Bonds 146,300 New York and Erie Railroad Company Fifth Mort- gage Bonds 28,380 Buffalo Branch Mortgage Bonds 7. 304 Erie Railway Company First Consolidated Mort- gage Bonds 1,182,370 New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railroad Com- pany First Consolidated Mortgage Coupon Bonds 258,965 Erie Railroad Company Prior Lien Bonds 1,200,000 Erie Railroad Company General Lien Bonds, 3 per cent. Gold, July, 1896, to July, 1898, 4 per cent. Gold thereafter 1.241,280 Newburgh and New York Railroad Bonds 12,500 Long Dock Company Bonds 450,000 Buffalo, New York, and Erie Railroad Bonds 166,600 Honesdale Branch Railroad Bonds 9,180 Honesdale Branch Railroad Bonds 5,760 Jefferson Branch Railroad Bonds 140,000 Bergen County Railroad Bonds 12,000 New York, Lake Erie, and Western Docks and Im- provement Company Bonds 203,760 New York, Lake Erie, and Western Coal and Rail- road Company Bonds 66,000 Suspension Bridge and Erie Junction Railroad Bonds 67,550 Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad Company First Mortgage Bonds 90,000 Erie Railroad Company, Buffalo and Southwestern Division, Second Lien 5 per cent. Gold Bonds... 50,000 Tioga Railroad First Mortgage Bonds 1 1.975 Tioga Railroad, Tioga Extension Bonds 18,550 Elmira State Line Railroad Bonds 11,200 New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Railroad Com- pany Prior Lien Bonds 360,000 Chicago and Erie Railroad First Mortgage Gold Bonds 600,000 Chicago and Atlantic Railway Terminal Bonds.... 15.000 Total $6,769,169 Rentals. Union Railroad $3.50000 Paterson and Ramapo Railroad 26.500 00 Paterson and Hudson Railroad 48,400 00 Montgomery and Erie Railroad 16,000 00 Goshen and Deckertown Railroad 19,035 00 Hawley Branch 50,00000 Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad 34.012 00 Middletown and Crawford Railroad 10.500 00 Elmira State Line Railroad 6.314 00 New Jersey Junction Railroad 6,001 00 Avon, Geneseo, and Mount Morris Railroad.... 5.725 00 New York and Greenwood Lake Railway 75.000 00 Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railway 5-5-967 38 Sharon Railway 37.101 00 Westerman Railroad $4,000 00 New Castle and Shenango Valley Railroad 15,037 50 Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad — Estimate 194.955 97 Total $1,078,048 85 Interest on Bonds $6,769,169 00 Rental for Railroads 1,078,048 85 Other Interest and Rentals. . 235,055 19 Total Fixed Charges $8,082,273 04 Can the Erie earn this appalling sum ? Can it pay this terrible penalty that its misguided past has doomed it to — and live ? The annual reports give every assurance that it can. The three of them that have been issued since the formation of the Erie Railroad Company show that the sum has thus far been earned. According to the report for 1898 the net earnings of the railroad and income from other sources (year ending June 30th) were $8,716,189.80, which provided for the fixed charges and left a surplus of more than $633,000. This, then, would seem to demonstrate, beyond dis- pute or cavil, the correctness of the claim of those who pressed the reorganization to success, that the Erie Railroad's earnings would easily be more than its expenses, if the Company were relieved of the incubi that had hampered it for a generation, and the subsidiary lines necessary for the Erie's traffic were changed from a warring, irresponsible group to one uniform system, through a rational, business-like process of consolidation, by which they might be brought under the control and direction of one head. By such a consolidation of the Erie system, the days of loading upon Erie worthless and extravagant leases, the aftermath of corrupt stock-jobbery, and the cost and future responsibility of bad personal undertakings generally, have become, necessarily and happily, a thing of the past. Those plunderings of Erie are represented to-day by not less than $100,- 000,000 of her tremendous debt. If the Company and the railroad, conducted on correct principles of business and financiering and of operative manage- ment, can show a surplus above the large sum of fixed charges made necessary by that unrighteous debt, what might not this highway of most unfor- tunate memory have done if it had not fallen into designing hands years and years ago ? 2 9 4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES A STUDY IN THE GROWTH OF ERIE. The Railroad was opened to Goshen, N. V., September 23, 1841. The earnings from that date until December 31, 1841, both inclusive, according to the FIRST Erie Official Report of Earnings, were : FOR THE MONTHS OF FREIGHT. PASSENGERS. Revenue. No. Carried. Revenue. Pounds 9 Eastward. Total. Tolls Westw'd. Tolls Eastward. Total. 1st Class. 2d Class. Total. From Railroad. Steamboat Total. 1st Class. 2d Class- BothCla's. BothClasses September, 1 841 208,620 53,492 322,112 $341.38 $63.31 $404.69 566} 27 593* $671.59 $20.51 $203.26 $895.36 October, 1841.. 1,006,246 1,394,704 2,400,950 1,510.04 2,044.03 3.554-64 3,501 209^ 3.7IO* 3,394-23 "3-57 1,236.40 4,744.20 November, 1841 2,120,830 2,693,815 4,814,645 2,550.61 3,440.01 5,996.62 4,106 674 4,173* 3,882.83 52.33 1.374-38 5.249-54 December, 1S41 Grand Totals 2,287,735 1,732,077 4,019,817 2,242.44 2,325.60 4,568.04 3.149* 3.149* 3,022.62 1,243.72 4,276.34 5,683,431 5,S74,oSS ",557,519 $6,645.04 $7,8iS. 9 5 $14,523.99 11,323 304 11,627 $10,921.77 $iS6.3i $4,057.76 $15,165.44 Revenue from 14,523.99 Total Earnings for four months $29,689.43 What the Railroad earned for the same period in 1897, according to the LAST Erie Official Report of Earnings : Freight. Coal. Passenger. Mail. Express. Rents and Miscellaneous. Total Earnings. Last 8 days of September, 1897, (averaged). $443,427.20 1,715,264.02 1,520,021.36 1,490,643.65 $187,423.56 848,441.37 802,911.00 651,653.69 $l63,735-76 505,317.51 436,720.91 453,408.46 $11,029.60 38,974-11 41,076.43 39,760.56 $12,932.16 47,987.98 48,114.55 48,855-63 $32,007.52 113,307.89 107,175.74 108,972.57 $850,578.80 3,269,292.88 2,956,019.99 2,793,294.56 Total Earnings, four months. $9, S69, 186.23 (For continuation of the Thomas Administration, see "Addenda," pp. jij,ji6.) <[)ii^jLr^^ui\u^ FIGHTING ITS WAY.* 1832 TO 1850. Story of Erie's Long Struggle in the Legislature for Corporate Existence and Power to Complete the Work it Had Undertaken — The Erie Charter and its Amendments — Who Were the Company's Friends and Who its Enemies — The First Relief Bill — Details of the Legislation Necessary to its Life, to Obtain which the Erie had to Fight in New York and Pennsylvania for Almost a Score of Years — Triumph Came with the General Railroad Law. I832. Governor Throop's. message to the New York State Legislature, read on the assembling of that body in January, 1832, was largely devoted to the new, and what had become the absorbing, subject of railroads. The message was referred to the Committee on Railroads in the Assembly, for consid- eration of so much of it as related to that particular subject. This was the first railroad committee ever appointed in the Assembly. Its members were Silas M. Stilwell, of New York; John C. Kemble, of Rensselaer County; William Seymour, of Albany; Horace Mack, of Tompkins County; Aaron Remer, of Yates County. Hundreds of petitions from the localities interested in the railroad were received by both houses of the Legislature daily, from the opening of the session, and they were referred to the respective committees on railroads. Februarv 1, Mr. Stilwell reported from the Committee on Railroads in the Assembly a bill entitled, " An Act to Incor- porate the New York and Erie Railroad Company," which was referred to the Committee of the Whole. March 8th, Myndert Van Schaick, of New York, reported the bill from that committee. The bill was hotly debated until the 13th, during which time it was changed and amended in various ways. March 19th the amended act passed the Assembly by a vote of 108 to 2 — the two negative votes being Isaac Vandewater, of Essex County, and John M'Don- ald, of Washington County. In the Senate the measure was debated nearly a month, during which time it was still further amended, being finally passed April 1 8th, and adopted by a vote of 23 to 3 — William I. Dodge, of the Fourth District; William Deitz, of the Third, and Alvin Bronson, of the Fifth, voting against it. April 19th the Assembly accepted the amended Senate bill, by a vote of 95 to none, and the first ostensible step in the construction of the Erie was taken. The charter was passed. It was signed by Governor Enos Throop April 24th, and be- came a law on that date. THE CHARTER. An Act to Incorporate the New York and Erie Rail- Road Company. The People of the State of New York represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : Sec 1. — Samuel Swartwout, Stephen Whitney, Robert White, Cornelius llarsen, Eleazar Lord, Daniel Le Roy, William C. Red- field, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, Jeremiah H. Pierson, William Townsend, Egbert Jansen, Charles P>orland, Abram M. Smith, Alpheus Dim- mick, Randall S. Street, John P.Jones, George D. Wickham, Joseph Curtis, John L. Gorham, Joshua Whitney, Christopher Eldridge, James McKinney, James Pumpelly, Charles Pumpelly, John R. Drake, Jonathan Piatt, Luther Gere, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jeremiah S. Beebe, Ebenezer Mack, Ansel St. John, Andrew DeWitt Bruyn, Stephen Tuttle, Lyman Covell, Robert Covell, John Arnot, John Magee, William M. Mi (ay, William S. Hubbell, William Bonham, Arthur H. Erwin, Henry Brother, Philip Church, Samuel King, Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Jeromus Johnson, John Steward, Jr., Henry I. Wyc- koff, Richard M. Lawrence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Nathaniel Weed, Hubert Yan Wagenen, David Rogers, John Hone, John G. Coster, Goold Hoyt, Peter I. Nevius, Robert Buloid, Thomas A. Ronalds, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Benjamin L. Swan. Grant P.. Baldwin, William Maxwell, and Darius Bentley, with such other * It was not possible, even if it had been desirable, to so group and classify the details of the many procedures, plans, incidents, and collateral events that attended the rise and development of Erie, that their chronicling might accompany the general narrative. While they are part of that narrative, they go to make a story in and by themselves, so I have made this grouping of them with that idea in view, beginning with the first appearance of the Erie project in the Legislature of New York and its reception and treatment there ; follow- ing the enterprise afield, and showing how it struggled to become a railroad ; taking it in the infancy of its railroad life and going forward with it to the full measure of its lusty growth ; showing its comedy and its tragedy ; and rescuing from oblivion the memory of the men and the nature of the measures that made of Erie the pioneer in many of the methods that are standard to this day in the operating of railroads. All this will unfold itself in unbroken narrative by this plan, and in strong individuality, as it could not have done if interpolated in the subject-matter paramount in the general history. — E. n. M. 296 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES persons as shall associate with them for that purpose, are constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name of " The New-York and Erie Rail-Road Company," with power to construct a single, double or treble rail-road or way, from the City of New-York to Lake Erie, commencing at the City of New- York, or at such point in its vicinity as shall be most eligible and convenient therefor, and continue said rail-road through the southern tier of counties, by way of Owego, in the County of Tioga, to the shore of Lake Erie, at some eligible point a the Cattaraugus creek and the Pennsylvania line ; with power to transport, take and carry property and persons upon the same, by the power and force of steam, of animals, or of any mechanical or other power, or of any combination of them, for the term of fifty years from the passage of this act. Sec. 2. — If the said corporation hereby created, shall not, within four years from the passage of this act, commence the construction of the said rail-road or way, and spend within one year thereafter, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars thereon, and shall not, within ars from the passage of this act, construct, finish and put in operation one-fourth part of the said rail-road or way, and shall not, within fifteen years from the passage of this act, construct, finish and put in operation one-half of the said rail-road or way, and shall not, within twenty years from the passage of this act, complete and put in operation the whole of the said rail-road or way, or in the event of a failure by the company to construct the parts of the said rail-road within either of the times above mentioned, then the rights, privileges and powers of the said corporation under this act, shall be null and void. Sec. 3. — The capital stock of the company shall be ten millions of dollars : which shall be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each ; which shall be deemed personal property, and transferable in such manner as the said corporation shall by by-laws direct. Sei . 4. — Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Jeromus Johnson, John Steward, junior, Henry T. Wyckoff, Nathaniel Weed, Hubert Van Wagenen, David Rogers, Samuel Swartwout, John Hone, John G. Coster, Goold Hoyt, Peter I. Nevius, Robert Buloid, Benjamin L. Swan, Thomas A. Ronalds, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Garret Storm, George Curtis, Richard M. Lawrence, Charles Henry Hall, Robert White, Stephen Whitney, Eleazar Lord, John P. Stagg, Sam'l Alley, Josiah Hedden, Thomas T. Woodruff, Michael Burnham, Gideon Lee and Cornelius Harsen, of New York ; Jeremiah H. Pierson, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, Edward Suffern, John J. Wood and Benjamin Blackledge, of Rock- land ; Selah Reeve, George D. Wickham, Alexander Thompson, Samuel S. Seward, Stacy Beaks and John Ilallock, junior, of Orange ; Randall S. Street and John P. Jones, of Sullivan ; John Sudani and John Van Buren, of Ulster; James G. Elliot, of Greene; Erastus Root, of Delaware; Sherman Page, of Otsego; John C. Clark, of Chenango; Joshua Whitney, Stephen Weed, Christopher Eldridge and Levi Dimmick, of Broome; James Pumpelly, Lyman Covell, William Maxwell, Grant B. Baldwin, Darius Bentley and John Jack- son, ol Tioga ; John Magee, Ira Davenport, William H. Bull and William S. Hubbell, of Steuben ; Luther Gere, Andrew D. W. Bruyn and Francis A. Bloodgood, of Tompkins; Philip Church, of Alle- gany; Timothy II. Porter and Henry Saxton, of Cattaraugus; Thomas Campbell, Daniel G. Garnsey, Elial T. Foote, Joseph White, junior, Oliver Lee and Leverett Baker, of Chautauqua, shall be commissioners ; the duly of whom it shall be, within the period of six months after the passing of this act, at some suitable place in the city of New-York, and such other place as they may choose to designate, to open books to receive subscriptions to the capital stock of the said corporation, and twenty days' public notice shall be given by the said commissioners of the time and place of the opening of such books, in one of the public newspapers in each of the said places ; and any five of the said commissioners shall constitute a board to receive subscrip- tions : and as soon as the same shall be subscribed, to give a like notice for a meeting of the sto< kholders, at such time and place as the said commissioners may appoint, to choose seventeen directors ; and such election shall be then and there made by such of the stockholders as shall attend for that purpose, either in person or by lawful proxy ; each share of the capital stock entitling a stockholder to one vote ; and the said commissioners, or such of them as shall attend for such pur- pose, shall be inspectors of the first election of directors of the said corporation, and shall certify, under their hands, the names of those duly elected, and deliver over the subscription books to the said direct- ors. And the time and place of holding the first meeting of directors shall be fixed by the said commissioners. And the said directors shall have power to appoint an engineer, or engineers, and to cause such examination and surveys for the said rail-road to be made, as may be necessary to the selection of the most advantageous line or lines, for the location of the road : and the said directors shall, after such examinations and surveys shall be made, select, and by certificates under their hands and seals, designate the line, course or way, which they may deem most advantageous for the said rail-road ; one of which certificates shall be filed in the office of the register of the city of New- York, and one in the office of each of the county clerks of the several counties through which the said rail-road or way shall pass ; which line, course or way, so selected and certified, shall be deemed the line, course or way on which the said corporation shall construct, erect, build or make their single, double or treble rail-road or ways, as here- inafter mentioned : the expenses of all such surveys and examinations, and all manner of incidental expenses relating thereto, shall be paid for by the said corporation. Sec. 5. — If, within three days after opening the subscription books as aforesaid, a sum exceeding ten millions of dollars shall be sub- scribed, the commissioners, who shall meet for that purpose, shall proceed to apportion the stock among the subscribers, and shall com- plete the apportionment within sixty days after the opening of said subscription ; and any nine of the said commissioners shall constitute a board for the purpose of such distribution, if no more than nine of the said commissioners shall then attend for the purpose of making such distribution ; and if the full amount of capital be not subscribed within three days, as aforesaid, then it shall be the duty of the com- missioners to open the subscription books, from time to time, until the whole amount shall have been subscribed. The commissioners shall receive no subscription, unless five dollars on each share sub- scribed be paid at the time of the subscription. Sec. 6. — The company, hereby incorporated, shall first construct, lay down and complete one line or track of rail-road from the city of New-York, or from some point on the western shore of the Hudson River, in the said southern tier of counties unto Lake Erie, and shall convey either passengers or materials thereon, before they shall lay down the rails of any part or portion of the said line or track of the said rail-road. Sec. 7. — The said directors to be chosen at such meeting, or at such annual election, shall, as soon as may be after every election, choose out of their own number, one president, and one other person to be vice-president ; and in case of the death, resignation or absence of the president, the vice-president shall preside until the next annual election thereafter, or until another president is chosen ; and in case of the death or resignation of the president or vice-president, or of any director, such vacancy or vacancies may be filled for the remainder of the year wherein they may happen, by the board of directors ; and in case of the absence of the president and vice-presi- dent, the board of directors shall have power to appoint a president pro tempore, who shall have and exercise such powers and functions as the by-laws of the said corporation may provide. Sic. 8. — In case it should at any time happen that an election of directors shall not be made on any day, when pursuant to this act. it ought to have been made, the said corporation shall not, for that cause, be deemed to be dissolved ; but such election may be held at any time within sixty days thereafter. Sec. 9. — The corporation is hereby empowered to purchase, receive THE STORY OF ERIE 297 and hold such real estate as may be necessary and convenient in ac- complishing the objects for which this incorporation is granted, and may, by their agents, surveyor and engineers, enter upon and take possession of, and use all such lands and real estate as may be indis- pensable for the construction and maintenance of their single, double or treble rail-road or way, and the accommodations requisite and ap- pertaining thereto : and may also receive, hold and take all such vol- untary grants and donations of land and real estate, as shall be made to the said corporation for the purposes aforesaid, to aid in the construction, maintenance and accommodation of the said single, double or treble rail-road or way ; but all lands or real estate thus entered upon, which are not donations, shall be purchased by the said corporation, of the owner or owners of the same, at a price to be eventually agreed upon between them ; and in case of a disagreement as to price, and before making any portion of said road or said land, the said corporation, or the owner of such land, may apply by petition to the vice-chancellor of the circuit within which such land lies, par- ticularly describing the lands to be appraised, who, upon such appli- cation, shall cause such notice to be given to the other party as he shall deem proper and sufficient, appointing therein the time and place of hearing the parties : at which time and place, upon proof that the notice directed has been given, the said vice-chancellor shall direct the manner of ascertaining the damages which the owner of such land or real estate will sustain by the occupation thereof by the said corporation ; and the said vice-chancellor shall appoint three competent and disinterested commissioners, who shall be free-holders and residents of the county in which the land described in said peti- tion is situate, and who shall, under the direction of the said vice- chancellor, make appraisements and determine said damages, and report in writing under their hands to the said vice-chancellor, who shall examine the same and hear the parties in relation thereto, if he deem it expedient, and increase or diminish the damages if he shall be satisfied injustice has been done. The report shall contain a minute description of the land appraised. The commissioners shall be allowed three dollars each a day for their services. Upon proof to the vice-chancellor, to be made within thirty days after his determina- tion, of payment to the owner, or of depositing to the credit of the owner, in such incorporated monied institution as the said vice-chan- cellor shall direct, of the amount of said damages and the payment of all expenses, the said vice-chancellor shall make an order or de- cree, particularly describing the land and reciting the appraisement of damages and the mode of making it, and all other facts necessary to a compliance with this section of this act ; and when the said order or decree shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of the said vice- chancellor, the said corporation shall be seized and possessed of such land or real estate, and may enter upon and take possession, and use the same for the purposes of the said read. SEC. io. — In case any married woman, infant, idiot or insane person, or non-resident of the State, who shall not appear after such notice, shall be interested in any such land or real estate, the said vice-chan- cellor shall appoint some competent disinterested person to appear before the said commissioners, and act for and in behalf of such mar- ried woman, infant, idiot, insane person or non-resident. Sec. II. — The said corporation is hereby authorized to construct, erect, build, make and use a single, double or treble rail-road or ways, of suitable width and dimensions, to be determined by the said cor- poration, on the line, course or way designated by the directors as aforesaid, as the line, course, and way whereon to construct, erect, build and make the same, and shall have power to regulate the time and manner in which goods and passengers shall be transported, taken and carried on the same ; and shall have power to erect and maintain toll houses and other buildings for the accommodation of their con- cerns, as they may deem suitable to their interest. Sec. 12. — The said corporation shall not at any point connect the said single, double or treble rail-road or ways with any rail-road, either of the State of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, or leading into either of the said States, without the consent of the Legislature of this Stati pain of forfeiting the powers and privileges conferred by this act. Sec. 13. — Whenever it shall be necessary for the construction of their single, double or treble rail-road or way, to intersect or cross anv stream of water or water < ourses, or any road or highway, it shall be lawful for the said corporation to construct their way or ways across or upon the same ; but the corporation shall restore the stream or water courses, or road or highway, thus intersected to its former state, or in a sufficient manner not to have impaired its usefulness. SEC. 14 — It shall be lawful for the company hereby incorporated from time to time to ti\, regulate and receive the tolls and charges by them to be received for transportation of property or persons on the single, double or treble rail-road or ways aforesaid, hereby authorized to be constructed, erected, built, made and used ; and to take and re- ceive tolls upon any part of said route, whenever and as fast as sec- tions of ten miles are fully completed. Sec. 15. — If any person shall wilfully do or cause to be done any act or acts whatever, whereby any building, construction or work of the said corporation, or any engine, machine or structure, or any mat- ter or thing appertaining to the same, shall be stopped, obstructed, im- paired, weakened, injured or destroyed, the person or persons so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and forfeit and pay to the said corporation double the amount of damages sustained by means of such offence or injury, to be recovered in the name of the said corpo- ration, with costs of suit by action of debt. Sec. 16. — It shall be lawful for the directors to require payment of the sums to be subscribed to the capital stock, at such times and in such proportions, anil on such conditions, as they shall deem fit, under the penalty of the forfeiture of such stock, and of all previous pay- ments thereon, and shall give notice of the payments thus required, and of the place and time when the same are to be paid, at least thirty days previous to the payment of the same, in a public newspaper pub- lished in the city of Xew York, and in each of the counties through which the said road shall pass, and in such other places as the said directors may deem proper to direct. Sec. 17. It shall be lawful for the said corporation to unite with any other rail-road company already incorporated upon the route of said road through said southern tier of counties, upon such terms as may be agreed upon by the directors of said companv, in making a continuous rail-road from New York to Lake Erie ; at all times, how- ever, confining the route of said road to said southern tier of counties. Sec. 18. — This said corporation shall possess the general powers, and be subject to the general restrictions and liabilities prescribed by such parts of title third of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes as are not repealed. Sec. ig. — The directors of said company shall make an annual re- port, in detail, of their proceedings and expenditures, verified by the affidavit of at least two of them, which report shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State ; and in like manner shall, at the ex- piration of each year, for the term of fifteen years after the completion of said road, file in the said office a detailed statement of tolls re- ceived on such rail-road, and of all moneys expended by said com- pany for repairs or otherwise for the purpose of said rail-road. Sec. 20. — If the Legislature of this State shall, at the expiration of ten and within fifteen years from the completion of said railroad, make provision by law for the repayment to the said company of the amount expended by them in the construction of said rail-road, together with all moneys expended by them for permanent fixtures for the use of said rail-road, with interest on such sums at the rate of fourteen per centum per annum, together with all moneys expended bv said company for repairs or otherwise for the purposes of said road, after deducting the amount of tolls received on said road, then the said rail-road, with all fixtures and appurtenances, shall vest in and become the property of the people of this State. Sec. 21. — The Legislature may at my time hereafter alter, modify or repeal this act. 298 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES 1S33. Petitions poured in upon the Legislature at its session for 1 ar, praying for an amendment to the Erie article of incorporation, on the ground that in the provisions of the original bill it was impossible to organize a company, and for tension of the time for completing the railroad. The ms were referred to the Railroad Committees. January 17th, James C. Curtis, of Sullivan County, from the Assembly Railroad Committee, reported a bill amending the charter as prayed for. This bill passed the Assembly February 9th, by a vote of 87 to 5. It was debated in the Senate until April 6th, amended and passed on that day by a vote of 23 to 4. The Assembly concurred April 15 th, by a unanimous vote. The bill was signed by the Governor April 19th. {Abstract of Act Amending Charter.") April 19, 1833. An act to amend the charter. Authorizing the commissioners to open books for subscriptions to stock the second Tuesday of fuly, 1833, at the Merchants' Exchange in New York City ; to organize a company on subscriptions of $1,000,000 and pay- ment of ten per cent, of the subscriptions ; whole route of the road to be surveyed before the construction of any section shall be under- taken ; books to be opened from time to time, if a company is organ- ized, until a sufficient sum is subscribed to complete the road, but time for completion is not extended. (Chapter 1S2, Laws of New York, 1 1834. January 8th, in the Assembly, a petition from the President and Directors of the Company, and a memorial from a con- vention of delegates from the City of New York and southern tier counties, praying the aid of the State in the construction of the railroad and for a survey of a route, were read and referred to the Railroad Committee. February 3d, a memorial from Philip Church and 127 other citizens of Allegany County, remonstrating against the State extending aid to the present managers of the Company," and asking consent to withdraw their subscriptions toward the railroad, was read and referred to the Committee on Railroads. (" First Administration of Eleazar Lord," pages 21, 22.) March 26th, Mr. Todd, from the majority of that com- mittee, made a report on the memorials and petitions, deprecating the appropriation of public funds for the aid of private corporations, and recommending against it. The minority of the committee also made a report unfavorable to the appropriation. April 41b. ( hades Winfield, of Orange County, moved that the matter be recommitted to the Committee on Railroads, with authority to report a bill authorizing a survey of the route of the railroad by the State. This was agreed to by a vote of 66 to 33, Messrs. Coe and Shays, of the Committee on Railroads, voting in the affirmative. April 9th, Mr. Shays reported a bill entitled "An Act to authorize the survey by the State of the route of the contemplated New York and Erie Railroad." It was referred to the Committee of the Whole. April 14th, on motion of John R. Drake, of Tioga County, it was taken from that committee and referred to a select committee to report on it. Mr. Drake, Merritt H. Cash, of Orange County, and Aaron Spafford, of Oneida County, were appointed on this committee. April 1 6th, Mr. Drake reported that the committee had amended the bill, changed the title to "An Act to authorize the survey of a route for a railroad from the City of New York to Lake Erie." The bill was passed April 21st, by a vote of 64 to 2,^. In the Senate, May 5th, the Assembly bill providing for the survey came up for final passage, having been in consid- eration by the Committee of the Whole since April 2 2d. Persistent effort was made to defeat it, but on that day it was passed by the narrow vote of 12 to n. William H. Seward, of the Seventh District, led the opposition to the bill in all its stages. The bill became a law May 6th. It directed the Governor to appoint a competent and experienced engi- neer to " explore and survey a route for a railroad, commenc- ing at the City of New York, or the most eligible and con- venient point in its vicinity, and continue it through the southern tier of counties of the State, by way of Owego, to the shore of Lake Erie, at some eligible point between the Cattaraugus creek and the Pennsylvania line." The engineer was empowered to employ necessary assistants. A map ami profile of the survey were to be placed with the Secretary of State. The aggregate of the cost of the survey was not to exceed §15,000. This act is Chapter 311 of the Laws of New York for 1834. 1335- February 9th, a petition from the officers and Directors of the Company, praying for a State subscription or loan of $3,000,000 in aid of the railroad, was read in the Assembly, and referred to the Committee on Railroads, which, March 4th, reported a bill entitled "An Act to expedite the con- struction of the New York and Erie Railroad." The report was submitted to the Committee of the Whole. March 20th, this committee reported, through Peter P. Murphy, of Her- kimer County, against the bill. The report was sustained by a vote of 61 to 47. ("Administration of James Gore King," pages 32-35-) Prosper M. Wetmore, of New York, offered a resolution that, inasmuch as the survey for such a railroad ordered by the State having demonstrated its practicability and construc- tion at a reasonable expense, the Committee on Railroads be instructed to prepare and report a bill to provide for the construction by the State of a railroad from the City of New York to Lake Erie. The bill was laid on the table. April 24th, James J. Roosevelt, Jr., of New York, intro- duced a bill entitled "An Act to further amend the act to incorporate the New York and Erie Railroad Company, THE STORY OF ERIE 299 passed April 24, 1832," and it was passed the same day. The Senate amended the act, and on May 6th the House agreed to the amended bill and passed it. It became a law May 8th, and was entitled "An Act to further amend the act of incorporation." It authorized the Company to begin the railroad at any point on the route designated, and to put in operation a single or double railway on any section thereof when completed — but the several sections to be completed within the periods limited by the charter: certificates desig- nating sections of the line and course of the railroad to be filed in the offices of the clerks of the counties through which the same should pass. This act is Chapter 247 of the Laws of New York for 1835. 1836. In the Assembly, February 1 2th, a memorial from the Corpo- ration of the City of New York, praying for the passage of a bill granting financial aid to the Company, a resolution to the same purpose from the Mayor and Common Council of Brooklyn, and petitions from Westchester, Delaware, Genesee, Allegany, and Cattaraugus counties, were presented. They were all referred to the Committee of the Whole, the Committee on Railroads, for some reason, being ignored in their consideration. February 18th, Orville Robinson, of Oswego County, reported from the Committee of the Whole a bill entitled " An Act to expedite the construction of a railroad from New York to Lake Erie." John Wilkinson, of Onondaga County, led in strong opposition to the bill, but the report was adopted by a vote of 61 to 51. February 20th, the bill came up for final action. Preston King, of St Lawrence County, moved it be referred to the Committee on Two-third Bills. The Speaker (Charles Humphrey, of Tompkins County) ruled the motion out of order. Mr. King appealed from the decision of the chair. The decision was sustained. After lively de- bate and unsuccessful efforts for an adjournment the bill was voted on, and was decided in the affirmative by a vote of 63 to 45. The Speaker decided the bill passed. Preston King appealed from the decision, which Mr. Robinson moved to lay on the table. Amid great confusion a motion to adjourn was made and voted down. The motion to lay on the table the motion appealing from the decision of the chair was with- drawn, and was renewed by Mr. King himself. It was voted down. The question on the appeal was put by the Speaker, and the chair was sustained by a vote of 61 to 29. In the Senate, February 23d, the Assembly bill was referred to the Committee on Railroads. March 3d, Mr. Mack, from that committee, made a voluminous report on the bill, and recommended its passage. The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole. April 22d, the bill was passed by a vote of 17 to 12. It was signed by the Governor April 23d, and was the first legislative act granting State aid to the Company. ("Ad- ministration of James Gore King," pages 38-40.) {Abstract of the First Erie Relief Bill.) An Act to expedite the construction of the New York and Erie Rail- road. It authorized the Comptroller to issue $600,000 in special cer- tificates of stock, at 4^ per cent, interest, payable quarterly, when a continuous line of single track railroad should have been constructed from the I 'elaware and Hudson Canal to the ChenangoCana] ; $700,- 000 on completion of the road from the Chenango Canal to the Alle- gany River ; $300,000 on completion of the road from the Allegany River to Lake Erie; $4(x>,ooo on completion of the road from the Hudson River in Rockland County to the Delaware and Hudson Canal ; $i, 000,000 on the completion of the line of double track from the Hudson River to Lake Erie ; certificates of acceptance of slock to be filed by the Company with the Comptroller before the issuing of any stock by him, such certificate of acceptance to be recorded and become a lien on the Company's property as security for the payment of the principal and interest of the amounts of stock accepted ; the stock to be denominated " The New York and Erie Railroad Stock," for the payment of the interest and redemption of the principal of which the credit of the State was pledged ; stock to be issued in cer- tificates not exceeding $1,000 each, payable to the Company on its order, and assignable or transferable on the Company's books at such bank in New York city as the Comptroller should designate, or such other place in the said city as the Legislature should direct ; stock to be reimbursable at any time within twenty years from its respective issues, interest payable at the office of transfer on the first days of January, April, July, and October ; stock to be sold by auction within three months after its receipt by the Company, under direction of the State Comptroller, in the City of Xew York ; any premium raised on such sale to be paid into the school fund of the State ; if stock was not salable at par at such sales, the Company, with advice and consent of the Comptroller, to defer the sale until such time as he might think expedient ; the Company to provide for the punctual payment of interest and redemption of stock, the tolls and income of the road, after paying necessary expenses, being pledged for the payment of the interest : no stock to issue until full and satisfactory proof was given the Comptroller, to be approved by the Attorney-General, that no prior lien or incumbrance existed on the Company's property. In case of default in payment of either interest or principal of the stock, the Comptroller was to sell the road and its appurtenances by auction to the highest bidder, after six months' notice of time and place of sale, published once in each week in the State paper, and in two news- papers in New York city ; or to buy in the same at such sale for the use and benefit of the State, subject to such disposition as the Legis- lature might thereafter direct. (Chapter 170, Laws of Xew York, 1S36.) 1337. In the Senate, May nth, the memorial of the Company for an amendment to the Act of April 23, 1836, granting it further aid, was read and referred to the Committee on Rail- roads. May 13th, Mr. Mack, from that committee, made a report against the memorial, and no aid was granted. 1838. The Legislature was flooded with petitions from all along the line praying for State aid for the railroad. They were referred to the Committees on Railroads. In the Assembly, February 13th, Mr. Holley, of that committee for that body. reported a bill entitled " An Act to amend an act to expedite 3°° BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the construction of a railroad from New York to Lake Erie, passed April 25, 1S36." The bill was opposed at every stage, under the lead of Preston King, of St. Lawrence County, but, March iSth, it passi sembly by a vote of 84 to 12. It passed the Senate April 14th, by a vote of 21 to 7, and was signed by moi Mui v \pril 18th. This was the first act of the Legislature that extended any real aid to the Erie project. It amended the act of April j ;. 1 836, so that when the Treasurer and two of the direct- ors of the Company should satisfy the State Comptroller by affidavit that Sjoo.ooo collected on the State stock had been expended in the survey and construction of the road, he should issue to them $300,000 of the special certificates, in sums of Si 00,000 each, evidence to be furnished by the Company that one installment had been expended according to law before another should issue ; and when the Company had expended this $300,000, the Comptroller to issue Sioo,- 000 for every similar sum of $100,000 expended by the Company in the actual construction of its railroad and col- lected on its capital stock, as well as the whole proceeds of the sales of State stock previously issued ; continuing the issues of $100,000 under like circumstances until the total amount of stock thus issued should equal $3,000,000 ; no part of this stock to be issued until ten miles of the railroad extending westerly from the Hudson River at Tappan, in the county of Rockland, and ten miles eastwardly from Dunkirk, in the county of Chautauqua, should have been located, and grading for such sections actually under contract. This act is Chapter 226 of the Laws of New York for 1838. ("Ad- ministration of James Gore King," page 43.) 1839. The feeling of the people, as indicated by the petitions that poured in on the Legislature at this session, was almost unanimously in favor of the abandonment of the railroad by the Company and the turning of the work over to the State. In response to these petitions and to a memorial from the Directors of the Company itself, January 19th, Mr. Scoles, of the Assembly Committee on Railroads, reported a bill pro- viding for State ownership of the railroad. It was referred to the Committee of the Whole. March 28th, Levi S. Chatfield, of Otsego County, intro- duced a bill postponing for ten years the loan to the Com- pany of the credit of the State for $3,000,000, or so much of it as had not been actually made. It was referred to the Committee on Railroads. In the Senate, February 13th, a communication from the Company setting forth the crisis in its affairs was read, and February 14th Noadiah Johnson, of the Committee on Rail- roads, reported on the petitions, and introduced a bill pro- viding for the construction of the railroad by the State. The bill was debated and amended in the Committee of the Whole until April 3d, when it was reported to the Senate. It was rejected by the close vote of 15 to 14. April 23d, the Assembly passed the Scoles bill of January 19th, providing for the construction of the railroad by the State, and it was sent to the Senate for action. It was re- ferred to the Committee on Railroads of the Senate, which re- ported it favorably April 26th. It was in daily debate in the Committee of the Whole until April 30th, special sessions be- ing held for the purpose. On that day it was reported, with amendments. The excitement was intense over the outcome of the vote on the bill, which resulted in its rejection by the close vote of 17 to 14. May 4th, Mr. Scoles, from the Assembly Railroad Commit- tee, reported against the Chatfield bill of March 28th, post- poning for ten years the loan of the credit of the State, and it was rejected. ("Administration of James Gore King," pages 46, 47.) 1840. In the Assembly, January 29th, Wm. H. L. Bogart, of Tompkins County, presented the petition of the Company for a modification of the act loaning the credit of the State. It was placed in charge of the Committee on Railroads. February 6th, Benjamin Enos, of Madison County, offered a resolution requesting the Comptroller to report to the House the amount of stock he had issued to the Company under the Act of 1838, and what amount had been issued the past year, and to report what evidence the Company had given him that it had collected any portion of its capital stock and expended it in actual construction of the railroad. Andrew G. Chatfield, of Steuben, offered an amendment by adding that the Comptroller also report the amount of stock that had been sold under his direction since January 1, 1839, for the benefit of the Company, and the sum obtained for it. The amendment was adopted. February 8th, Bates Cooke, State Comptroller, reported in response to the resolution. February nth, Elihu Town- send, Treasurer of the Company, reported in response to the Bogart resolution the evidence as to how much capi- tal of the Company had been expended in construction — $400,000. February 15 th, on motion of James J. Roosevelt, Jr., of New York, the Secretary of State was requested to lay before the House the annual reports, if any, of the proceedings and expenditures of the Company, pursuant to the nineteenth sec- tion of theirarticles of incorporation. February 19th, John C. Spencer, the Secretary of State, transmitted the reports pur- suant to the resolution. February 25th, on motion of James J. Roosevelt, Jr., the Company was ordered to furnish to the Secretary of State forthwith a copy of its report for 1839, in detail, pursuant to the act of incorporation, and the Secretary of State to sub- mit it to the House as soon as it was filed in his office, and that the Company report to the House without delay what provision had been made by it for the punctual redemption of the State stock issued to it, and punctual payment of the interests which had accrued, and should accrue, on it, THE STORY OF ERIE ?oi according to the act authorizing it. Adopted, 84 to 18. The Company's report for 1S39 was submitted February 25th. February 27th, on motion of Charles A. Mann, of Oneida Count}', the Company was required to report without delay the names of the purchasers of the Si 00,000 State stock is- sued by the Comptroller December 4, 1839; details of how the money received for it was spent ; names of stockholders who took the last Si 00,000 of the capital stock of the Com- pany (in addition to the 5300,000 previously expended); time each holder paid ; time when the call was made by the Company for such payment; whether paid in money, labor, materials, or otherwise ; amount of subscriptions to the stock during 1839, and names of the subscribers ; whether any certificates for stock were issued during 1839, and if so, when, in particular on contracts for materials or labor there- after to be furnished, and the names of such contractors and stockholders, and amount of stock issued to each ; and that the report be verified under oath of the President of the Company. ( >n motion of Mr. Roosevelt the resolution was amended so as to ask the date, amount, and nature of the contracts, names of the officers, Directors, and stockholders of the Com- pany, with their names and residences, and whether any changes had taken place since January 1, 183S ; whether the officers having the custody of the moneys derived from the sale of the State stock issued to the Company had given security, and what security, for safe-keeping and faithful ap- plication of them, and names of such officers ; whether any sales had been made of the stock of the Company since January 1. 1838, and at what time and rates; whether the stock had any, and if so what, market value ; and that said report be verified under oath of the President of the ( lompany. March 6th, Mr. Roosevelt moved that the Comptroller be directed to suspend the delivery of any State stock to the Company beyond S400.000 already issued, until further order of the Legislature. This was rejected by a vote of 82 to 25. Eleazar Lord, President of the Company, in response to the resolution of February 27 th, reported under date of March iSth, and the report was read in the Assembly March 20th. In the Senate, February 26th, Mr. Furman, of the Commit- tee on Railroads, to which had been referred the petitions of citizens of Delaware, Chenango, and Broome counties, and of various stockholders of the Company, that the railroad should be made a State work, reported in favor of the peti- tioners, and asked permission to introduce a bill to that effect, which was granted, but the bill was not introduced. March 25th, in discussion on a bill entitled "An Act to amend the Act entitled ' An Act to amend an Act entitled "An Act to expedite the construction of the Xew York and Erie Railroad," ' " an effort was made by the opponents of the bill to refer it to a select committee to inquire into and in- vestigate the Company's management as to alleged specula- tions in real estate, at the supposed terminations of the rail- road and along the line, by its Directors, managers, or persons interested in the Company, and whether the Company was influenced in locating the route and terminations by any speculation, but the resolution was voted down by a vote of 16 to 9. The aid bill passed the Senate by a vote of 15 to 10. March 3d, in the Assembly, Mr. Hubbard, from the Com- mittee on Railroads, brought in a report favorable to the peti- tions and memorial, and presented a bill entitled " An Act to facilitate the construction of the Xew York and Erie Rail- road." March 27 th, the Senate sent to the Assembly for con- currence a bill for a similar purpose. It was considered in the Committee of the Whole until April 23d, when it was re- ferred to a select committee composed of Elias Clarke of Livingston County; Demas Hubbard, Jr., and Arnold B. Watson of Otsego County. The bill was reported from the Select Committee the same day, with the title changed to " An Act to amend the several Acts in relation to the Ni w York and Erie Railroad." April 24th, it passed the Assembly by a vote of 57 to 29, A. G. Chatfield of Steuben County, George A. French of Chautauqua County, and John A. King of Queens County being excused from voting because they were stockholders in the Company and interested in the passage of the bill. April 28th, the Senate concurred in the bill as amended by the Assembly, by a vote of 15 to 9. This act, which is Chapter 140, Laws of Xew York for 1840, amended the several acts in relation to the Xew York and Erie Railroad, and authorized the Comptroller to issue, in conformity with the provisions of the Act of April 16, 1838, special certificates of stock to the Com- pany to the amount of Si 00,000, bearing such a rate of in- terest, not exceeding six per cent., as in the Comptroller's judgment would make the stock salable at par ; and for even- further sum of 850,000 expended by the Company the Comptroller to issue Sioo,ooo under the same conditions of interest rate, the whole amount of stock thus issued not to exceed 8400,000 during the year 1840 ; a Railroad Inspector to be appointed by the Governor to examine the work on the railroad, whenever stock was applied for, and certify to the Comptroller whether avails of previous State stock had been expended according to the intent of the act ; the Inspector to be paid by the Company from the proceeds of the stock the compensation allowed by law to canal appraisers ; stock to be withheld if the Inspector found the provisions of the act not fully and fairly complied with, until the Company complied with the conditions thereof ; stock that might be issued under this act to be deemed part of the $3,000,000 authorized to issue by the Act of April 23, 1836. The Com- pany was authorized to exchange the $100,000 in four and one-half per cent. State stock last issued to it for a like amount of the certificates provided for in this act; interest to be deposited at a Xew York city bank designated by the State Comptroller five days before it became due, and notice to be given him of the fact; in default thereof, the Comp- troller was to make provision for the payment of the in- terest, such advani e, with interest, to be refunded to the State by the Company on demand, in default of such pay- 302 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ment the Comptroller to enforce it by law. All the provisions of the Act of April 23, 1S36, except the first section, were to apply to the stock authorized by this act, which was to take effect immediately. 1 841. This year, there being no Erie legislation before the Senate or Assembly, the Assembly ordered an investigation of the affairs of the Company. The matter was referred to the Committee on Railroads— Erastus D. Culver of Washington County, Jonathan Arthur of Dutchess County, William C. Pierrepont of New York, Seth C. Hawley of Erie County, Reuben Howe of Montgomery County. It was subsequently placed in charge of a special committee — A. G. Chatfield, C. G. Graham, and William B. McClay. 1S42. January iSth, the Select Committee of the Assembly of 1 841, appointed to investigate the affairs of the Company, made its report, exonerating the Company from the charges. Petitions for aid to the railroad, remonstrances against it, remonstrances against the locating of the route in the Dela- ware Valley and its passing into Pennsylvania, were sent to the Senate by the thousand. They were referred to the Com- mittee on Railroads, March 1st. Mr. Scott, from that com- mittee, made a report and introduced a bill entitled an " Act in relation to the New York and Erie Railroad." Same day, Andrew B. Dickinson, of the Sixth District, introduced a bill entitled " An Act to expedite the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad by the State." March nth, James Faulkner, of the Sixth District, introduced a bill entitled an " Art to aid the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad." March 16th, Mr. Scott, of the Senate Committee on Rail- mads, reported in favor of the remonstrance of citizens of Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties against changing the route to the Delaware Valley, and was given leave to intro- duce a bill preventing the change. March 30th, the Committee on Railroads, to which had been referred the bill in relation to the construction of the railroad by the State, reported against the bill. April 1st, the Senate Railroad Committee's bill entitled " An Act in relation to the New York and Erie Railroad " was passed unanimously, and sent to the Assembly for action. April 6th, the Faulkner bill of March nth, extending the aid of the State to the railroad, was rejected by a vote of 18 to 12. April .Sth, Mr. Bockee, of the Senate Committee on Rail- roads, introduced a bill entitled "An Act to amend an act entitled ' An Act to incorporate the New York and Erie Rail- road Company.' " April nth, the bill " in relation to the New York and Erie Railroad," passed by the Senate April rst, was returned from the Assembly with a message stating that it had been passed without amendment as a majority bill. It was sent back to the Assembly with the information that in the opinion of the Senate the bill required a two-thirds vote, and it was laid on the table. Same day, the Senate received from the Assembly the Senate bill of April 8th, amending the act of incorporation of the Company, which the Assembly returned with amendments. The amendments were con- curred in, and the bill passed by a vote of 24 to 1. This was the act extending the time of completing the railroad. The Legislature adjourned by joint resolution, to meet in extra session August 16, 1842, the business of the extra session to be confined to the apportionment of the congres- sional districts of the State. Erie affairs were left in a most unsatisfactory situation. The Company had defaulted to the State, had gone into bankruptcy, and the road had been advertised by the Comptroller for sale. ("Administration of James Bowen," pages 57-66.) Favorable legislation was needed to insure the prospects of the Company and the railroad. AT THE EXTRA SESSION. August 1 6th, the proceedings of a convention held July 20th at Owego of delegates from the various counties inter- ested in the construction of the railroad were read in the Assembly and laid on the table. Mr. Leland offered a resolution that the joint resolution confining the business of the extra session to the apportion- ment of congressional districts be so modified as to allow the Legislature to proceed to business in relation to the sale of the New York and Erie Railroad, which was tabled. August i Sth, in the Senate, Mr. Faulkner offered a con- current resolution that so much of the joint resolution as confined the subject of legislation to congressional appor- tionment be so modified as to allow legislation on the fol- lowing concurrent resolution : Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That the Comptroller be and is hereby authorized and directed to suspend all further proceedings in the collection of the debt or debts due the State from the New York and Erie Railroad Company until the further order of the Legis- lature. Laid on the table. In the Senate, August 20th, Mr. Faulkner offered a reso- lution modifying the joint resolution of August 18th, confining the business of the extra session to the congressional appor- tionment, so that legislative action might be taken in relation to the sale of the New York and Erie Railroad by the Comp- troller, as follows : " That the Comptroller be notified and directed to bid in at the sale (advertised to take place at the Capitol in Albany on the 31st day of December next) of the New York and Erie Railroad, on behalf of the State, at an amount not exceeding that of the State mortgage of three millions of dollars and the interest thereon." John Hunter, of the Second District, moved to amend the THE STORY OF ERIE 303 Faulkner resolution (if the joint resolution was modified) so that it would read : "That the Comptroller be and is hereby authorized and directed to postpone the sale of the New York and Erie Railroad and its appurtenances until the first Tues- day of May next." Carried by a vote of 15 to n. August 27th, the Assembly concurred in the amended Faulkner resolution, anil the sale of the railroad was post- poned. The session of 1S42 left the Company newly fortified against adversity so far as the following acts could provide assistance : Act of April nth. — Extending for two years from date, the time pre- scribed by the act of incorporation of April 24, 1S32, for finishing and putting in operation one-fourth of the railroad, nothing in the act to be construed to impair the rights of the State by virtue of its lien on the road, nor to release the Company from any penalty or forfeiture, in consequence of any neglect or refusal of the Company to pay the interest on the State stock. (Chapter 227, Laws of New York, 1842) Concurrent Resolution, August 27, 1S42. Modifying the joint resolution of April gth, confining the subject of the special session of the Legislature to apportionment of congressional districts, and author- izing the Comptroller to postpone the sale of the railroad until the first Tuesday of May, 1S43. 1S43. January 23d, in the Senate, James Faulkner, from the Com- mittee on Railroads, to which was referred the memorial of the President and Company, and petitions praying for a bill giving the Company authority to negotiate a loan of £3,000,- 000, that would be a lien prior to the State's, introduced such a bill. It was referred to a select committee. February 8th, on motion of John Porter, of the Seventh District, it was Resolved, That the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company furnish, forthwith, to the Senate a statement showing whether or not the said Company, or any officer or agent of said Company, in their behalf, had, at the time when the President of said Company informed the Governor that the interest, which would become due on the stock loaned by the State to the said Company, on the first day of April then next, would be in default, any of said stock unsold, or if pledged, to whom and on what terms ; or any money de- posited in bank, and if so, how much ; and in what bank or banks the same is deposited. And that they further state whether the said Directors, or any officer i>f said Company, have assigned, transferred, or in any way pledged their said railroad, or any part thereof, or any and what part of their personal property ; and if so, when and to whom, and for what purpose said assignment, transfer, or pledge was made ; and that they send with said statement a copy or copies of any such assign- ments, transfers, or pledges. That the clerk deliver a copy of said resolution to the President and Directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. February 17th, the statement requested was submitted by the Company. (Senate Document No. 38, 1843.) March 3d, the Faulkner bill was reported from the Com- mittee of the Whole, and Nehemiab Piatt, of the Sixth Dis- trict, moved that one providing that the railroad be declared a State route be substituted for it, which was rejected, 21 to 5. March 4th, William C. Ruger, of the Fifth District, moved that the bill be referred to the Attorney-General for his opinion as to whether it was a two-thirds bill. Rejected, 17 to 10. The Faulkner bill received 19 votes to 18 against it, and the chair decided it passed. Mr. Ruger appealed from the decision of the chair, upon the ground that the bill was a two-thirds bill. Warm debate followed, and was continued daily until March 6th, when the chair was sustained by a vote of 14 to 12. March 20th, the memorial of the President, Managers, and Company of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, praying for the passage of a law to prohibit the New York and Erie from locating the road in the Delaware Yalley, between Port Jervis and the town of Cochecton, was read and referred to the Committee on Railroads. March 31st, Mr. Scott, from the Committee on Railroads, to which the memo- rial was referred, reported a bill on the subject, favorable to the petition. February 21st, in the Assembly, Robert Flint, of Allegany County, introduced a bill to provide for the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad by the State. April 5th, Samuel G. Hathaway, Jr., of the Select Com- mittee to which was referred the Senate bill in relation to the construction of the railroad, reported agreement with it with- out amendment. Willis Hall, of Albany, moved to amend by striking out all after the enacting clause, and inserting a section providing that the State should loan the Company $3,000,000 as soon as it had completed its railroad from Dunkirk to the Hudson River, and procured all necessary locomotives and cars and appurtenances for operating it. Rejected by a vote of 72 to 25. Alonzo Hawley, of Cattaraugus County, moved the substi- tution for the Senate bill of one directing the Comptroller to sell the road and bid in the same for the State, unless some one bid the amount due the State ; placing the road under the control of the Canal Commissioners, and whenever the enlargement of the Erie Canal should be resumed, one dollar to be spent on the construction of the railroad for every two spent on the canal, until the railroad was completed. Re- jected by a vote of 72 to 22. Frantic efforts were made to have the Senate bill referred to the Committee on Two-third Bills, and to the Attomey- ( leneral for his opinion, but they were defeated, as were the numerous motions to adjourn that were made during the warm debate. The bill was finally, on the motion of Jonathan Stratton, of Sullivan County, recommitted to the Committee of the Whole, which reported it favorably April 14th, and it received a vote of 68 to 25 votes against it. The Speaker declared it passed. Thomas Sherwood, of Onondago Count}-, appealed from trie decision of the chair, on the ground that the bill required a two-thirds vote. The decision of the chair was sustained by a vote of 54 to 39. 304 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The controversy on this point called forth a long state- ment from the Speaker, defending his decision and jus- tifying it. latest Erie bill, known as the Faulkner bill (Chapter 200, Laws of New York for 1S43), became a law April iSth. It suspended the sale of the railroad, as provided for by the Act of April 23, 1836, until July 4, 1850, on condition that the Company should actually resume work of construction within two years from date, prosecute it as fast as funds could be raised, and complete for use a single track from the Hudson River to Like Erie, with necessary turnouts, depots, etc., within seven years from date ; authorized the issue by the Company of bonds not exceeding S3 ,000,000 in the aggregate, of denominations not less than S200, principal to be made payable in not less than eight years from date, a portion or whole of the road to be pledged as security for such payment; bonds to be countersigned by a Railroad Commissioner, to be provided for ; duplicates to be filed in the Comptroller's office ; no bond to be valid until thus countersigned and filed ; bonds to be an absolute lien on the railroad and its appendages, or upon divisions thereof, prior to any lien or incumbrance which the State has by virtue of anv previous acts, upon condition that each bond should specify on its face that the State was not responsible for its payment : that within two years after the completion of the road the Legislature might pay the Company the cost of con- structing the road and its appendages, with seven per cent, interest, deducting the amount of stock loaned by the State and the net proceeds derived from the use of the railroad, am 1 take possession of it as the property of the State ; in case such purchase not being made, the Company to be released from all obligation to redeem the §3,000,000 of stock issued to it by the State, and all interest due thereon ; a Railroad Commissioner to be appointed by the Governor to examine the progress of the work, approve and countersign the bonds and contracts made by the Company, and see that the pro- ceeds of the bonds were faithfully and economically expended for the purposes on which they were authorized to be issued ; examine vouchers of all payments, and report to the Canal Board the result on the first Tuesday of January of each year; no contract exceeding S200 to be binding on the Company unless countersigned by the Commissioner, the State not to be liable for any contract, whether so counter- signed or not. In case of non-payment of bonds, the holder was authorized to deliver same to the Comptroller, who will proceed to sell the property pledged for their security. ("Administrations of William Maxwell and Horatio Allen," pages 67 and 71.) 1844. The Erie question at this session of the Legislature that aroused the most public interest was a proposed bill to authorize the City of New York to vote on the matter of sub- scribing §3,000,000 toward the aid of the railroad. ("Ad- ministration of Horatio Allen," page 70.) Remonstrances against such a bill, signed by Peter Lorillard, Jr., Peter Scher- merhorn, John Anthon, and others, were presented. The bill was never reached. March 25th, Mr. Faulkner introduced in the Senate a bill entitled "An Act to amend an act entitled 'An Act to incor- porate the New York and Erie Railroad Company.' " It passed the Senate April 2d, by a vote of 22 to 2, and the Assembly April 5 th. This act amended the articles of incorporation, so as to further extend the time for finishing and putting in operation one-fourth of the railroad for the period of two years from date. (Chapter 118, Laws of New York, 1S44.) 1845. The Company's affairs, instead of being made easy and promising by the Legislature of 1843, had been complicated by it, for when the Company essayed to place its bonds authorized by the Act of 1843, it was discovered that the lan- guage of the act was so ambiguous that there was grave doubt whether priority of lien of the bonds was not made to depend on the completion of the road within the prescribed time, and investors would not accept them as security. This was a circumstance of such vital importance that the Com- pany, in 1845, appeared again as an applicant for legislative interference, and solicited the passage of an act removing the cloud on the title of the proposed bonds to priority of lien. Another matter that affected the progress of the railroad's construction, and which required legislative authority before the Company could deal with it satisfactorily, was the final location of the route for the road between the Shawangunk Summit, in Orange County, and Binghamton, in Broome County. So the time of the session of 1845 was largely occupied with the consideration and discussion of bills having the settlement of these vexing questions in view. Petitions for, and remonstrances against, the surrender of the lien of the State, on the Company's property were pre- sented, and, on January 25th, Mr. Van Valkenburg, of the Assembly Committee on Railroads, to which they were re- ferred, reported in favor of such a surrender. January 2d, Mr. Van Yalkenburg offered the following : Resolved (if the Senate concur), That pursuant to the twelfth sec- tion of the act incorporating the New York and Erie Railroad, the consent of the Legislature be and is hereby granted allowing said Company to connect the railroad authorized by the said act, with a continuation of about 16 miles of the line thereof into the State of Pennsylvania, around the great bend of the Susquehanna ; and also to connect the same with a continuation of not exceeding 25 miles of the line thereof into said State of Pennsylvania, along the southerly side of the Delaware River, in the County of Pike, opposite to, and in order to avoid all interference with, the Delaware and Hudson Canal ; and also to connect the railroad with the Blossburgh and Corning Railroad, at the intersection thereof in the village of Corning ; provided that the line of said railroad shall, as heretofore contemplated, pass through the villages of Deposit, in Delaware, and Binghamton, in Broome counties. THE STORY OF ERIE 305 This was to meet the conditions of Pennsylvania legislation granting the railroad right of way through that State. Its purpose was covered by one of the provisions of the act subsequently passed. February 6th, the remonstrance and papers relative to the locating of the road in the Delaware Valley or out of the State, made in 1843, were ordered from the files and referred to the Committee on Railroads. February 2rst, Thornton M. Niven, of Orange County, offered a resolution to the effect that " the ability of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to meet its obligations to the State depends on its ability to carry on its regular business undisturbed by the operations of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and that the Comptroller be requested to furnish to the Assembly a statement showing the amount of the indebtedness of these companies to the State, and also whether they, or either of them, have paid the interest on their indebtedness to the State." March 1st, Mr. Morrison, from the Assembly Committee on Railroads, reported in favor of the resolution referring to the change of route of the railroad. March nth, Mr. Van Valkenburg, of the same committee, reported a bill entitled "An Act in relation to the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad." In the Senate, March 20th, Mr. Faulkner introduced a bill entitled " An Act to authorize the New York and Erie Rail- road Company to construct a branch terminating at New- burgh." This was passed March 2Sth, by a vote of 22 to 2, Carlos P. Scovill, of the Fifth, and Albert Lester, of the Seventh District, voting against it. The Assembly con- curred in the bill April 5 th. April 29th, the Van Valkenburg bill of March nth passed the Assembly by a vote of 92 to 20, and May 14th, on motion of Mr. Faulkner, it was concurred in by the Sen- ate by a vote of 24 to 4. This act amended the bonding act of 1843 and combined with it the provision for the final locating of the route of the railroad. ("Second Administration of Eleazar Lord," pages 76-85.) (Abstracts of Enabling Acts of 1845.) April itli. — Authorizing the Company to construct a branch of its road in Orange County, with single or double track, from the main line at a point not to exceed one and a half miles east of the village of Chester, and extending to the village of Newburgh, at such point as may be agreed upon between the Company and the trustees of that village, running through Front Street to the north part of the village, under direction of the trustees ; to purchase all the rights and priv- ileges that the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company held under its charter ; the Company not to connect its branch with any railroad leading into Pennsylvania or New Jersey, west of the Shawangunk Kidge, by virtue of any power contained in the charter of the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company. (Chapter 50, Laws of New York, 1845O May 14M. — Authorizing the Company, after obtaining bona fide subscriptions to the amount of $3,000,000, 25 per cent, paid in, and discharging all liens and incumbrances on its real estate, except the State lien, or satisfying the Attorney-General that owners of such liens have consented to the priority of the bonds to be issued over such liens, to issue to the State, in liquidation of the debt due the State, $3,000,000 in bonds of not less than $1,000 each, at not more than 7 nor less than 5 per cent, interest, payable in not less than six nor more than twenty years, the bonds to be numbered and registered in the Secretary of State's office, and become mortgages to the State on all the Company's property, and to have priority of lien over all previous obligations ; an agent appointed and paid by the Company, and approved by the Governor, to apply the bonds in the purchase of materials for the construction of the road, or to negotiate the sale at not less than par, and to apply the proceeds in payment for materials and labor ; the Comptroller to assign all bonds, the pur- chase of which has been contracted for through the agent, on ap- proval of the Board of Directors, to the purchasers, the assignment being endorsed upon the bonds, with no recourse to the State, but not more than $750,000 to be assigned until it shall be satisfactorily shown that the Company has expended $1,500,000 in actual construc- tion of the road since the passage of this act ; after which, assign- ments shall be made of bonds upon the showing of the Company that an additional sum equal to the amount of the bonds to be assigned has been paid in on the subscriptions to the capital stock and ex- pended in the construction of the railroad, and equal in amount to the aggregate amount of bonds already assigned and the amount de- sired to be assigned at any one time, but none of these subsequent assignments to be for more than $500,000 ; the Company, at the time of each and every assignment of bonds, to deposit with the Comp- troller a sum sufficient to meet the annual interest, such amount to be invested by the Comptroller in the stock of the-State, and the interest on the bonds to be paid by him when due out of such funds, all funds remaining in his hands, in case the railroad should be completed be- fore they are all expended, to be delivered to the Company ; no ma- terials purchased by proceeds of the bonds to be liable to seizure for any debt of the Company until permanently fixed in or upon the road, and all moneys obtained by sale of bonds to remain in the custody of the agent and be paid out by him for material or wages, on estimates for the one or certificates for the other. The time for completing a single track is extended for six years from date, and if the same is constructed within that time, adopting the route between the summit of the Shawangunk Ridge and a point one mile westward of the village of Binghamton, as established under this act, and cars and engines have passed over the same, affidavit to that effect having been filed by the President of the Company with the Comptroller, from the time of filing the affidavit the Company to be released from all lia- bility to the State for any debt due from it to the State, with the ex- ception that if any of the capital stock of the Company previously issued and certified or purporting to be paid in full shall not be ex- changed by the holder or holders, two shares for one, in stock to be hereafter issued, within six months, it shall not be subject to the conditions of this act, but the State shall retain the right to claim on such outstanding stock, and the Company shall pay to the State all dividends on it, the same to be applied to the credit of the Com- pany until the State shall receive in such dividends so much of its debt of $3,000,000, and the interest thereon, as would be the pro- portion of such outstanding stock to pay, provided the whole of such debt were collected ratably from all the stock outstanding. If the Company fails to complete the railroad according to the provisions of this act, it shall be liable to pay to the State the amount of all bonds assigned by the State for its use. This act gave the State the option of repaying, within one year after completion of the road, the cost of the road and its fixtures, with interest at 14 per cent, per annum, together with the amount expended by the Company for repairs, etc., deducting amount of tolls received and proceeds of any bonds as- signed by the Comptroller for the use of the Company, and taking possession of the property. No foreclosure proceedings to be had within one year after passage of this act. The Act of April 1$, 1S43. and al other acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act, repealed. 306 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The act further provided that the railroad "shall be constructs 1 be- tween Deposit, in Delaware County, and a point on the west side of Chenango River, one mile westerly of the village of Binghamton, in uity, on or near the route established by Benjamin via Nineveh and Page Brook, with the privilege of running the same through Chenango County : Provided said route is practica- ble and can be adopted without prejudice to the public interest, which shall be decided by the certificate of John B. Jervis, Orville \V. Childs, and Horatio Allen, engineers, or by any two of them. If they decide that route not to be practicable, they shall locate the route from Ik'posit t,, and through the village of Binghamton to a point one mile westerly of that village, or any other route, or by the great bend of the Susquehanna River ; and the Company is authorized to construct the road in the county of Susquehanna in the State of Penn- sylvania, as may be necessary for that purpose ; the engineers to sur- vey all the proposed routes between those points. I : ' ..mpanv is required to construct the road between the summit of the Shawangunk Ridge and Deposit, within the State of New York, through the interior of Sullivan County, and, if necessary, through a portion of the county of Ulster, providing a practicable route can be obtained, which is to be decided by the same engineers ; but in case they shall not so decide, the Company is authorized to construct a portion of its road on such route as the Directors shall decide through the counties of Sullivan and Ulster, the engineers to survey all the routes proposed between the two points. The Company is authorized to connect the railroad with the Corn- ing and Blossburg Railroad, at or near the village of Corning, and with the Williamsport and Elmira Railroad, at or near the village of Elmira ; no bonds to be issued or assigned by the Comptroller until after the route is located between the Shawangunk summit and De- posit, and Deposit and Binghamton, according to the provisions of this act. (Chapter 325, Laws of New York, 1845.) I846. Petitions from Chenango and Delaware counties for an act compelling the Company to construct its railroad on the northern route, and against locating any part of the route in Pennsylvania; and from the Directors for an act to amend the Act of May 14, 1845, as regarded the locating of the route, were presented early in the session. In the Assembly, March 16th, Mr. Titus, from the Com- mittee on Railroads, reported in favor of such a bill. March 28th, it having been recommitted to the Committee on Rail- roads, Mr. Hush reported in favor of its passage. Mr. Blod- gett, from the same committee, reported against the passage of any bill permitting the railroad to go into Pennsylvania and against ignoring Sullivan County. The bill was returned to committee. March 31st, Mr. Titus re-reported it with- out amendment. The debates on and amendments to the bill in the Assembly were so lively and numerous that, April 9th, on motion of Alvah Worden, of Ontario County, it was referred to a select committee of eight, consisting of one member of Assembly from each Senate District. The Speaker, William C. Crain, appointed from the First District Mr. Titus; from the Second, George T. Pierce; from the Third, Henry C. Haynor; from the Fourth, Sid- ney Lawrence ; from the Fifth, Benjamin F. Cooper; from the Sixth, Andrew G. ('Hatfield ; from the Seventh, Mr. Wor- den; from the Eighth, Mr. Blodgett. April 10th, the committee reported the bill, with amend- ments, and it was agreed to. Benjamin Bailey, of Putnam County, offered an amendment that if the railroad was built out of the State, or connected with any other railroad, the Company should forfeit its charter. Not agreed to. April 2 2d, the bill reported by the Select Committee of the Assembly was rejected, less than two-thirds of the members voting for it. All efforts to reconsider the vote failed. May 2d, Mr. Wor- den introduced the bill anew, and it was passed by a vote of 99 to o. May 4th, in the Senate, Mr. Hard introduced a bill en- titled " An Act to amend an act in relation to the construc- tion of the New York and Erie Railroad, and for other pur- poses " ; passed May 14, 1845. Same day the Worden bill was received from the Assembly, and referred to the Com- mittee on Railroads, which reported in favor of its passage, without amendment. May 7 th, the Senate passed the Hard bill by a vote of 23 to 4. May 8th, it was amended in the Assembly, and passed, May 9th, by a vote of 95 to 20. Same day, the Senate agreed to the Assembly amendments, and the bill passed by a vote of 23 to 1, Mr. Putnam, of the Eighth District, voting against it. May 13th, the Senate passed the Worden bill by a vote of 23 to o. {Abstracts of the Bills.) May wlh. — Repealed the section of the Act of May 14, 1845, re- ferring to the survey of the route by John B. Jervis, Orville W. Childs, and Horatio Allen, and appointed John B. Jervis, Orville \V. Childs, Horatio Allen, civil engineers, and Frederick Whittlesey of Monroe County, Jared Wilson of Ontario County, William Dewey of Jefferson County, and Job Pierson of Rensselaer County, Commis- sioners to determine the route by surveys, and if they determine that there was no practicable route between the Shawangunk Ridge and Deposit, through the interior of Sullivan County, the Company had the privilege of leaving its contemplated route, or the completed road, at any point west of Goshen, in Orange County, and locate the road through Ulster County, on the east side of Shawangunk Mountains, pur- suing the valley of the- Wallkill, to near the village of Rondout ; thence up the Rondout Creek, crossing to Esopus Creek ; up that creek to the Barberbush Kill, in the town of Shandaken, Ulster County ; up that creek and through Stony Clove to the Schoharie Kill, in the town of Hunter, Greene County ; down the Schoharie Kill to the Bear Kill; up that kill to the town of Stamford, Delaware County; then across through the town of Harpersfield to the Charlotte River ; then down the same and the Susquehanna River to the best point to cross at or near Binghamton, or any other route the said Company shall determine to follow through Ulster, Greene, Delaware, or Sullivan counties ; or the Company is authorized to fix and locate the line, the Legislature re- serving power, at its next annual meeting, to direct otherwise, be- tween the Shawangunk Ridge and Deposit, along the valley of the Delaware River, and across the Delaware to the Pennsylvania side, but not to construct between those points more than thirty miles in length of their railroad on the Pennsylvania bank of the Delaware, the route to cross the Delaware, between Carpenter's Point, in Orange County, and the Glass House Rocks, in Pike County, Pa., and recross the Delaware into New York State, not less than three nor more than ten miles above the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, the road on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware to be constructed as not to THE STORY OF ERIE 307 contract the natural flow and expansion of the river at high floods, nor impede nor obstruct the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in its plan for the erection of an aqueduct at or near the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, nor in any manner to disturb or injure the works or impede the business of this canal company in Pennsylvania or New York. If the Commissioners found none of the routes practicable between Deposit and Binghamton, the Company was authorized to construct the railroad on any other route, or by the great bend of the Susque- hanna River, and in or through Susquehanna County, Pa. The com- pensation of the Commissioners to be determined by the Secretary of State and the Comptroller. The report of the Commissioners on the result of their surveys to be made to the next Legislature, on or be- fore January 15th. (Chapter 199, Laws of New York, 1S46.) May 13/A. — Extended the time of obtaining the $3,000,000 sub- scription to the stock from one year to two years and six months, and the time when foreclosure proceedings might begin, from one year to two years and six months. (Chapter 318, Laws of New York, 1S46.) 1847. A large part of the time of the Legislature was taken up at this session by the petitions for the change of route and remonstrances against it. January 14th, John B. Jervis, Horatio Allen, J. Wilson, and William Dewey, of a majority of the Board of Commissioners, reported voluminously in favor of the Pennsylvania and Dela- ware Valley route, and the change between Deposit and Binghamton. F. Whittlesey, Orville \Y. Childs, and Job Pierson, of the minority, by request of the Assembly, reported their reasons for not agreeing with the majority in ordering the change of route. March Sth, William B. W right, of Sullivan County, intro- duced a bill providing for the construction of the railroad entirely within the State. March 30th, Mr. Leavens, from a majority of the Committee on Railroads, reported against the bill. Mr. Wright, from the minority, reported in favor of it. April 8th, a bill entitled " An Act in relation to the location and construction of the New York and Erie Railroad" was introduced. This was a bill prohibiting the change of route. It did not pass. The Legislature adjourned May 13 th until September 8, 1S47. October Sth, Mr. Hard introduced a bill to amend the act passed May 11, 1846, in relation to the New York and Erie Railroad. It was passed October 12th, by a vote of 19 to i, Harvey R. Morris, of the Second District, voting against it. October iSth, the bill passed the Assembly (there is no record in the Journal of the vote). The act amended the Act of May 14, 1845, and authorized the Company, to enable it to avoid the obstacles on the Pennsylvania side of the Dela- ware River, at the point known as the Glass Factor)' Rocks (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages 90, 91), to cross the river above the Glass House Rocks, and below Bolton Basin, provided the Company obtain the consent in writ- ing of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to such proposed change, nothing in the act to impair any right or privilege the Company had by existing laws to extend its rail- road across the Delaware and connect with any railroad in Pennsylvania at or near or opposite Carpenter's Point or Port Jervis, or any other privilege connected therewith, already granted. (Chapter 316, Laws of New York, 1847.) 1848. This was the first year since 1832 that the Legislature of New York was not occupied in special matters of some kind relating to the New York and Erie Railroad. This year, however, an act was passed (March 26th) authorizing the formation of railway corporations. This was the original "General Railroad Law," but was passed largely through the influence of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, as it relieved the future of its road from many of the restrictions of the charter which time had shown to be against its general interests. (Chapter 140, Laws of New York, 184S.) 1849. This year there was absolutely nothing in the Legislature that in any way affected the affairs of the Erie, even in a general way. 1850. The changes made in 1S49 in the survey of the route through the western counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua affected the interests of many residents in those counties, and at the session of the Legislature for 1S50 petitions poured in from them for the passage of a law compelling the Company to construct its road on the route surveyed in 1845. Peti- tions for removing all obstacles against the free transit of freight and passengers from the New York and Erie Railroad Company through New Jersey were also numerous from all the counties along the line, except Rockland. This was the beginning of the movement to run trains to Jersey City as the terminus, instead of Piermont. The petitions were voted on adversely. February 20th, the Senate passed a bill in response to the petitions of the people of the western counties, compelling the Company to build its railroad on the survey of 1S45, an d sent it to the Assembly for concurrence. February 27 th. the Assembly Railroad Committee, to which it was referred, re- ported against the bill, and the report was sustained. February 31st, Assemblyman Allison offered a resolution that a select committee be appointed to inquire into the amount of money the Company had expended in the con- struction of its railroad ; the amount expended for all pur- poses on the line abandoned east of Binghamton and the part proposed to be abandoned west of Olean ; the amount expended in acquiring the right to run its road through a part of Pennsylvania, and to whom it was paid ; and the several amounts paid to procure or prevent the passage of laws by the Legislature of this State, and to whom ; the committee to 3 o8 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES have power to send for persons and papers. The resolution was laid on the table, and on February 28th, James Little, of Onondaga County, offered a resolution providing that if the committee was appointed, it should be instructed to inquire whether the Company had complied with the requisition of the V t of May 14. 1845 ; whether the bonds issued to the Company by the State were not sold below par, in violation of that act : whether the Company had not mortgaged its road and the proceeds thereof, and if so, to whom, for what amount, and by what authority ; whether money obtained by the Company for the construction of the road had not been applied to the payment of interest : whether the bonds of the Company had not been hypothecated by it for money bor- rowed, and if so, to whom and what amount'of bonds; and if sold by the persons to whom they were hypothecated, at what rate each bond was sold ; whether in the judgment of the committee the State ought not to resume the lien con- ditionally released by the Act of May 14, 1S45. The resolu- tion was laid upon the table. February 21st, Senator Johnson introduced a bill imposing tolls upon freight transported on the New York and Erie Railroad. It was referred to the Finance Committee, which reported that it was inexpedient to pass such a bill at that time. These and similar harassing measures were to prevent the passage of a bill which the Xew York and Erie Railroad Company was the sponsor for, and was using ail its endeavors to carry through the Legislature. This was finally accom- plished on April 20th, in spite of the filibustering tactics of its opponents. This act is what is known as the General Railroad Law. It repealed the Act of March 27, 1S48. It still further widened the scope of the Erie plans. Sec. 51 provided that nothing in the act should authorize or permit the Xew York and Erie Railroad Company to abandon the use of its road in the county of Rockland, east of Suffern depot. (Chapter 140, Laws of New York, 1850.) 1852. In the Senate, February 6, 1852, on petition of citizens of Rockland County, whether the Company had exceeded its powers in certain bonds, on motion of Abraham B. Conger, of the Seventh District, the President appointed a select committee to inquire into the matter. The committee were: Mr. Conger: Azor Taber, of the Eleventh District, and Ashley Davenport, of the Twenty-first District. Another petition from Rockland County for a committee to inquire whether the Company had not exceeded its cor- porate powers, was presented. It was referred to a special committee. March 1st, the matters were taken from the committee and referred to the Committee on Railroads, and they were not heard of again during the session. Efforts were made by the enemies of the Company in the Assembly to pass an act compelling it to pay tolls to the State on its traffic, without success. IN THE PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE. 1 84 1. As early as 1841 the people of northeastern Pennsylvania foresaw the importance of the railroad to them, and antici- pated the change in the route from the roundabout course of the Wright survey, from the Delaware Valley to the Susque- hanna Valley, to one more direct and feasible, and secured the passage of an act (February 18, 1841) by the Pennsylva- nia Legislature, authorizing the New York and Erie Railroad Company " to construct said road through a portion of Sus- quehanna County, in the State of Pennsylvania, because it had been represented that in the county of Broome the Com- pany could not build its railroad further, except by tunnelling the mountain west of Deposit, or using stationary power." (No. 17, Pamphlet Laws of Pennsylvania, 1S41.) 1851. In the Assembly the matter of the petition of citizens of Rockland Count)', to prevent the Company from diverting traffic by way of the New Jersey railroads, and the remon- strances from New York City and all along the line against the passage of such a bill, were referred to the Committee on Railroads, March 12th. The committee were: Joseph B. Yarnum, Jr., of New York ; John Horton, of St. Lawrence County; George Lesley, of Rensselaer County, and Wolcott J. Humphrey, of Wyoming County. The committee reported April 1st, sustaining the remonstrances, and reported a bill simply providing against the running of freight trains over any railroads in the State of New Jersey, leaving the Com- pany at liberty to transfer goods from its own to other trains if the consignees desired it. The committee learned nothing to justify the impression that the Company had in any way violated its charter. The prayer of the petitioners was not granted. 1846. The question of right of entry into Pennsylvania by the railroad was the one that seriously confronted the Company at this period of the work, and great opposition to it was made by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company and others in Pennsylvania. The Legislature of that State, how- ever, at last passed an act (March 26, 1846), amending the Act of February iS, 1841, so that the Company was author- ized to extend the line of its railroad from a point near the village of Port Jervis, across the Delaware, into the county of Pike, and thence up the valley near the shore of the river, a. distance not to exceed thirty miles, to a point not exceeding ten miles above the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, pro- vided that the road cross the river into Sullivan County not less than three nor more than ten miles above the mouth of the Lackawaxen River, and constructed so as not to obstruct the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in the building of its aqueduct across the Delaware at Lackawaxen, or injure THE STORY OF ERIE 309 the rafting channel of the river, or impede the business of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the railroad to cross the river at some point between Carpenter's Point and the Glass House, and permit a connection at or near Carpenter's Point, in Pike County, with any railroad now chartered or hereafter to be chartered by Pennsylvania ; the Company to keep at least one manager, toll-gatherer or other officer, a resident of Pike County, and one in Susquehanna County. This act was not to take effect until the New York Legislature should au- thorize the Company, and the Company should consent, to make a connection with the Blossburg and Corning Railroad, at or near Corning, and with the Williamsport and Elmira Rail- road at or near the village of Elmira. Among the conditions of the act was one compelling the Company to regulate its tolls so that the charge on anthracite and bituminous coal should not exceed one and one-half cents per ton per mile ; the Company to pay the State, after the completion of the road to Lake Erie, Si 0,000 a year, any failure to do so to forfeit all the rights granted in the act ; the Company to make a sworn statement to the Auditor-General of the cost of the work in the State, and to pay a tax on its stock to an equal amount of such cost, at the rate similar property was taxed ; the Company to make a sworn statement to the Legislature, in January of each year, of its business for the previous year ; a scire facias to issue from the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania and be served on the President or any officer or agent of the Company, on complaint that any of the provisions of this act had been violated, and show cause, the act to be null and void if such were the case. (No. 17, Pamphlet Laws of Pennsylvania, 1846.) 1848. The interests of the Company were all centred in the Pennsylvania Legislature of 184S, and its future depended on the action of that body in the matter of a necessary change of the point of entry of the railroad into that State. ( '•Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages 8S-90.) Fa- vorable action was taken, and an act was passed amending the Acts of 1S46 and 1841 ; giving the Company author- ity to change the place of crossing the Delaware into Pike County from " some point between Carpenter's Point and the Glass House" to "some point between Carpen- ter's Point and Bolton Basin," provided that the Com- pany should erect, by the first day of October, 1852, a permanent and substantial bridge across the Delaware, between Sim's Clip and the rope ferry at Matamoras, with a double track, one for a railroad, the bridge to be kept in good order and repair by the Company "forever thereafter," the Company to receive the same rate of tolls as was charged at the Delaware Bridge at Easton, Pa. ; the Company to con- nect any railroad that might be constructed to the abutment of the bridge with its railroad by a branch railroad on one of the tracks of the bridge to the main line, at or near the depot at Port Jervis ; no tolls to be exacted for railroad passengers or freight passing over the bridge ; the Company to begin the construction of the bridge and branch railroad with all proper speed, if a railroad was built to the Delaware River at the bridge before January 1, 1852 ; the Company to pay all immediate and consequent damages to the proprietor of the rope ferry at Matamoras in consequence of construction of the bridge, the last item not to exceed $3,000 ; the penalty of refusal or neglect to comply with the provisions of this act to be the assessment by the State of Pennsylvania on the Com- pany and the collection of a tax of one dollar for each pas- senger carried on the railroad in Pennsylvania, until a sum sufficient to construct the bridge and pay all damages to private property ; a refusal to pay the tax to be followed by the Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania appointing a col- lector and adopting measures to enforce the payment ; non- compliance with any of the provisions of the act to be fol- lowed by the repeal of the Act of 1841, and all the supple- ments thereto, nothing in the act to be construed as exonerat- ing the Company from the payment of the Si 0,000 annual bonus to the State. (No. 262, Pamphlet laws of Pennsyl- vania, 1848.) With the passage of the General Railroad Law by the New York Legislature, and the action of the Company under it, the Erie won its way from the Ocean to the Lakes, after a per- sistent fight of twenty years. These two extracts from letters of Benjamin Loder, who was President of Erie at the time, are significant : Albany, S March, 1S50. Delavan House. I find from the number and variety of subjects requiring attention here, that I cannot possibly get through with them this week. . . . Our road is so large and its interests so extended and com- plicated that it requires some one on the watch, to guard it against secret and open enemies, or, if nothing else, against injudicious leg- islation. Albany, 5 April, 1S50. I have been here two days, anxiouslywatching and managing in be- half of our favorite bill, which I thought, when I returned to the city last week, could not fail of being passed without much trouble. All assured me then that it would pass almost without opposition, and I expected every day to hear of its passage. But I found it in the same condition when I returned as when I left. Immediately on my arrival here I commenced my labors, and succeeded in getting it reported to the Senate, and referred to a select committee to report complete. In the afternoon it was unanimously reported by the committee and laid over until to-day, when it was called up and very unexpectedly and seriously opposed — and finally amended and passed by a small ma- jority, but the amendment rendered it necessary to send it back to the House for concurrence. ... I have just returned from the ( qiitol, and am glad to say that the amendment was concurred in by a handsome majority. We have thus succeeded in carrying every bill we wished passed, and defeating every bill we wanted to defeat. The bills referred to were the General Railroad Law, by means of which the Company was to be enabled to extricate itself from the narrow provisions of the charter, then nearly twenty years old, and bills calculated to prevent the Company from taking advantage of that law, even if it should pass. THE BUILDING OF IT. AS IT PROGRESSED, STEP BY STEP, FROM 1832 TO 185 1. Early Talk About the Best Way to Build It — rhilip Church Would Build It Above the Ground, on the Strickland Plan of 1S25 — Later Ideas All Queer — Work Begun in 1S35 — Suspended in 1837 — The Resumption of 1S3S-40, and the First Contractor — Driving the First Spike at Piermont — Manipulating the Stock to Raise Money — How Contractors Enforced Settlements — How the First Rails Were Bought in England — Opening of the First Section of Railroad in 1S41 — Bankruptcy — Work Resumed in 1846 — The Shin Hollow War — Pioneer Trains and Incidents — Tragedy and Comedy — Getting the First Train Through the Delaware Valley and to Binghamton — The Cascade Bridge and Starucca Viaduct — How They Were Built — On to the Alleghany — Bloody and Fatal Riots — Driving the Last Spike — To Lake Erie at Last — The Newburgh Branch — Additions That Came Later. CRUDE AND HALTING PRELIMINARIES. In the days when the agitation of the project for a railroad from the Hudson River to Lake Erie began, railroad building was but a budding science in this country, and the ideas that prevailed as to the best means of constructing such thorough- fares were extremely crude. In 1830, two years before the Erie was chartered, Robert L. Stevens had designed the T rail, the first specimen of which was rolled in 1831 — the rail that is now in universal use the world over — but still knowl- edge of railroad construction came to our engineers slowly. J. Elf reth Watkins, in his monograph on " The Development of the American Rail and Track," published by the National Museum in its report for 1888-89, says: "The British rail- way projectors had the advantage of being able to call into their service a trained force of civil engineers, men on whose judgment the wealthy capitalist was willing to supply the money for the proposed improvement. Many of the civil engineers who were first called into the service of the Ameri- i an railroads were connected with the Army Engineer Corps, having obtained their training at West Point, the only institu- tion in the United States where engineering was taught dur- ing the first quarter of the century. In some cases, however, these surveys were made by canal or road engineers, who had obtained experience in canal and turnpike construction." Of the latter class were the surveyors for the original route of the New York and Erie Railroad in 1834. As early as the summer of 1832 differences had come be- tween the friends of the Erie project in the western part of New York State and those in the eastern part, over the efforts of the latter to have the survey for the route made by the Gov- ernment. Philip Church united the western incorporators of tl" ' ompany (as he termed those of the western New York counties who were mentioned in the charter) into opposition to that plan, but the Government survey was defeated by other causes. (Chapter III., pages 16 to 18.) The western incorporators, failing to induce the Company to make its own survey, united in pressing the importance of the project upon the attention of the New York Legislature, with the purpose of having the State itself survey the route for the proposed rail- road. One of the chief objections those unfavorable to the railroad offered to its further recognition by the State was that the climate of the region through which much of it was to pass was such that in winter the deep snow would at times entirely put a stop to the use of the railroad, and the ice forming on the rails in the late fall, the winter, and the early spring months, would frequently preclude the use of the loco- motive, while the severe frosts would weaken the foundations. How little had ideas of the practical science of railroad construction taken possession of the projectors of the Erie as late as 1834 is shown by the plan then put forward as the one on which this railroad was to be built, as stated in the ar- gument of the western incoqjorators before the New York Assembly Committee on Railroads, in meeting the objections of the opponents of the railroad. "Very smooth ice," it said, " forming on the rails prevents the adhesion of the locomotive engine. Those who have been eye-witnesses say that this is obviated on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad by plac- ing one of the cars before the locomotive. The wheels of the car easily break and displace the ice. It is understood, snow is removed from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad by a ma- chine preceding the locomotive, supposed to be in the shape of a double-moulded plough, and is perhaps what is called the Swedish snow plough. The use of a snow plough ex- tending across the whole width of a railroad, on rails within a few inches of the ground, would produce in our deep snows very considerable retardation. It is proposed to build our rails a considerable height from the earth, which, in our great command of wood, can be easily accomplished, in some such mode as the following : Ft. In. The top of the cone will be higher than the ground o 6 On each cone place a block of wood 12 inches square and 14 inches in height I 2 Tying the bottom of the blocks together by transverse beams, and the tops of the blocks together by longitudinal beams, on these place rails, say 5 inches by 12 1 o Top of rails higher than the ground 2 S THE STORY OF ERIE 3 11 " Snow very seldom lies to the depth of two feet eight inches. A small snow plough would readily clear the rails of snow. The accumulation of snow in the space between the rails would be of no importance where horse-power was not made use of. It might be difficult to fasten rails of the depth of 1 2 inches so firmly in chairs as to prevent leverage. In that event they may be rendered firm by transverse beams, connecting the opposite and parallel rails, midway between the cones." This plan, on which it appears Philip Church, himself an engineer and a man of scientific attainments, proposed that the original Erie should be built, was based on the report of William Strickland, who had been sent abroad in 1S25 by the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improve- "ments, to study the subject of English railroads. Although his report was made in 1826, before a foot of railroad had been put down in America, the Erie projectors, eight years later, had heard of no better or newer plans of railroad build- ing. ''Where blocks of stone can be easily and cheaply obtained of various lengths on the line of the road" (thus the Strickland report), " they ought to be used in the follow- ing manner, viz. : Dig out shallow holes about a foot or eighteen inches in depth, at four feet apart from centre to centre, and fill them in with small broken stone or gravel, flush with the surface of the road, upon which the foundation props may be laid and bedded securely from the action of the frost. Where stone is not to be had, or but at expensive rate, I would recommend the use of scantling pieces of oak or locust, six inches by eight inches, cut of various lengths, not less than two feet, which may be sawed out of one another lengthwise in the shape of a long wedge. These should be driven into the bottom of a square or round pit, dug out about two feet in width, and from two to three feet in depth, and the pit afterwards filled up with broken stone, rammed in on all sides. The effect of the stone will be to keep the post or prop firm in its place, and to prevent its rising up by action of the frost, which can have no power to move it laterally. When the posts have been secured in this manner, the heads of them throughout any section of the line may be sawed off to the proper level. The iron chairs or standards must in this case be cast with a flange on the bottom, of three inches in depth, and a corresponding mortise cut into the head of the post to receive the flange of the chair, which may be pinned through in the usual manner of mortise and tenon." In the severe climate of the region through which the pro- posed Southern Tier railroad was to pass, the foundation stones of the railroad, it was agreed, should be made in the form of an upright quadrilateral cone, about twenty-four inches square at bottom, eight inches at top, and thirty inches high. The New York Legislature authorized the making of the survey for the route at the expense of the State, and the work was completed in the fall of 1834. (Chapter IV., pages 24 to 31.) The survey gave a choice of three east- em termini for the route : Tappan, Nyack, and Slaughter's Landing, " opposite Sing Sing," all on the Hudson River. In putting forward the possibilities of Slaughter's Landing as the terminus of the Erie at the Hudson, Engineer Seymour re- ported that the point was " about seven and a half miles above Tappan Landing (Piermont), and ascends the ridge between the Hudson and the Hackensack rivers, through a gap near Rockland Pond, which discharges into the Hackensack River. In passing the ridge, a stationary power will be required on the east side between the Hudson and the summit. The length of the plane proposed is 1,200 feet, the vertical height 190 feet, requiring a stationary steam engine of sixty horse- power. It may be well here to remark that the waters of Rockland Pond may be turned into the Hudson River by means of a tunnel between eighty and ninety feet below the summit, and the water used to operate upon the machinery for the inclined plane, instead of the stationary steam engine, and still afford a valuable water power for other purposes." (From Engineer Elletfs Report of I/is Surrey, 1S34.) The railroad to Ithaca, which is already open to the public, and designed to effect a communication between the Susquehanna and Cayuga Lake, and the great country traversed by the Erie Canal, cannot but be regarded as a valuable accession to the resources of Owego, even supposing the improvement to terminate here. But this will not be permitted. A company is already formed and the con- struction of a steamboat commenced, which is intended to ply be- tween this village and the termination of the Pennsylvania Canal, at the mouth of the Lackawanna ; which, it is believed, will be able to bear the salt and plaster of the North to a Southern market, and re- turn with the anthracite coal of that region, thus creating an impor- tant source of revenue to the railroad, and supplying, reciprocally, wide districts of country with the mineral wealth which nature has denied them. And, from my personal knowledge of the character of the Susquehanna, I have little doubt of the successful result of the experiment. "The railroad to Ithaca" was the Ithaca and Owego Rail- road, the second railroad chartered in the State of New York. It extended from Ithaca to Owego, twenty-nine miles, and the motive power was horses and inclined planes. The steamboat that was to " bear the salt and plaster of the Xorth to a Southern market, and return with the anthracite coal of that region, thus creating an important source of revenue to the railroad, and supplying, reciprocally, wide districts of country with the mineral wealth which nature has denied them," must have exhausted, before the boat could be finished, the capital of the company that had set out to build it, for it never called for " the salt and plaster of the Xorth," and consequently never returned with the anthracite coal " of that region." The "salt ami plaster of the Xorth," at that time, were the yield of the Syracuse salt springs, and the bed of plaster at the foot ot Cayuga Lake, long since exhausted. Plaster is no longer a local item of traffic, but the " salt of the North" now comes chiefly from the great wells of Livingston and Wyoming counties, X. Y., ami it is transported largely by the Erie Railroad, as the principal wells are along the line of the Buffalo Division. BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES (From Engineer Ellett's Report Of His Survey, 1S34.) The western end of this section (between Elmira and Painted Post) has also its local improvement, with which the interest of the citizens near the southern line of this State and the northern counties of Penn- sylvania is cli 1 ted. The route of the proposed railroad from the iron and bituminous coal district, near the headwaters of Tioga River, was surveyed in 1S32, and pronounced in the report of the en- gineers to be perfectly feasible. It cannot be doubted that the con- struction of the New York and Erie Railroad would accelerate the de- velopment of the mineral wealth of that region, and increase to a considerable extent the revenue of the Chemung Canal, through which the supplv intended for the northern counties of the State would nec- essarily This " local improvement " is the present Fall Brook Rail- nil the prophecies made by Engineer Ellett as to the manner in which that railroad and the proposed Erie would develop the bituminous coal region of that part of Northern Pennsylvania long ago came true. Those early engineers were very solicitous for the interests of the canals in all that they did, and their surveys for railroads were made with the idea that if the railroads were in any way to interfere with the canals, the railroads should seek some other route. The Chenango Canal, the Chemung Canal, the proposed Genesee Canal, were all taken into tender consideration when the 1 surveys for the New York and Erie Railroad were made, and the Company was admonished by its engineers not to take any steps that might result in the drawing of business away from those canals. Where is the Chenango Canal now? A railroad occupies it. Where is the Chemung Canal? A railroad runs where it once was. Where is the Genesee Canal? A railroad occupies the greater part of its bed. Where is the Delaware and Hudson Canal, even, which the original engineers particularly commended to the careful con- sideration of the Railroad Company, and which drove the Erie out of New York State into Pennsylvania, and then tried to prevent the railroad from going through that State? It is abandoned (1898), and a railroad will eventually follow its bed or tow-path, and the company that constructed the canal has made arrangements to have its coal transported to mar- ket over the very railroad whose building it so strenuously contested. (From Engineer Filet fs Report of His Surrey, 1S34.) The country north of this part (Olean) of the Alleghany River is of rather superior cast, and the numerous valleys formed towards the heads of the streams flowing into it are generally in a good state of cultivation. The district immediately south of it, between the Alle- ghany and the State line, is yet a wilderness. The mills on the river and it-, tributaries cut many millions of feet of lumber annually, which is rafted down the Alleghany, and supplies the market of Pittsburg and the country on the borders of the Ohio and Mississippi. Bitu- minous coal is said to be found about forty miles from Olean Point, towards the head of the Alleghany River. I know not whether the been surveyed for the purpose of ascer- ; the quantity or quality of the mineral, or the facilities the country affords for the construction of a road from the mines into the State of New York. It is probable thai this has never been done, for it is the prevail! in the adjacent counties that the supply is inexhaustible, the present situation of the country through which it must pass before it could be delivered in the populous dis- tricts on the Erie Canal, is such as topreclude the hope that the adventure would be profitable, until more effectual means can be commanded for its transportation. The reported existence of bituminous coal was well founded, and the Bradford Division of the Erie now penetrates the district, which is largely owned by corporations, that, al- though collateral, are really part of the Erie body. The Wright survey of 1834 established that the construe-' tion of a railroad through the Southern Tier and western counties was feasible, but the State did not think well enough of the project to take hold and complete it as a public work, as was urged upon it, and the New York and Erie Railroad Company at last began the task itself, Eleazar Lord, the first President of the Company, having been succeeded in 1835 by James Gore King. (" Administration of James Gore King," page 32.) FIRST CONTRACTS, *AND BREAKING GROUND FOR THE YVORK. For reasons which are given in detail in the " General History" (page 36), the Company decided to begin work on the construction of the railroad in the Delaware Valley, and advertised as follows : NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. To Contractors : Proposals will be received at the office of this Company, No. 12 Wall Street, in the city of New York, until the 5th of November next, for the grading of forty miles of the railroad, along the Delaware River, and extending from the mouth of Calli- coon Creek (about sixty miles west of Newburgh) to the village of Deposit, in the county of Delaware. This portion of the work is now staked out in convenient sections, generally averaging one mile in length. Plans and profiles of the line, and printed forms of the contracts (in which stipulations will be inserted prohibiting the use of ardent spirits) will be ready for exhibition on and after the 20th of September instant, at the office of the Division Engineer of the Eastern Division of the New York and Erie Railroad, in the village of Deposit. The Company reserves the privilege of accepting only such proposals as they may deem for their advantage. James 0. King, President. New York, Sept. 8, 1835. The work was let in forty-four sub-divisions to twenty-six different contractors, among them the father of Charles Mygatt, the veteran Erie engineer. The total amount of contracts was 5313,572, or $7,742 per mile. Ground was broken at Deposit at sunrise, November 7, 1S35. ("Ad- ministration of James Gore King," page 36.) Actual work on the contracts began November 15 th. The prospects seemed to be such in April, 1836, that President King felt warranted in extending the work, and advertised thus : NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. To Contractors : Proposals will be received at the Engineer's office of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, in the village of THE STORY OF ERIE 3*3 Binghamton, on and until the 30th day of June next, for grading 69 miles of the railroad from the village of Owego, in Tioga County, to the village of Deposit, in Delaware County. Proposals will also be received at the Engineer's office, in Monti- cello, on and until the nth day of July next, for grading 4S miles of the railroad through the county of Sullivan, extending from the 1 Delaware and Hudson Canal up the valley of the Neversink, ami thence to the mouth of the Callicoon Creek, on the Delaware River. Plans and profiles of the line above mentioned, staked out in con- venient sections, will be ready for exhibition at the said offices twenty days before the days of letting above specified. The Company reserve the privilege of accepting only such pro- posals as they deem for their advantage. James G. King, President. Ntw York, 26th April, 1836. A month later, however, the following official announce- ment of the Company's intentions was made : NOTICE OF THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COM PAX V. The Company hereby withdraw their advertisement of 26th April, in consequence of their inability to prepare in time the portion of the line proposed to be let on the 30th June at Binghamton, and on the nth of July at Monticello. Future notice shall be given when pro- posals will be received at the above places for the same portions of the road. James G. King, President. May j'i. 1836. " Future notice " to such an effect was never made. Work was pushed as rapidly as possible in the Delaware Val- ley, and renewed efforts were made in the Southern Tier and western counties of New York State to obtain such encour- agement as would insure the beginning of active operations there. The engineer department was reorganized in the spring of 1836 by the appointment of E. F. Johnson and Capt. Andrew Talcott, and a new survey of the route was ordered. Johnson had charge of the division between the Hudson River and Painted Post, in Steuben County, and Talcott the rest of the route from that point to Lake Erie. Benjamin Wright was continued as consulting engineer. Johnson, in his examination of the route through Sullivan County, between the Shawangunk Ridge and the Delaware River at Callicoon, discovered its difficulties as to grades and other obstacles, as compared with a route through the Dela- ware Valley. He also disagreed with the original engineer as to the route between Deposit and the Susquehanna Valley, and recommended one by the way of " the great bend of the Susquehanna." But he advised the Company to enlarge its gauge, which was then six feet ! He reported in favor of Tappan Tic-rmont) as the eastern terminus of the railroad. Captain Talcott examined the harbors of Lake Erie, and chose Dunkirk as the point of terminus for the western end of the railroad. Communication with the West by water was the end they were seeking in those pioneer early days. The future possibilities of railroads beyond the western terminus of the Erie did not seem to concern the engineers or the Company's management. The location of the ends of the railroad at Tappan and Dunkirk involved the necessity of building a long pier into the river at Tappan and an- other into Lake Erie at Dunkirk. The importance of the terminus at Piermont was urged by the Company in its second annual report to the stockholders, September 9, 1836, because it "was but twenty-two miles from the foot of Twelfth Street, New York, where it was proposed to build a depot for merchandise for the interior, and for the supplies of provisions and other agricultural products to be brought to tidewater upon the road." President King and a committee from the Board of Di- rectors, accompanied by Chief Engineer Benjamin Wright, visited Tappan Slote October, 19, 1836, and located the pier and a portion of the line from the river westward. The original intention was to carry the pier out to a point where the water was six feet deep, but it was extended to a depth of nine feet at low tide " to accommodate the sloop trade in lime, coal, plaster, and lumber." From the tenor of the report of 1836, no other inference could have been drawn than that the prospects of the Com- pany at that time were particularly bright. " The Dunkirk grant to the Company," said the report, " is 5,000 lots, one-quarter of the whole town plot." Other donations were " an equal one-quarter of the town plot on the Alleghany River, laid out at the point of embarkation for the early spring merchandise destined for the Ohio and Mis- sissippi valleys, yielding the equivalent of 4,500 city lots, and an equal one-eighth of the tract of 400,000 acres in the coun- ties of Cattaraugus and Allegany, recently purchased of the Holland Land Company. The pecuniary value of these donations is estimated to exceed $2,000,000. Hinsdale, Painted Post, Owego, Binghamton, Deposit, and other towns, have made similar donations. That at Tappan is ninety acres under water, but can be easily filled in and profitably em- ployed or disposed of." " Confidence is not only undiminished, but vastly in- creased," said the report. " Difficulties are diminishing, pecuniary resources steadily increasing." This was in September, 1836. Two months from that time work on several of the contracts in the Delaware Valley was discontinued because the Company had no money to pay for it. In March and April, 1S37, all work was suspended and the contractors discharged. The engineers and surveyors all along the line were also discharged. The grading in the Delaware Valley had cost 3192,837.63. This had all been paid except £13,000, which was subsequently settled. Work was not resumed in the Delaware Valley until 1S47, and the grading done in 1836-7 was found to be uninjured. In May, 1838, a new engineer corps was organized to make a final location of the route. Major Thompson S. Brown, of the United States Engineers, was appointed Chief Engineer of the Western Division ; Edwin F. Johnson, of the Susque- hanna Division : Celim L. Seymour was Resident Engineer of the Delaware Division, and Hezekiah C. Seymour Chief 3 '4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Engineer of the Eastern Division. Silas Seymour was Major Browi at. A. C. Morton, who had been Resident Engineer in charge of the surveys in Rockland and Or- ange counties in 1836, was appointed Resident Engineer, in chief charge of work in Orange County in September, Major Thompson S. Brown entered West Point Academy as a cadet in 1821, and graduated in the military corps of engineers in 1S25. For eleven years he was engaged on many important Government works, among them the forti- fications at Mobile Point, Ala.: at Newport, R. I., where he was five years under Colonel Herr, subsequently Chief of the Engineer Corps, and in the coast surveys and survey for improvement on the Western rivers. He was detailed to in- spect and report on the operations of the now historic old Cumberland road on the sections in Indiana and Illinois. He had the superintendence of the fortifications in Charleston Harbor, S. C, and the general superintendence of the United States harbor improvements on Lake Erie from Buffalo to Cleveland, inclusive. In 1836 he left the Government ser- vice and became employed on public works. In May, 1838, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Western Division of the New York and Erie Railroad, and had that title until November 25, 1S40, when he was made Associate Engineer in charge of the Western Division, and Commissioner of that division. In 1S41 he was detailed to accompany Henry L. Pierson to Europe, to contract for the iron rails first used on the Erie between Piermont and Goshen. He was ap- pointed Chief Engineer of the Erie in 1845, resigning in 1849 to go to Russia to take charge of the great railroad work there in course of construction by that government, succeeding Major Whistler, who had died there. Silas Seymour was born at Springwater, Saratoga County, N. V., June 20, 181 7. He began his career in 1S35 on the Delaware Division of the New York and Erie Railroad as rodman, and continued there until work was suspended in 1837. He was made Assistant Engineer in May, 1838, on the Western Division, and was Resident Engineer from June 1, 1840, to June. 1841. He had charge of the surveys from Dun- kirk to Cuba Summit, ninety-six miles, and from Dunkirk to Cold Spring Summit, forty miles. He had entire charge when Chief Engineer Brown was in Europe with Henry L. Pierson, contracting for Erie's first railroad iron. He lo- cated the line for the ten miles east from Dunkirk. In lulv, 184:, he was appointed Superintendent of Construction on the western end of the railroad. He was Chief Engineer of Con- struction from 1846 until 1S51, when he resigned, having been appointed Chief I ngineer of the Buffalo and New York City Railroad, extending from Hornellsville to Buffalo, after the completion of which he became its General Superintendent. Mr. Seymour laid the last rail upon the Western Division of the New York and Erie Railroad at Cuba, on the 17th of April, 1851, and assisted at the great celebration of the opening ol the road for business, on the 15th of May following. He designed and constructed the famous Portage Bridge across the Genesee River, a structure 234 feet high and 800 feet in length. Soon afterward he became a contractor, and aided in the construction and equipment of the Ohio and Missis- sippi, the Louisville and Nashville, the Maysville and Lexing- ton, the Scioto and Hocking Valley, the New York and Bos- ton Air Line, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron of Canada, the Western North Carolina, and Sacramento Valley railroads. In 1855 he was elected State Engineer and Surveyor-Gen- eral of New York, which responsible office he held during 1S56— 7 . In 1S62 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Washington and Alexandria Railroad, with a view to con- struct a railroad bridge across the Potomac, which important work was successfully completed in 1864. In 1863 the Sec- retary of the Interior designated him as Consulting Engineer, and afterward Chief Engineer of the Washington Aqueduct. In 1864 he was appointed Consulting Engineer of the Union Pacific Road, and remained in that service until the comple- tion of that great work. The last rail was laid on the 10th day of May, rS6o, with Mr. Seymour present as one of the principal participants in the ceremonies, thus having been identified with the construction of both the initial (the Erie) and terminal links of the great chain of railways, more than three thousand miles in length, which had at last come to span the American continent from ocean to ocean. After the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad Mr. Seymour became Consulting Engineer of the Adirondack Company's Railroad, and of the North Shore Railway of Canada, extend- ing from Montreal to Quebec. The latter part of his life was passed in pleasant retirement at Dansville, N. Y., where he died in rSg6. Hezekiah C. Seymour was bom in Oneida County, N. Y., and was a warm personal friend of Eleazar Lord. He was one of the early prominent civil engineers of this country. His ideas dominated the policy of the Erie in the construc- tion of the railroad up to the time it was opened to Goshen in i84r, and later. He was the first Superintendent of the Erie, and was also its Engineer until 1845, when Major Thompson S. Brown was appointed to the place. Mr. Sey- mour was Superintendent until 1849, in which year he was elected State Engineer and Surveyor of New York State. At the expiration of his term of office in 1852, he was ap- pointed Chief Engineer of the Ontario, Huron and Lake Simcoe Railroad, from Toronto to Lake Huron. He left that place in the spring of 1852 to take an interest in the contracts for building the Ohio and Mississippi, the Louis- ville and Nashville, the Maysville and Lexington, and other railroads in the West. These contracts were the most stu- pendous in amount ever taken for the construction of rail- roads in this country by one firm, the aggregate being more than $35,000,000. Mr. Seymour did not live to see the completion of the great work, he having died July 24, 1853, at Piermont, N. Y. While Superintendent of the Erie he was known among the employees as " The Oneida Chief," and by railroad men at large he was called " The Father of the Erie Broad-Gauge." He left a widow, one son, and five daughters. The son, Augustus S. Seymour, became United States District Judge in North Carolina. THE STORY OF ERIE 15 Alvin C. Morton began as an Engineer in 1827, on the Lehigh Canal as Assistant Engineer. He was subsequently on the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, then on the Raritan Canal. From 1832 to 1835 he was in charge of the Harrisburg and Lancaster Railroad. From there he went to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company. He was employed by New York State to make the surveys of the branches of the Hudson River, which he completed a short time before going with the New York and Erie Railroad Company. He left the Erie service about 1844, and in 1845 he was made Chief Engineer of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic railways, afterward the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. He subsequently joined the firm of Morton, Seymour & Co., railroad contractors, and also the firm of Robinson, Seymour & Co., who con- structed the Sacramento Valley Railroad, the first railroad built in California. He was one of the early men in the construction of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, now part of the Erie system as the Nypano. At the time of his death he was President of the International Coal and Rail- way Company, of Nova Scotia, with headquarters in New York. Some of the most prominent engineers in the coun- try were pupils of Mr. Morton. He died February 25, 187 1, aged sixty-six years. Celim L. Seymour had been in the work of surveying the Delaware and Hudson Canal, Mount Carbon Railroad, Penn- sylvania Canal, Great Western Mail Route from Yincennes, Ind., to St. Louis, in 1835, 1836, 1837. As Resident Engi- neer of the Delaware Division, he was in favor of the interior route through Sullivan County, ami denounced, for years, the taking of the railroad to the Delaware Yalley. The members of the Eastern Division engineer corps of 1838, under H. C. Seymour, were : Alexander Main, John R. Garland, David P. De Witt, Thomas Addis Emmet, Newbold Edgar, Augustus S. Whiton, Norman Seymour, and Peter Bo- gart. Some of them became distinguished engineers, nota- bly Thomas Addis Emmet. Alexander Main was the Erie's first cashier and auditor. A. S. Whiton became superinten- dent of the Eastern Division. At a meeting of the Board of Directors, July 15, 1838, authority was given to publish the following : NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS. Sealed proposals will be received by the subscriber until Wednesday, 15th of August next, at g o'clock p.m., at the office of the Company, at Tappan Slote, Rockland County, New York, for the grading, bridging, and masonry of ten miles at the eastern termination of the New V,.rk and Erie Railroad. The maps and profiles, together with the specifications and plans of the materials, and the manner of con- struction, will be ready for examination at any time after the 20th of August next, at the office at Tappan, where all requisite information relative to the work will be given, and blank proposals furnished. Some of the sections will be heavy, and will require a considerable quantity of rock excavation. Security will be required for the performance of contracts. Persons who are unknown to the subscriber, or to the Engineer, will be ex- pected to furnish satisfactory testimonials. No transfer of contracts will be recognized. Individuals proposing for more work than they wish to contract for must specify the quantity they wish to take. The undersigned reserves the right of rejecting all propositions which appear incompatible with the interests of the Company. For further particulars apply to H. C. Seymour, Civil Engineer, Tappan, Rockland County, X. V. Samuel P. Lyman, Commissioner of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, July : 5 , 1838. A similar notice was published relating to the grading of ten miles from Dunkirk, eastward. The work on these two ten-mile sections had been made a first provision of the act granting the Company State aid in 1838. The contracts were let in August, 1838, and during the year seven miles of the grading at the western end of the route were completed,, and five miles of the Piermont ten-mile section, including several arched culverts on the latter. Work on the pier was pro- gressing. Contracts were also closed in August, 1838, for grading the road from the eastern end of the Piermont ten- mile section to Goshen, thirty-five miles, except two miles for piles, and a contract for grading one mile extending east from the village of South Middletown (Middletown), Orange County. Surveying operations were also progressing between Binghamton and the Genesee River, in Allegany County, and from the west end of Allegany County to the east end of the ten miles under contract in Chautauqua County. The ten-mile section at the Piermont end of the route was located with no little ceremony, August 15, 1838. President King and members of the Board were present. The begin- ning of the line that was to stretch westward nearly 500 miles, the entire width of the greatest State in the Union, and unite the ocean with the lakes, was in a swampy marsh, which must have seemed to the distinguished men assembled on that historic occasion a most unpromising and discouraging starting point for so stupendous an undertaking, especially as its chief intent was to give New York City communication by rail with then secluded regions, that they might be settled and their resources developed. The men who had insisted on such a beginning, and succeeded in securing it, were the ones who had denounced the original plan of constructing the first section of the railroad in the Delaware Yalley, three years before. It is a question which was the wiser start of the two. The Company had the privilege of beginning its railroad at New York until the Rockland County influence obtained the legislation compelling the locating and con- tracting for the ten miles at Piermont before anything else could be done. But for that unfortunate circumstance, and the one compelling the western terminus to be at Dunkirk, the railroad would have been in operation between the Hud- son and Lake Erie years before it was. and with no lasting burden of mortgage debt upon it. In the contracts for work made in 1S3S, the terms were that payments should be made from funds obtained by col- lections on the stock subscriptions in the counties or on the divisions of the railroad where the work was to be done, and from the avails of the State stock collectible on such sub- 3 i6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ons. This facilitated the work by distributing it. The contracts made after 1838 contained the provision, originating with Eleazar Lord, that contractors invest a certain portion of the avails of their contracts in the stock of the Company, the investments to be made from time to time as they received payments from the Company. This was proposed by Mr. Lord, nber 10, 1838, at a meeting of the Hoard. It was put into practical force on the Eastern Division in 1839, while Ixird was President and Commissioner, and subsequently be- came the policy of the Company all along the line, and un- doubtedly -ready advanced the work then on hand, but, as it subsequently appeared, by no means to the future benefit of the work or welfare of the Company. The first contract for grading was taken August 15, 1838, by Doubleday & Ward for section No. 1. There were forty- eight contracts let from between that time and August 13, 1839, to thirty-eight contractors. These were for grading culverts and bridges. These early Erie contractors were as follow S : Rockland County, N. V., 1838.— Doubleday & Ward, Thornton & Briggs, Levi Walden, Medler & Sutherland, Briggs & Thomas, B. Thornton, Wood & Homer, C. Midler, J. & C. Collins, Blair & Mills. 1839— Thomas Midler & Co., J. & C. Collins, Blair and Stickney, Jeremiah H. Pierson, Wilson & Phillips, Ward, Wilkes cSi Co. Orange County, 1S39. — Ward, Wilkes & Co., H. Jenkins & Co., Hudson Macfarland, John Coffey, T. Selleck (for piles), M. Brainard (driving piles), Nelson Phillips & Co., John Wood, Taylor & Crary, Carmichael & King, George Clark, Taylor & Stevenson, Mills, Riddle & Co., David Spencer & Co., John Seaman. These contractors took from one-third to three-eighths of the amount of their contracts in the Company's stock. Twenty-three of the contracts were cancelled in the winter of 1839-40, the Company's finances preventing further prose- cution of the work for the time. A ROSY FORECAST. To what a promising situation the railroad work had been brought by past operations, and what its prospects and inten- tions for the future were at this interesting period in the history of the Erie, is entertainingly told in the following extracts from a letter from Samuel P. Lyman, General Commissioner of the Company, to Assemblyman Scoles, at Albany, January 14, 1839 : The Company, in August, 1835, caused a thorough reexamination of the difficult portions of the line to be made, under the direction of a Board of Engineers, composed of Moncure Robinson of Pennsyl- vania and Jonathan Knighl of Maryland, consulting with Benjamin Wright, anil the result of their labors induced the Directors to adopt a plan more permanent and expensive. The estimates made upon the plan as enlarged, on the united opinions of these engineers, were as follows: Graduation, the expenses of the engineer department, and the contingent expenses of the Company $3,117,518 Superstructure 1,857,000 Cost of vehicles and other necessary apparatus for the business of the road, in the first instance 500,000 $5. 474. 5i8 To which the Board of Directors, for more abundant caution, added, for contingencies 525,482 Total $6,000,000 The first work was the obtaining of right of way. Voluntary re- leases were obtained for more than three-quarters of the line. If the Company had had to pay for its right of way entire, at the rates charged other roads in neighboring States, the work would have never begun. The cost would have been $1,000,000, at least. The liber- ality of the farmers and land-holders not only helped the Company, but showed the deep interest they had in the success of the work. The next thing was the procuring of subscriptions to the balance of the stock. The financial embarrassments of the city and the apparent solvency of the country induced the Company to confine its efforts to the southern tier of counties. The balance needed was $500,000. After the proposition to take the stock was made to each county, and the probable result estimated, the following distribution was made: To Rockland County $20,000 Orange County 100,000 Sullivan County 20,000 Delaware County 40,000 Broome County 25,000 Tioga County . . . 50,000 Chemung County 50,000 Steuben County 100,000 Allegany County 50,000 Cattaraugus County 25,000 Chautauqua County 20,000 Total 8500,000 The distribution was made not so much with reference to the abil- ity of each county to take and hold the stock, as to the amount previ- ously taken, and the zeal manifested in promoting the work. Of this amount $300,000 were subscribed. The whole of the grading can be completed in three years. While the grading is in progress, the Com- pany will purchase timber for the superstructure, in order to have it seasoned and prepared for laying down as soon as the graduation is ready for it, and will contract for iron and cause it to be imported and distributed along the line for use the moment the road-bed is ready. The work is divided in five sections, so it will be finished simultaneously all along the line. Four years is all the time the Company requires to complete the work, if they have the money to carry out their plans. It can be done in three years, but there is no telling how long it will take if the Company does not get aid from the State. Samuel P. Lyman was appointed General Commissioner of the Company April 27, 1838. During the session of the Legislature of 1S39, Mr. Lyman was in Albany, having in charge the application of the Company for a modification of the law authorizing the loan of $3,000,000 of State stock to the Company. While Mr. Lyman was there a controversy arose between him and President King, who was supported by some of the Directors, in which Mr. Lyman was charged with misrepresenting the views and wishes of the Company, and with disregarding his instructions. In consequence of this controversy, and having made to the Board of Directors a full report in justification of his motives and proceedings, he resigned. THE STORY OF ERIE o 1 / President King was striving to have the State take charge of the work and finish it, but as the policy outlined by Ly- man was supported by a strong following in the Board, led by Eleazar Lord, President King resigned from the manage- ment September 25, 1S39, and his efforts in behalf of the railroad ceased. He had served without salary, and had sacrificed largely his own private interests in behalf of the work during the four years and more of his connection with the project. Eleazar Lord became President again. THE WORK UNDER ELEAZAR LORD. In May, 1S39, Eleazar Lord had been appointed Commis- sioner of the Eastern Division of the road, and continued such until the middle of March, 1S41, at a salary of $2,400 per annum. From September 25, 1839, until after the expira- tion of his duties as Commissioner, Mr. Lord also held the office of President of the Company, at a salary of S3, 600 per year. For about eighteen months, therefore, Mr. Lord re- ceived pay at the rate of $2,400 a year as Commissioner, and $3,600 a year as President, an aggregate salary of $6,000 per annum. Upon the retirement of Mr. Lord as Commissioner of the Eastern Division, the duties of the office were placed in charge of H. C. Seymour, Chief Engineer of the division. A. C. Morton, the Chief Engineer of the Delaware Division, performed the duties of Commissioner of that division. October 14, 1S39, President Lord took ex-Commissioner Lyman back into the sen-ice, appointing him Agent of the Western Division to obtain subscriptions to the stock of the Company, and cessions of land. He was at the same time appointed " Agent of the Company, with special reference to sen-ices on the Susquehanna and Western divisions of the roads." January 22, 1S40, he was appointed Commissioner of the Susquehanna Division. August 1, 1S41, he was made General Commissioner of the Company. August 1, 1840, Francis Bloodgood, who had been Ly- man's assistant, was appointed Commissioner of the Central Division, at a salary of $2,500 per annum. On the same day, Thomas A. Johnson became Commissioner of the Sus- quehanna Division, at the same salary. Thompson S. Brown, the Associate Engineer of the Company, in charge of the Western Division as Chief Engineer, was made also Com- missioner of that division, November 25, 1840. Gen. C. B. Stuart was appointed Chief Engineer of the Susquehanna Division in February, 1840. General Stuart, in 1833, was engaged on the construction of the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad and Saratoga and Washington Rail- road. From September, 1833, to September, 1836, he was Assistant Engineer of the Utica and Schenectady Rail- road. He became Resident Engineer, in the latter month, of the Syracuse and L T tica Railroad, and continued as such until the completion of that road in September, 1S39. He then made preliminary suneys of the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad. From February 10, 1840, to February 10, 1S41, his staff on the Susquehanna Division, between Binghamton and Hornellsville, was as follows : T. G. Pomeroy, principal assistant engineer from Elmira to Hornellsville ; Ira Spaulding, principal assistant engineer from Elmira to Binghamton : Franklin Hathaway, book- keeper and draughtsman, Owego office ; D. W. Linn, leveller, Elmira to Binghamton ; Ephraim Leach, agent to purchase timber, in Tioga County ; Minos McGowan, timber agent for Chemung and Steuben counties ; E. S. Thompson, inspector of pile timber, Binghamton to Elmira ; E. S. Dean, inspector of pile timber, Elmira to Hornellsville ; Stephen Dexter, suneyor, Tioga and Chemung counties ; E. J. Famum, engineer, Steuben County; Benjamin B. Griswold, chainman and rodman, Elmira to Hornellsville ; Robert S. Wright, clerk, Owego office. The attorneys to investigate land titles and obtain releases for the roadway on the Eastern Division were Thomas E. Blanch, Charles (1. King, William F. Sharp, John E. Phillips, and Henry C. Wisner. Rathbone ,V Marsh, of Utica — the junior member of the firm being Luther R. Marsh, who subsequently became a lawyer of national reputation — had charge of such matters on the Susquehanna Division, and George A. French and Hanson A. Risley on the western por- tion of the line. Mr. Marsh was also a partner of Samuel P. Lyman. He spent two winters at Dunkirk, Bath, Elmira, and Owego, making abstracts of the titles of the land required to be taken for the road-bed and depots, from Binghamton to Lake Erie, and trying the causes for the appraisement of property where parties could not agree. Mr. Marsh is still living at Middletown, X. V., hale and hearty at the age of eighty years. As early as November, 1839, the Company solicited bids for furnishing ties, wooden rails, sills, and piles for the rail- road. The cross-ties were to be of durable oak, chestnut, or butternut, 9 feet in length, 7 ' i to 9 inches in diameter at the small end. The rails were to be of white, pin, or rock oak, 6 x S inches, and 15, 20, or 25 feet long. The sills were to be of oak, chestnut, pine, or hemlock, 5 x 10 to 12 inches thick, 15, 20, or 25 feet long. Piles were to be 20 feet long, and over 7 to 8 inches in diameter at the small end. There were also some called for at less than 20 feet. The contractors whose bids to furnish this original material for Erie track-laying were accepted were as fol- lows : November 21, 1839, Stacy Beakes, "and others." They furnished $10,000 worth of ties, and took the entire amount in the Company's stock. November 22, 1839, John Coffey: November 23, J. H. Pierson ; November 25, Jacob M. Ryerson : November 26, John Kelley, Jonah Brooks; November 29, Cornelius J. Blauvelt. The price paid for cross-ties was 20 to 25 cents apiece ; for rails, $20 to $25 per 1,000; for sills, $T7.5o to $22 per r,ooo; piles, 20 feet and over, 5 cents per lineal foot; less than 20 feet, 4 ' & cents per lineal foot. July 25, 1S40, Miss Mary Rutherford sold the Companyfor $3,000 a tract of 300 acres of land in the Ramapo hills, which 3'S BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES was wanted for the timber it contained. She took $1,000 in the Company's stock. T. Selleck and M. Brainard took the contract, July 27, 1839, for the piling of the meadows, at 5^ cents per foot lor piles, and 5 1,1 00 a mile for driving. This included the piling of the Chester meadows, then an almost bottomless morass, now the broad and fertile onion meadows, famous the country over. The condition of this area at the time the railroad found its way across it fifty-seven years ago, and the work that had to be done to get a foundation for the railroad in the then treacherous spread of morass, was de- scribed at the time in the New York Railroad Journal ': " Immediately in the line of the route," said the article, "is found a very extensive peat swamp, which must be crossed at a level of twenty or thirty feet above the surface. This swamp has every appearance of having been the bed of a lake. The difficulties of building the road across it have been met in the following manner : Four piles are placed trans- versely to the road and upon them is founded a trestlework, having a space of twenty feet between the piles. 1'he piles are generally fifty feet long, and are driven through the peat into the solid substratum, and the level of the road is from twenty to thirty feet above the surface." That " open " work was years ago made solid, and the traveller on the Erie, passing over that mile of railroad be- tween Greycourt and Chester, N. Y., would little suppose that its foundation was builded on cordons of timber, with bases driven nearly seventy feet into the yielding earth before they touched stable bottom. Another locality that was a source of much labor, disap- pointment, and expense to the contractors was in the vicinity of what is now Arden station, east of Turner's, N. Y. Here long stretches of quagmire of great depth were encountered, and piles as large as telegraph poles had to be driven down through the treacherous deposit to find a solid foundation. These piles in some places were driven on top of one another to a depth of nearly 140 feet before such foundation could be struck. Then between the rows of piling thousands of loads of rock and gravel and earth, mingled with countless untrimmed trees of large size, were dumped, to sink to the solid ground or rock beneath, and gradually build up a foun- dation for the road-bed. Nor were the original trouble and cost of this unstable spot the end of it. To this day im- mense quantities of broken stone are dumped there to re- place the fictitious bottom as it in time sinks away. irregular elevation or depression of either stick can take place at a joint. They will break joints with each other, and with the iron rails, and will be bound together, at ever)' six feet on curves, and at every eight feet on tangents, by cross ties of plank, seven and a half feet long, three inches thick, and seven inches wide, fitted accurately into notches two and a half inches deep, on the upper side of the longi- tudinal timbers, and secured by a treenail of pin oak, two inches in diameter. The position of the base of the rail having been accurately marked out on the cross ties, notches half an inch deep and four inches wide will be cut into them, so as to let the rail rest continuously on the longitudinal timbers, the edges of which must be addiced down to shed the rain. The rails are secured from any motion, except that due to the ex- pansion and contraction of the metal, by appropriate chairs of cast iron at the joints, and are fastened to the timbers by brad-headed spikes, half an inch square and five and a half inches long, one of which is required for every eighteen inches. Where timber of suitable quality is found on the line of the road, it may be hewn on two sides instead of being sawed square. In such cases it must be got out nine inches thick, and the counter hewn on the upper surface before being laid. It will be noticed that by this plan of road, each bearing timber rests continuously on the ground, and at the same time supports continu- ously the iron rail. The cross ties, too, have a double action, binding together the longitudinal bearers, and also connecting the rails, by the notches into which their bases are fitted. By placing the ties on the upper side of the bearers instead of the lower, the connexion is made at the point where its efficiency is greatest and most necessary, and as no part of the vertical support is derived from the ties, the dimen- sions proposed for them will be found sufficient. The drainage of the track will be effected by a ditch between the longitudinal timbers, for which the width between the rails affords ample room, and cross drains at suitable distances will carry off the water. The centre drain will be sunk lower than the cross ties, so as not to interfere with them. Where a pile road is adopted (which will be the case on more than two hundred miles of the Susquehanna and Western divisions), a similar superstructure is proposed, with the necessary modifications for connecting it firmly and securely to the heads of the piles. The width of the track on the New York and Erie Railroad is six feet, and the distance between the tracks (where two lines are laid) is seven feet. These dimensions admit of wider and more commodious cars being used with safety, than can be adopted for roads of the ordinary width. The first-class passenger cars already built for this road are believed to be equal to any hitherto constructed in the United States, with regard ,to beauty and finish, and superior in all the arrangements and appliances requisite for comfort and ease. They are eleven feet wide, and thirty-six feet long, and are mounted on eight wheels. Those intended for gentlemen will accommodate com- fortably seventy-eight persons. The ladies' cars have drawing and retiring rooms of ample dimensions. The second-class cars, intended for the use of emigrants, and others desirous of travelling at a low rate, and willing to accept of cheaper accommodations, will be capable of carrying one hundred persons. THE ORIGINAL ERIE RAILROAD. (From an Official Statement made in 1S40 for Public Information.') The iron rails are to be of the II form, with heavy heads. They are three and one-half inches high, four inches wide on the base, and weigh fifty-six lbs. per lineal yard. Both sides are alike, in order to admit of reversion, if symptoms of failure are perceived in those parts exposed to the action of the wheels. The rails are to be supported on continuous bearings of timber, twelve inches broad, 1 ight inches thick, and as long as can be con- veniently obtained. They must be scraphed at the ends, so that no STATE STOCK AND EARLY CONTRACTORS. By the acts of the New York Legislature of 1S3S and 1840 that State issued conditionally certificates of stock to the Company in aid of the construction of the railroad. The first installment of State stock, amounting to ?ioo,ooo, was issued to the Company December 3, 1838, by State Comp- troller Bates Cook. January 2, 1839, it was nominally sold to Nevius, Townsend & Co., of New York, at 89 per cent. THE STORY OF ERIE 3i9 The interest on this stock was 4^ per cent., and the Com- pany hail in expectation that the Legislature would author- ize an exchange of stock for a 5 per cent, issue, and the ostensible sale was simply an agreement by which Nevius, Thompson & Co. held the stock in trust until such time as the exchange might be made for the Company's own benefit, the Company thus having control of it in procuring means to continue the work of the road. Prime, Ward & King, the banking house in which President James Gore King was a partner, had advanced funds to the Company to the amount of 560,500, and this stock was deposited with them as secu- rity for the loan. It thus remained until September 1, 1839, when it was sold bona fide at 82^ per cent. In the mean- time the Company had been able to fulfil the conditions by which they became entitled to two further installments of $100,000 each. The second installment was sold June 29th at 85. The third was sold August 31, 1839, at an average rate of 7S. The fourth installment was issued from the Comptroller's office December 4, 1839. It was sold Decem- ber 6th to Robert White at 90, no other person appearing disposed to purchase it. He purchased it at the request and for the account of the Company. This installment was held to abide the result of a change of interest by the Legislature, but a part of it was hypothecated for money which had been disbursed in construction, and, with the amount of the Com- pany's other liabilities to contractors and others, amounted to as much as the probable proceeds of the stock. This change in interest was made by the Act of April 29, 1840, and the $100,000 in stock was returned to the Comptroller of the State in exchange for an equal amount of stock bearing in- terest not to exceed 6 per cent, per annum. This exchange was made for a 5 x /z per cent, stock. The Company sold this by auction at different times and rates, the aggregate amount received for it being §95,451. 17, less $485 brokerage. The subsequent issue of State stock bore interest at 5 ' J and 6 per cent., and was bid in at its auction sales by or for the Company, nominally at par. The Company then either sold or hypothecated it at the highest price it would command in the market. The discount was on the average about 15 per cent. Under the law, the State stock could not be sold at less than par, but the stock did not command par, and the Company itself was obliged to buy if in at par and then raise what money it could by subsequent sale or hypothecation. Under the Act of the New York Legislature of 1S40 by which money was being raised for construction of the rail- road, the State issued to the Company $100,000 in certificates of stock, guaranteed by the State, for every $50,000 the Company should actually expend in such construction. The law prescribed that the Company should produce to the Comptroller evidence of the expenditure of the whole pro- ceeds of the sales of previous issues of State stock in actual construction of the road before any further installment would issue by the State to the Company. It became a question in the various discussions of the affairs and management of the Com- pany whether the Company was not offering as evidence in ob- taining new issues of State stock the amount by which the stock was bid in by it instead of the amount received for it when sold or hypothecated. Then it was charged that in transactions with contractors the Company stipulated that its time drafts, given in payment for work or materials, should be accepted as cash, and that the receipts or vouchers given by contractors for these drafts as cash payments were used as evidences of money expended in construction in obtaining further ad- vances from the State. In making contracts for the purchase and delivery of materials on the Susquehanna Division, the Commissioner and Engineer took in advance a conveyance of the title to all the standing timber to be used according to the contract, and to all the timber which the contractor was to procure for that purpose, and then advanced to him the amount which he agreed to invest on the Company's stock. Then he would give the Company a voucher for such ad- vances, and hypothecate the stock with the Company. This would be held by the Commissioner of that division as secu- rity for the performance of the contract. It was charged that these vouchers were used by the Company in evidence as money actually expended in construction of the road to secure further State stock. It frequently happened that after de- livering timber to a large amount a contractor would default in his contract, when, according to its terms, the Company kept the timber and sold the hypothecated stock, thus making quite a snug thing out of the transaction. In negotiating for right of way where it was not gratuitously offered, the build- ing of the necessary fences and farm crossings was contracted for in the same agreement, the crossings and one-half of the fencing to be built by the land-owner and maintained by him during the life of the Company's charter. The amount nec- essary for this purpose, although the fences were not to be built until the railroad was completed through the property, was advanced by the Company, and the contractor invested it in stock. This the Company regarded as a purchase of stock, and put the vouchers in as evidence of money expended in construction, which the railroad inspectors allowed. Special Stock. — The special stock was that issued to subscribers under the Ixird plan of raising money by counties and divisions, and which pledged the income of the road to the payment of the interest on the State stock expended in construction of the division where the avails of such stock were used ; to the payment of 6 per cent, per annum on all shares of full stock the installments of which were expended on that part of the road ; and the payment of interest on the installments collected from time to time, except the first 10 per cent, on all other shares expended on that part of the road, until the whole road was completed from the Hudson River to I,ake Erie. On the Western Division the avails of all the lands on that division given in aid of the road were also pledged to the subscribers on that division for the same purpose. First Manipulation of Erie Stock. — February 4, 1835, the first installment ($50,000) paid on subscriptions to !20 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the stock of the Company after the organization, was de- posited with the New York Life Insurance and Trust Com- pany at 4 1 - per cent, interest. This stock was called "general stock." Between April 15th and September 1, [3,621 shares of stock were subscribed for, and 5 per cent. ($62,105) was paid on them. Then a call was made for another 5 per cent, payment, November 2d. To I 21,131 shares responded, the installment amounting 105,655. During the year 1837, particularly during February, 2,200 new shares were subscribed for, on 1,355 of which cash in- stallments were paid to the amount of 520,137.50. On old subscriptions S50.NX7.50 were paid during the year. No assessments were made on the stock of the New York and Erie Railroad Company since President King's call in [837, until March, [841. In the aggregate, r 5 per cent, of the subscriptions had been called for and a total of $325,907.50 paid. The call made on the subscribers in March, 1S41, was for an installment of 5 per cent, more on their stock. It met with no response. It was only too evident that to depend on the subscribers to this original stock for further voluntary aid would be futile, and as the law's authority to compel payment seemed to the management to be too harsh, some plan must be devised by which money might be raised. Such a plan was adopted March 27, 1841, by a resolution of the Board of Directors, which was known among the investors and financiers of that day as the " Consolidated Resolution." It was as follows : Each original stockholder of the Company, or holder of the stock subscribed in this city in 1S35 or 1836, who shall agree to pay on his stock the further sum of five dollars per share on or before the 10th day of April next, or two and a half dollars per share subsequently as called !"i >r, shall be and is hereby entitled to transfer the whole number of shares so subscribed as held by him, to the Treasurer of the Com- pany. Those who shall have paid the five dollars per share aforesaid shall be entitled to receive certificates of so many shares of full stock as shall be equal to Sioo per share to the whole amount which shall have been paid on all the shares transferred by him aforesaid. Those who shall have paid two dollars and fifty cents, or any further sum less than live dollars per share on all the shares so transferred to the Treasurer, shall receive certificates of stock in like proportion, which shall specify the balance of the said five dollars to be paid on each share to make it full stock. I li.it transfers pursuant to the foregoing arrangement, be and hereby are authorized, as soon as it shall appear that the holders of one-half or more of the original stock aforesaid shall have specified their concurrence in the said arrangement, and that the Executive Committee, with the Commissioner, Mr. Lyman, be authorized to carry the same into effect. The reason for this measure was the unfavorable manner in which the call for the 5 per cent, was received by the stockholders. Many of these were insolvent and unable to pay, and those who were able to pay would not do so unless the others paid as well. The gentle view was held of these lattei by the Hoard of Directors that as they had subscribed originally for the stock merely to help the Company along, and not for any desire or expectation of individual profit, it would be cruel to hold them to the terms of the subscription and the Company's charter, and force them by legal stress to pay their assessments or forfeit their stock. The considerate Board did not seem to think it anything paradoxical in the claim of these stockholders as to how they were helping the Company by subscribing, if they did not intend to pay their subscriptions. And among the subscribers who would be made to suffer by such a cruel course on the part of the Company were William B. Astor, John Jacob Astor, Brown Brothers & Company, Francis B. Cutting, John G. Coster, Charles Hoyt, Goold Hoyt, James G. King, Nevius, Town- send & Co., Gouverneur Morris, Frederick de Peyster, Archibald Gracie, Gardiner G. Howland, James Boorman, Stephen Whitney, and scores of other merchant princes and millionaires of that day. William B. Astor held seventy-five shares, of which he had fifteen made full stock by paying the five dollars per share asked for by the resolution ; the re- maining sixty shares he delivered to the Company, and was relieved of all future liability for them. John Jacob Astor paid Si 50, and received certificates that he was the owner of thirty full paid-up shares of stock, and the 120 remaining shares of his holding he transferred to the Company and was thus relieved of all suspense as to further demands on him on account of that stock, for which he had promised to pay Sioo per share. The others of this body of generous aiders of a much desired and needed public improvement relieved themselves of their responsibility for their original subscrip- tions, every dollar of which could have been collected, in about the same proportion. The largest stockholder in the Company was Eleazar Lord. He held 4,020 shares, of which he paid the assessment on 804 shares. The 263 stockholders, most of them solvent, paid or agreed to pay five dollars each on 3,420 of their en- tire holding of 17,041 shares, for the privilege of being ab- solved from all future liability, and surrendered the balance, 13,261 shares, to the Company. This bit of financial genius on the part of the Directors netted the Company Si 7,000 in cash, and left them the balance of the stock to retransfer to contractors in part payment for work and material, or to sell to possible new purchasers. The Company declared that by this transaction it was enabled to raise more money than could possibly have been obtained in any other way, taking into account the possibility of future subscriptions from many of the stockholders released from the obligations of their old stock, and the general effect harsh measures to collect assess- ments would have had on the condition of the Company's affairs at that time. This was the opinion of President King and Treasurer Bowen, and the plan was adopted on the ad- vice of the Company's counsel, William Kent. A SHOW OF PROGRESS. The operations of the contractors who were continued at their work in 1S39 did not go with much push, and it was not until the early spring of 1S40 that healthy activity on the THE STORY OF ERIE 321 line began. The Lord plan of raising money (" Administration of Eleazar Lord," page 44) was meeting with success, and J. S. T. Stranahan, with Daniel Carmichael as his partner, under the firm name of Carmichael & Stranahan, took contracts to the amount of $700,000 on the road, mainly in rock and bank excavation and embankment wall. This firm accepted one- third of the contract price in stock. About the same time the Company advertised forbids for laying the superstructure of the railroad, separate bids to be made for the section be- tween Piermont and Coffeys (the Rockland County line), twenty-six miles, and the section from that point to Goshen, twenty miles. There were twenty-three applicants for the contracts. To George C. and Sidney G. .Miller was awarded the contract from Coffey's to Goshen, June 12, 1840. The contract price was ten and one-half cents per lineal foot of timber, twenty-five cents apiece for cross ties, and two dollars per rod for mechanical work, including laying the iron. The superstructure for this part of the road cost 5,59,376, or $1,968.80 per mile. June 13, 1S40, the contract from Piermont to Coffey's, twenty-six miles, was awarded to William E. (amp .NzCo., of Harrisburg, Pa., at twelve and one- quarter cents per lineal foot of timber, twenty-five cents apiece for cross ties, and two dollars per rod for mechanical work, in- cluding laying of the iron, making the cost of the superstruc- ture for that part of the road §55,993.60, or §2,153.60 per mile. J. S. T. Stranahan, mentioned above, was the first successful contractor on the Erie, ami did much toward getting the work started towards completion. He was one of those who, nine vears later, made the extension of the Erie west from Bing- hamton possible at that time. He became one of the distin- -hed men of this country, and died in 1S98, aged nearly ninety years, known all over the land as "The First Citizen of Brooklyn," in which city a splendid bronze monument perpetuates his memory. TROUBLE ABOUT A CHANCE OF ROUTE. As early as 1836 the people of interior Sullivan County became disturbed by the fear that the route selected through that county by the original survey of 1S34 would eventually be abandoned, and they began to use all the influence they could bring to bear to prevent the choice of a route other than through the interior, although the original survey should be rejected. They requested the Company to make a new survey of routes through the interior, and insisted that one could be found better and cheaper than one through the Delaware Valley. Such surveys were made in 1S40, under the supervision of A. C. Morton, routes through the Delaware Valley being run out at the same time. Two routes were surveyed through Sullivan County, known as the Thompsonville route and the Bronson route. They were both the same from the Deerpark Gap at Shawan- gunk Summit to Barber's Eddy, on the Xeversink, fourteen and one-half miles. There the former route took a direction that brought it near the village of Monticello, and the latter ran through Thompsonville, several miles further north. They met in the valley of the Mongaup and were identical from there to the mouth of the Callicoon Creek, twenty miles. Both routes were crooked and of heavy grades, three-fifths of the Bronson route being sixty feet to the mile. The road built on this route, twenty-three and one-half miles, was es- timated to cost §491,833. The Callicoon Creek would have hail to be crossed nine times in a distance of twenty miles, and along tunnel made through a rocky point near the mouth of the creek. The entire cost of the road by the Thompson- ville route, which was the preferable one, from the Shawan- gunk Summit to the mouth of Callicoon Creek, fifty-nine miles, it was estimated, would be §987,930. The other routes sun eyed were known as the Delaware and the Pennsylvania. On the latter only a reconnoissance was made, " but one sufficiently accurate to determine its ad- vantages." The interior routes were not approved by En- gineer Morton, who reported to the Company in favor of the Delaware route. If the railroad had been constructed as ] imposed on this route, some idea may be had of how pleasant and profitable its building would have been to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and of what sort of a " freak " highway the Erie would have been in the valley to-day, when it is known that it would have been built partially in the chan- nel of the Delaware River, would have crossed the canal seven times within twenty miles, and required at least two tunnels. The historic survey through Sullivan County was made by Allen A. Goodliffe, in the fall of 1839 and winter of r840, as Eirst Assistant under A. C. Morton. He is still living, aged eightv-seven years, the last survivor of the pioneer civil engi- neers of this country. He began at the age of nineteen, on the Newcastle and Frenchtown Railroad, in Delaware. In 1831 he helped survey the Ithaca and Owego Railroad route, and in 1S34 was an engineer on the Chenango Canal. In 1836 he went to the Long Island Railroad, under James P. Kirkwood, Engineer of that work and some years later Super- intendent of the Erie. In 1837 he became Chief Engineer of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, and a year later helped locate a route for the proposed New York and Albany Rail- road. Then he made the Sullivan County survey of the Erie route. December, 1.S40, he completed the survey of the New York and Harlem Railroad, and ran the line for the de- sired eight-mile extension of that railroad to the Hudson River, to connect with the Erie, which great opportunity the Erie rejected. It is to Mr. Goodliffe that the author is in- debted for the records on which that chapter of Erie is written. From 1S41 to 1847 Mr. Goodliffe followed his profession on the Boston and Albany, the West Stockbridge, and the Long Island railroads. He rode on the first loco- motive that pulled a train of passenger cars on the latter railroad, October 8, [844. In 1.S47 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Vermont Central Railroad, but declined it at the solicitation of his family, and went into mercantile business. He removed to Wellsville. N. Y., on the Erie, in July, 1 85 1, where he is still living, a remarkable relic of the pioneer days of railroads, the possibilities of which he foresaw BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES and advocated, a generation ahead of his time. Engineer o's report on the route was accompanied by a strong recommendation in favor of it, and the Company seems to have thought so well of it that, without waiting for the san< - tion of the Legislature of New York for the change, it let contrai ts, in I >ei ember, 1S40, for the grading of the road-bed west of Middletown, and over the new route, as follows : Carmichael & King, Sections 1, 2, and 3; Haggerty & Dimon, Section 4 ; Reeve & King, Sections 5 and 6; J. C. Collins, Summit Section ; Bernard Flynn & Co., Summit to Teakettle Brook; James O'Brien, Teakettle Brook to Neve r- sink River; O. H.Taylor & Co., Neversink River half-way to Butler's on the Delaware River : Roberts & Sloat, the re- maining half; Ives, N'elson, Downer & Co., twenty miles, from Butler's to Lackawaxen ; Black, Malone & Co., Lacka- waxen to Cochecton : Wood, Wilkes & Co., Cochecton to Callicoon. This let the road in the Delaware Valley up to the point where the contract of 1835, under President King, ended. These contractors took from one-third to three- eighths of the amount of their contracts in stock. The clear- ing and grubbing on this section were to cost $50 to $800 per mile ; but the Delaware Valley contracts were not begun with the other work, for, notwithstanding the appeals of the Com- pany, the Legislature did not sanction the change of route. Apprehensive that legislative consent would eventually be obtained by the Company to run its railroad over the pro- posed route through the Delaware Valley, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company filed a bill in the Court of Chancery asking for an injunction preventing the railroad from going there. This was the Erie's first injunction suit, although such proceedings were destined to become a large part of the Company's subsequent history. The answer to this original action against the Krie was drawn by William Kent, and he argued it at Saratoga. He received $250 as his fee. George Ward was his associate counsel, and received the same fee. William Samuel Johnson was his law partner in New York City. William Kent succeeded Charles G. King as Attorney of the Company, King having been such from the fall of 1837 until 1X40. King succeeded John Duer, who was the Company's first counsel. The first business Kent had to transact was to call on stockholders for arrearages of stock, and luing suits if they did not pay. Kent secured title to the land requested for the road-bed in Rockland County in 1838, and began four suits before the Chancellor for the ap- pointment of Commissioners to appraise damages. He re- ceived in all S4,ooo for his services. One of his bills was cut clown to Si, 000 by the Company. I he courts sustained ail the Canal Company's contentions. The injunction against the Delaware Valley route was granted and made perpetual, and during the year that elapsed before any further work was done on the railroad, circumstanc :es had provided a route through the valley satisfactory to all. The Railroad Company could hardly be blamed for trying to find a thoroughfare in the Delaware Valley, even by such a route as Morton's, for by no other means could it have got down off the Shawangunk Summit to the Neversink Valley with a locomotive road. By the original survey, which led the route through central Sullivan County, the railroad was to be run from the Shawangunk Summit to Cuddebackville, by crossing the Basheskill Creek. The distance between the summit and Cuddebackville was less than two and one-half miles, and between the summit and the Basheskill only a little more than a mile and a half. The Basheskill was 454 feet lower than the Deerpark Gap, and seventy-one feet higher than Cuddebackville, so that the railroad would have had to descend 454 feet within a distance of a mile and a half, and then climb up seventy-one feet the next mile to get to Cuddebackville ! " This was originally deemed the point of greatest difficulty on the New York and Erie Rail- road," said Engineer Morton in his teport. " The first sur- vey contemplated grades of 100 feet per mile, and a summit cut of fifty feet. A commission of eminent engineers (Mon- cure Robinson and Jonathan Knight) afterwards recom mended a formidable tunnel at the gap with grades of roo feet, inclined planes with stationary power, and switch lines with culminating points reversing the position of the trains." It was with the laudable purpose of solving this vexing Shawangunk Summit problem that Engineer Morton sought the route to and through the Delaware Valley which would necessitate the abandoning of Sullivan County by the railroad. But the future was to deal with that problem. In the summer of 1841, James Seymour, who was one of Benjamin Wright's assistants in the original Erie survey of 1834, examined the Erie route at the request of the Legis- lative Committee that was investigating the Company's af- fairs. Seymour made a report August 20, 1841. This was before the railroad had been opened to Goshen. " An im- portant circumstance connected with the selection of the Delaware route, and the ulterior views of the Company," said he, " will be found in the fact that the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania may be advantageously reached by the con- struction of a branch road, a distance of about forty miles from the mouth of the Lackawaxen, by following up the val- ley of the Wallenpaupack (a tributary of the Lackawaxen) through Cobb's Gap to the coal fields, which may be deemed inexhaustible for many centuries to come. From informa- tion derived from sources I have every reason to consider authentic, I am enabled to state that a company with resources under their control are prepared to commence the construc- tion of a road for that purpose as soon as it is positively ascertained the Delaware route has been adopted. It is within the sphere of judicious calculation to estimate that 100,000 tons of coal may be delivered at the mouth of the Lackawaxen during the first year the two roads are in opera- tion. The distance from that point to Piermont is ninety- five miles, and the cost of delivering that amount of coal will not probably exceed $100,000, as ten cars carrying ten tons each will deliver 100 tons by means of a single train; but say $150,000, and the Company should charge but $3, they could realize the first year, over and above expenses, $150,- 000 by this single operation." More than a score of years passed before this remarkable THE STORY OF ERIE 3 2 3 prophecy was fulfilled, but fulfilled it was. The Hawley Branch of the Erie and the Erie and Wyoming Railroad cover almost exactly the route Seymour mentioned in 1841, and carry to market twenty times more coal than he calculated would be the traffic. Engineer Seymour described the manner in which the rail- road was being constructed on the Eastern Division. " A small portion of the road is constructed on piles, another por- tion upon trestles, but by far the largest portion is graded. A longitudinal sill placed lengthwise of the road, flattened upon two sides, about eight inches thick and twelve wide, with cross-ties transversely across the road, let into the sills sufficiently near to bind them firmly together. The cross- ties are set into the sills from the top, thereby giving the sill an equal bearing from end to end, in order that the frost when acting may act equally, and at the same time preserve as uniform a surface as possible. Upon the centre of the wooden rail superstructure is a heavy iron H-rail weighing fifty- six pounds to the yard, firmly secured by means of spikes. This rail costs, including chain, centre plates and spikes, about S;,ooo per mile for a single track." This observing engineer examined also into the manner in which stock was agreed to be taken by the contractors. After it was ascertained by the Company who were the lowest responsible bidders, the bidders were invited to a private consultation with the Company's representatives and re- quested to take a certain amount of stock, before they were informed they were entitled to the work. This proposal be- ing assented to on the part of the gentlemen concerned, the work was promptly declared off to them, " a perfectly fair and honorable business transaction, in which the interests of the Company were faithfully consulted," declared Mr. Sey- mour—something, however, about which there seems to have been a different opinion held by others in that day and gen- eration. THE UNFORTUNATE ROADWAY OF PILES. There are traditions to-day connecting the Erie's early construction vaguely with a causeway of piles, one being that rails of the Erie were originally laid on piling for hundreds of miles, until their decaying compelled the substitution of a solid road-bed by filling in the space between the ground and the rails with rock and earth, which is now the bed the road lies on in the Susquehanna and Alleghany valleys. As a mat- ter of fact, many sections of the old piled road-bed have no connection with the present Erie route in those localities, an 1 no rails were ever placed upon it. The story of it was a melancholy one in its day. It may well serve only to amuse in these days of advanced railroad science. A piled roadway instead of a graded road-bed was decided on by the Company upon the representations and recom- mendations of Gen. Charles B. Stuart, made to the Com- panv through General Commissioner Samuel P. Lyman, who had asked Stewart's opinion, in January, 1840. General Stewart had constructed the Syracuse and Utica Railroad in 1839, much of which was built on piles. He wrote to Ly- man that " piled road was an improvement destined to facili- tate the completion of those vast links in the chain of in- ternal improvements which have been projected throughout our State and the Lnion." He recommended its adoption not only in low and marshy lands, but in ever)' instance wherein there was an abundant supply of piling timber, and where the ground would admit of its construction. " But it is not alone in the economy of construction that the advantages of the piling system consists in this Northern clime," wrote Gen- eral Stewart. " It is not liable to derangement by frost ; it is not liable to be obstructed by snow ; it is free from the dan- gers of a graded road in consequence of the washing of the banks by flood and rains, and settling when set up in soft bottoms, thereby requiring constant expense to adjust the road and replace the earth materials. The interest on the money saved by building a pile road instead of a graded road will renew the piles, if necessary, every five years." The piles and superstructure were to be saturated with salt, a quantity being put into the head of each pile. Eight men, he said, could grade a mile of such road in a month. Other recommendations for the piled road-bed were that there would be no expense for ties and repairs, and it would offer no inducements to pedestrians or cattle to walk on the track, thus saving human life from peril, and the Company from responsibility for damages. The strongest argument in favor of piles was that delay in constructing the railroad would imperil the Company's franchise, prompt the repeal of the loan bill, or involve the work in some other legislative en- tanglement ; and that piles, besides being much cheaper, could be set in one-half the time it would take to make a graded road-bed, thus saving time and money to the Com- pany, both of which were of vital importance. Moreover, this road-bed would make a demand for timber along the route and for local labor, thus arousing sectional sympathy and influence in behalf of the railroad, which had come to be none too popular. The piled roadway was adopted. Instead of an extent of marsh land in which piles were necessary, the ground was so solid that the patent portable pile-drivers, eight of which the Company employed to do the work, drove the timbers with difficulty, and in some places beds of gravel had to be ex- cavated before the piles could be forced down. They were driven below the frost line, with a space of five feet between them, and projected on the level four inches above the ground. Where there were hollow places on the line, or spots where they were liable to be overflown by water, the projection of the piles above ground was greater, according to circumstances. Such places were to be filled in with gravel. These piles, it was estimated, would continue sound and serviceable from ten to fifteen years, and would be uni- formly secure and steady. A full description of them, and the manner in which they were to be driven, and the frame- work for the rails and cross-ties formed, is contained in the contract specifications, as follows : 3^4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The contract was made February to. 1840, by Samuel P. Lyman, as Commissioner of the Company, with John }'. Manrow, oi Rome, Oneida County, and Niles Higinbotham, mi I enox, Madison County, by which they were to grade the mad between Binghamton and Hornellsville, and have the road-bed ready for a single tra< k by July 1, 1S42. for £800 per mile "for clearing and grubbing for a graded road, through any wilderness that may occur, and the sum of S425 per mile for grubbing for the pile road through any wilder- ness that may 01 cur on the said road, and the sum of $1 for grubbing each stump, where the diameter is one foot or more at the base, and for smaller stumps a price proportioned to the size and expense of removal; also for butting, sharpen- ing, turning, driving, and sawing off, boring and fitting the piles for the superstructure, according to the specifications of a pile road, taking the piles where they are to be delivered by the terms of the contracts for delivery. In all cases where the length of the pile does not exceed fifteen feet, and where the same are sawed off at a distance of three feet and a half from the surface of the road-bed. at the rate of $1,150 per mile. In cases where the length of the pile is more than fifteen feet and less than eighteen, the additional sum of $50 per mile ; and for every additional three feet, over eighteen feet, the further sum of $25 per mile : and in cases where the piles are sawed off at a distance of more than three and one-half feet, and less than five feet from the surface of the road, the additional sum of S50 per mile; and for every ad- ditional five feet over the above-mentioned five feet from the ground, the further sum of Sioo per mile." They were also to frame the sills, and lay the superstructure readv for the iron for S750 per mile. The contract called for the sink- ing of the sills in trenches six inches deep and wide enough to bed the timber evenly and firmly. At the joint of the sills, a plank two inches thick, one foot wide, and two feet long was to be laid on the bottom of the trench, and the ends of the sills on this bearing plank, which was to be sunk in the trench so that its top was even with the bottom of the trench, the plank and sills being pounded down by heavy mauls. The earth removed from the trenches was to be rammed around the sills to prevent water from settling under them ; the cross-ties hewn flat on their bottom their whole length, so as to give a full and true bearing of nine inches longitudinally on the sills, and framed the same as the piled road. The remainder of the superstructure was to be con- structed just like superstructure for piled road. The contractors were to receive Sioo for each and every time they had to move a pile-driving machine from one part of the road to another. They were to put on the work six of Crane's patent steam pile-driving machines, and if they needed two more the Company was to pay half the cost of the additional machines, in stated advances of certain sums of money, and was to have a lien on the machines for these advances, the amount to be deducted from money due the < on tractors on final settlement. The contractors took 5 per cent, of the amount of their contract in stock at par, under their contract, but it was modified July 10, 1841, and they ac- cepted one-third in stock. The payments and advances agreed to bv the Company were to depend entirely on its ability to raise funds from the subscribers and stockholders along the line of the Susquehanna Division, and from the avails of the stock of the State, and not on the stockholders in the city of New York or elsewhere, the Company to notify the contract- ors a month in advance as to the probable amount of money to be realized in that way each ensuing month, to enable the contractors to determine the amount of labor they might do. If they did more work than there was money raised to pay for, interest was to be paid the contractors until the excess was paid from the avails of the stock, the contractors to use their own option about going on with their contract after a failure to receive all that was due thereon every month. If from lack of funds the contractors were unable to complete their contract by the time agreed, the time should be ex- tended long enough to make up for the delay, and in case the cost of labor, provisions, and materials had increased in the meantime, the difference should be added to the sum agreed to be paid by the Company for the work. The piles were to be straight and sound white oak, not less than eight feet long, and not less than ten or more than six- teen inches in diameter at the butt, at least one-half to meas- ure one foot at the butt. The cross-ties were to be white oak or chestnut, perfectly sound, not less than nine or more than thirteen inches at the small end, sawed in lengths of nine and one-half feet. They were to be delivered along the line in piles of from ten to twenty- five. The rail timber was to be sound, square-edged white oak, sawed on four sides, 7x8 inches, and to be 16, 20, 24, 28, or 32 feet long, exclu- sive of stub-shot. The sills were to be sound white oak, pine, or hemlock, sawed on two sides to make a stick six inches thick, and not less than twelve inches wide, exclusive of wane on the bottom or wide side, no sill to be less than ten inches, exclusive of wane, on the narrow side, and to be 16, 20, 24, or 28 feet long. The piles were to be driven four feet apart longitudinally, and six feet apart transversely, from centre to centre, and at least five feet below the surface, and until they reached solid bottom, or a point where, owing to the firmness of the earth, the piles could not be driven more than two inches at a blow of the hammers of the driving machine. If a pile was not long enough to reach solid bottom, it was to be sawed off, and another pile connected with it bv a pin placed in the cen- tre of each at the point, and the two driven until bottom was reached. After reaching bottom, each pile was to be sawed off on a line corresponding with the grade of the road. On the top or upper side of each pile a tenon was to be framed for the notch in the cross-tie, the tenon being two inches high and nine inches thick, and of the same width as the cross-tie, and so made that the tie sheltered the pile from rain and snow ; the lower side of each tie to be framed to the top of the piles by a notch cut across it nine inches wide, and of a depth sufficient for the tenon on top of the pile, and so adjusted that it had a bearing on the tenon of nine inches. In the upper side of the tie notches were to be cut of suffi- THE STORY OF ERIE 325 cient width for a longitudinal rail 7x8 inches to fit in and be fastened by a wedge eighteen inches in length, four inches wide, and one and one-half inches thick at the large end, the notch to be as deep as the thickness of the tie would permit. Every alternate wedge was to be driven in a direction oppo- site to the other, and the rails chamfered off one inch from the inside line on an angle of forty-five degrees from the top. The iron rails — or bars, as they were called — were to be three inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick, and spiked to the wooden rail on a line with the chamfered edge, and laid to a gauge precisely six feet, one-quarter of an inch space to be left between the ends of the bars for expansion. The centre of the tie was to be on a line with the centre of the track, and the distance to the outside shoulder of the tie three feet six inches from the centre of the tie, the outside shoulder parallel with the wooden rail, and the inside shoulder framed on an angle to correspond with the shape of the wedge when driven to its place, so that the middle of the ledge would be on a line with the centre of the tie and notch ; the ties to be framed and fitted to the tops of the piles and firmly pinned to them by a white elm tree-rail one foot long and two inches in diameter, and eight-square. A space of twelve feet was to be cleared of timber on each side of the piled road-bed. There were eight steam pile-drivers at work in 1841, each manned with thirteen men, and a horse and cart for drawing water. The hammers weighed from 1,000 to 1,400 pounds, the fall of which was thirty feet by the last blow. The ma- chines averaged a distance of one mile a month each. There were also four hand pile machines, with 2,500-pound ham- mers, driving foundations for bridges. The steam machines combined the action of a pile-driver, locomotive, and saw- mill. They moved on wheels, and each machine drove two piles at a time, after which it sawed them off at a given level. RUINS OF THE OLD PILED ROAD-BED, FROM A DRAWING M is commenced, and is to be finished so that the cars will run the whole distance on the Fourth of July, 1842. At 3 o'clock p.m., the hour designated for the commencement of the work, the ground on which the pile-driver had been erected, about one mile east of the village, was thronged with an anxious multitude, from the gray-headed veteran of the Revolution to the stripling schoolboy of six or seven. All were eager to witness the operations of the locomotive mon- ster, which before now was so much sneered at and abused, and well did the machine vindicate its majesty and power ! The first pile which was driven on this occasion was also the first one which was cut, on the 20th of February last, by the agent of the Company, D. O. McComber. " In the course of the afternoon the presentation of a flag by the ladies took place. The ladies marched to the ground in procession, preceded by the Nichols Band in a splendid wagon, drawn by six horses. On reaching the designated spot, the ladies were ranged in semi-circular form, the gen- tlemen in a like manner opposite, forming a circle, with the band and a platform for the speaker in the centre. On behalf of the ladies, Mr. I. B. Headley then addressed Mr. McComber, the agent of the Company, closing by presenting him the flag; and Mr. McComber returned appropriate thanks, on behalf of the Company. The flag exhibited on one side our national symbol, the Stars and Stripes, with an inscription on the lower edge, ' Ocular Demonstration.' On the reverse, the comer usually devoted to the stars was occu- pied by the figure of a locomotive on a pile road, on a blue ground. On the lower stripe was inscribed 'July 4, 1842.' " It was hoisted to the peak of the first pile-driver that began operations. The company then returned to the village, the citizens retiring to their respective homes, while the opera- tives attended the machine. Capt. Thomas Sharp, with his men, Albert Savory, Peleg Briggs, George W. Parkhurst, Ben- jamin Wood, Elias Phelps, and William Robinson, and the contractor, chief engi- neer and assistants, agents, and a few guests, repaired to the hotel of Mr. Man- ning, and sat down to a sumptuous repast. After the repast several toasts were drunk, appropriate to the occasion. The company dispersed at an early hour, in good spirits, and high hopes for the future." THE FIRST 1'ILE DRIVEN. First ground for the Erie had been broken at Deposit, N. Y., in 1835. Ground had again been broken at Piermont and Dunkirk in 1838. But these events, important as they were, had but little significance, according to the account of an Owego newspaper of the day, in comparison with the " driving of the first pile " at Owego, on Wednesday. May 13, 1S40. The newspaper's account bore the comprehensive heading, "New York ami /•//<■ Roil road Commenced" Then it went on to say : "The Susquehanna Division of this great work, extending from Bingham ton to Hornellsville, 117 miles, Manrow & Higinbotham had four hundred and fifty men and sixty teams at work in 1841, on the Susquehanna Divis- ion. Piatt, Smith & Co., of Albany, had a contract for thirty-six miles. The contracts were let in long sections to few contractors, which led to much complaint against the monopolizing character of the Company in this respect. The following donations of land for depots and water-sta- tions were made along the Susquehanna Division : John Ffol- lenback, near East Owego, 6j,i acres; John R. Drake, at Owego, 9-j^j- acres; Charles F. Johnson, at Owego, 15 acres; Harmon Pumpelly, at Owego, 4^ acres; R. C. Johnson, at 32 I BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ■■4 '4 acres; James Pumpelly and wife, at Owego, 9 acies ; John Lorimer. at Elmira (east side of river), g% acres; Dunn cv Baldwin, at Elmira (west side of river), $% acies; George Gardener, at Big Flats, 8 J^ acres; Corning Company, at Corning, 34 ' 2 acres; F. E. Erwin, at Erwin (fainted I'ost), 10 acres; \\". B. Jones, at Addison, 5 acres. Jeremiah Rogers, as agent of the Company, wanted to raise $20,000 in subscriptions to Erie stock, at and about Binghamton. Hassard Lewis was one of the wealthy citi- zens, but would not subscribe. If he could get Lewis, Rogers believed he might get others. He made an arrangement by which Lewis subscribed $1,000, but was only to pay $500. ["hen Rogers got Daniel S. Dickinson, Levi Dimmick, Chris- topher Kldridge, George Pratt & Co., Frank Whitney, and nearly one hundred others. Thomas G. Waterman headed the list of these with Si, 000. meeting of June 26th was Charles F. Johnson and George J. Pumpelly to go to New York and present the resolutions to Mr. Lord. The resolutions adopted were as follows : Resolved, That it is very desirable that the Xew York and Erie Rail- road should be located as near the centre of business in this village as possible ; that the northern route upon which the work is progressing will be, if adopted, exceedingly injurious, if not destructive to the business interests of the village ; that the adoption of the southern route, so called, will not only be essential to the permanent business interests of the village, but, as we confidently believe, will, on exami- nation, be found equally advantageous to the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and we pledge ourselves to use our efforts to make it so ; that a petition be drawn up* and signed by the citizens, asking a change of the location of said railroad, and that a committee be appointed to present the same to the Company ; and that the Com- missioner be respectfully requested to stop the work on the northern line until an answer can be obtained to said petition. THE OWEGO STATION-SITE COXTEXTIOX. The Pumpellys of Owego were early advocates of the pro- ject of a railroad between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. When, in 1S40, the railroad at last seemed to be in close prox- imity to Owego, a bitter strife began there over the location of the depot, although there was not yet a mile of track laid on the entire line. James Pumpelly wanted the railroad to run through the village, either by Temple or Fox Street. Robert C. Johnson proposed to give the Company, on condition that it would spend on the property $20,000 a year for three suc- cessive years, a 30-horse water-power and three acres of land connected with it, and James Pumpelly and Charles F. John- son were to give additional land, amounting to twenty-five acres. The conveyance was made by Robert C. Johnson on condition that the Company should use the water-power for the purpose of machine shops, furnace and engine station, and for building and repairing cars and locomotives for the Com- 1 1 my. The grant did not depend on any particular line of road through Owego. This offer was made in the spring of 1840, and the Company engaged to begin work on the improve- ments on the land in the fall of 1840, but the work was soon discontinued by Engineer C. B. Stuart, on the plea that the building laid out was larger and involved a greater expense than was contemplated. The surveys for a route through Owego were made by William Wentz. A meeting of citizens was held at the court-house on the evening of June 26, 1840, at which friends of the different routes were present. George Pumpelly was the leader of the advocates of the southern route, and John R. Drake led the advocates of the northern route, or, more properly, what was understood to be the wishes of the Company, which had accepted the proposition of Judge Drake to take the northern route over land which he donated. The fight was very bitter between the factions. The Pumpelly and Johnson interests charged corruption on the part of Commissioner Lyman in locating the route through the Drake property, and bad faith on the part of President Lord, who, they asserted, had agreed to run the road through the village. A committee appointed by the The Commissioner refused to stop work, although, accord- ing to the committee, he said that route would ruin the business interests of the town. The committee then went to New York and saw Mr. Lord, July 8, 1840. The resolutions of the meeting and the citizens' petition were submitted to him and the Directors. The committee tendered the Com- pany donations of land and right of way through Temple or Fox Street. President Lord said it was too late. The north- ern route had been decided upon, Mr. Drake having donated the Company land for a depot, and guaranteed obtaining the right of way through the Talcott farm, to which point the route had been excavated and piled. This is the route now occupied by the Erie, and the feeling of bitterness the con- tention gave rise to among Owego families outlasted its generation. The following letter will be of interest : 127 Xortii Avenue, Owego, July 15, 1896. Edward H. Mott. Dear Sir : Mr. Leroy Kingman handed me your letter of June 16th, thinking my mother, Mrs. Harriet G. Tinkham, was better informed about the early history of the Xew York and Erie Railroad than any other person in 'Owego, being the eldest daughter of Judge John R. Drake, who gave nine and six-tenths acres of land for Erie buildings and road, besides being an advocate and untiring worker for the project until his stroke of paralysis, from the time it was incorpo- rated, April 24, 1S32. The project was called visionary, impracticable; and at a public meeting one man said with oaths : " What would the old fool be at next?" When the first passenger train made its appearance, this man stood by the side of his carriage on the hillside where Judge Drake had been driven, helpless from paralysis, but re- joicing in the realization of his long hoped-for enterprise. Main- persons wished the station located in their part of the town, but Judge Drake's offer was considered best, and was accepted. It was this nine and six-tenths acres that were given " for the road, machine shops, road-houses, water-tanks, or for ground for buildings for the deposit of cars, lumber, and wood for the trade of the road, only, however, for purposes connected with the legitimate business of the Xew York and Erie Railroad ; that it shall be used only for the purpose of erecting a building or buildings connected with the legitimate running or making of the road." All this has been forfeited by renting to private indi- viduals land for buildings for the retail of wagons, sash and doors, salt, paint, hardware, grain, cement, bricks, boards, etc. THE STORY OF ERIE 327 After the station (Erie) was in order, the Ithaca and Owego Rail- road discontinued running to the river and turned to the Erie station. The land occupied by their track, which is now Central Avenue, from Fox Street to the boundary of land purchased of Judge Drake, with land on both sides of what had been the track belonging to G, I. Pumpelly, was covered with a large building for building bridges for the New Vork and Erie Railroad. After awhile the Company wished to purchase this land at their own price. Mr. Pumpelly thought it less than the value, and no bargain was made. Then began a gradual removal of anything beneficial to Owego from the conveyance of the land from Judge Drake — tracks taken up and switches removed, round- house taken down, shops taken away, men ordered to live in other places (I believe it is called changing the run of the men), until we cannot help asking why this should be. The only remuneration received by Judge Drake was about fifteen hundred dollars, which was for a house and lot that had been con- tracted to a man, and had to be removed and another lot substituted. Not a pass for himself or family, not even honorable mention for his generosity. At one time the country was filled with a pile-driving craze, and for miles a long line of sticks in the mud looked like sen- tinels. Parties of engineers enlivened the towns, and that was all, until the Xew Vork and Erie Railroad came, and that, as if by magic, turned the attention of people in this direction, and instead of a jour- ney of three days to Xew Vork we go in a few hours, and the horses drawing wagons of merchandise are things of the past, thanks to the efforts of the projectors of the New Vork and Erie. Respectfully, Sakah Tikkham Gibson. PROGRESS ON THE WESTERN DIVISION. The cost for clearing and grubbing on the original ten miles from Dunkirk was from S50 to So, 10 per mile, the total cost of that being §4,151. The contracts for building the road between Hornellsville and Mud Lake Summit, in Chautauqua County, fourteen miles east of Lake Erie, were let in January, February, and March, [841. The road was piled for more than 100 miles, on the same plan as the work on the Susquehanna Division. Clear- ing and grubbing for graded road-bed through the woods cost SSoo per mile, and for piled road S400. Stumps pulled in fields cost the Company Si. 25 apiece. Putting in the piles cost S900 a mile where the piles did not exceed ten feet in length. Putting in sixteen-foot piles cost $1,300 a mile on this section, the piles delivered costing three and three-quarters cents per lineal foot. To lay the super- structure, including wood and iron (a heavy H-rail), on a continuous timber bearing, was to cost SSoo per mile. The ( ontract for the four miles between the terminus of the orig- inal ten miles east of Dunkirk and Mud Like Summit was let in the fall of [840. It was a difficult and costly section. I tie ten miles from Dunkirk were graded and finished for a double track in 1838. Rails were put down on this section in 1 84 1. Magee & Cook had the contracts from Hornellsville to Friendship, forty miles. Horace R. Riddle sub-contracted for twelve miles of this. Beyond Friendship, and to Nine- Mile Run, on the Allegany River, thirty-four miles, P. & H. A. Smith & Co. were the contractors. From Nine-Mile Run to Mud Lake Summit, the grading and the super- structure from the Run to I^ike Erie, were contracted by Cheesebrough, Hassard & Co. These contracts were let at New York in December, 1840, but were not closed until midwinter, 1841. The contractors took from one-third to three-eighths of the contract price in stock. The ten-mile section east of Dunkirk, which was graded in 1838, was con- tracted for without taking any stock, the contracts not yet having been in that form. T.S.Brown was Chief Engineer of the Western Division from July 1, 1839, until November, 1S40. From the former date until May, 1840, he had charge of the work on the ten- mile contract from Dunkirk eastward, at S5 a day. Novem- ber, 1840, he was appointed Associate Engineer, at a salary of §2,500, and Commissioner of the Western Division, at Si, 000 a year. John H. Allen was appointed Resident Engi- neer, May, 1840. He had held the same place from March to July, 1838. His pay was >4-5o a day while actually em- ployed, "excluding Sundays." Silas Seymour was chief of surveying party, from 1839 to May, 1840, when he was appointed Resident Engineer, at S4.50 a day. L. I. Stan- cliff, William Ingalls, and W. E. Hodgeman were chiefs of parties in 1840, at $3 a day. H. P. Benton was a surveyor at S2. 50 a day. Agents for right of way, adjusting land damages, obtaining subscriptions to stock, arranging for fencing, supplying timber, etc., in Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua counties, were G. A. French, Walter Chester, and John Griffin. The following donations for land for depots, water-stations, and other purposes, were made along this division of the railroad : Village of Dunkirk, 425 acres ; Cattaraugus County, 50,- 000 acres ; Randolph village, 100 acres; Allegany Reserva- tion, for depots at stopping places ; Allegany City, one- quarter part ; Hinsdale, 5 acres ; Cuba, 3 to 5 acres : Wells- ville, 3 to 5 acres. The Dunkirk donation was one-fourth of 1,700 acres of land owned by a company controlled by Walter Smith, which expected that the coming of the railroad would compel a town to rise on the shores of Lake Erie at that spot, which would be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, on the lakes. If the railroad had got to Dunkirk in time, the hopes of the land company might have had some chance of realization. In fact, the far-seeing men of that part of the State knew that all depended on the Erie Railroad connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson at the earliest possible moment, and it was to prompt and urge the men controlling the Railroad Com- pany to every effort to hasten the completion of the railroad that the Land Company offered the handsome bonus of 250 acres of land in the heart of the coming city. That land was to be conveyed to the Railroad Company in fee by the land c ompany that owned it, on the completion of the grading for a single track of rails from Lake Erie to the west line of Cattaraugus County by July 1, 1842. But it was nearly ten vears after 1842 before the railroad was completed to Dun- kirk. Then Dunkirk's opportunity was gone, and the Rail- road Company did not get the land. !28 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES (From Emory /•'. Warren's "Sketches of Chautauqua" 1S46.) The speculations in real estate, which were at their height during affected the village of Dunkirk more seriously than any other point in the county. The termination of the New York and Erie Railroad at this place pointed it out to those most deeply affected with the contagion as a spot on which operations of the kind might be carried on for awhile at least with success. The rage for corner lots and eligible sites was rife, and ran to so high a pitch that men of all pursuits — farmers, mechanics, merchants, lawyers, and even ministers of the gospel embarked upon the wild sea, without rudder or ballast, with nothing to propel them but a whirlwind that soon scattered them in broken fragments upon a lee shore. The result was a stagnation of trade, depreciation in the price of all kinds of property, the ruin and entire prostration of many families who had been in prosperous circumstances and on the high road to competence, and the hopeless bankruptcy of thousands of others. The donation of one-quarter part of Allegany City to the Railroad Company was also prompted by the great hopes an- other sanguine city builder had of the advent of the railroad among the hills of Cattaraugus County. In 1837, Nicholas Devereux, of Utica, a large landholder by purchase from the Holland Land Company, believing that the spot would be an important point on the line of the Erie Railroad, selected 300 acres on the north side of the Allegany River, a mile southeast 1 if the- village of Allegany. The original survey of the railroad passed through the land. Devereux laid it out in streets and lots, and named the site Allegany City. The city was plotted in 1842. Then came the Company's failure and suspension of work on the railroad. When work was resumed the new survey was made, leaving the proposed city far off the line, and the city came to an end. Several large buildings had been erected, one of the largest being a hotel. The Holland Land Company also had 50,000 acres of its best land ready to hand over to the Company, on condition. The condition, originally, of the 50,000-acre donation was that the railroad should be built from Dunkirk to the Gene- see River, within seven years from July 9, 1835, and the time was subsequently extended sixteen months. If the Com- pany could have complied with all the conditions of these grants, Si, 000,000 at least would have been added to its treasury. In September, 1841, on recommendation of Major T. S. Brown, Engineer in charge of that division, a change was made in the piled-road construction, and the distance of that kind of road was cut down to sixty miles on the Western Division. Major Brown did not approve of piled road-bed, except where the ground was swampy. This changed forty miles on the Western Division to grading. FIRST RAILS FOR THE ERIE. In many accounts that have appeared in newspapers and other publications from time to time, purporting to tell the story of early railroad building in this country, the statement has been persistently made that the first track of the New York and Erie Railroad was put down with what was known as the " strap-rail," a rail of flat iron spiked to the surface of timber fashioned to receive it. This is an erroneous state- ment. On the first railroads constructed the strap-rail was used, because inventive genius had been but recently called to the consideration and development of railroad appliances and equipment, and experience had not yet demonstrated what was best needed for facility, safety, and economy in railroad operation. The inefficiency of the strap-rail soon became apparent, and engineering skill long busied itself in the finding of a substitute for it that would not only do away with its many defects, but would combine other character- istics to the great advancement of railroad science. This end was accomplished by the designing of what is known as the T-rail, an invention of Robert L. Stevens, but never patented, the nomenclature being due to the resemblance the rail has, as seen in cross-section, to the letter T. This is the rail, in modified and improved patterns — for there are scores of them — which is in universal use on railroads to-day. In early days a variation of it was called the H-rail. If the building of the New York and Erie Railroad had proceeded without cessation from the time ground was broken at Deposit, N. Y., in November, 1835, the super- structure of the road would have been strap-iron spiked fast to timbers, but this work was abandoned, and no part of the road-bed was ready for the rails until the fall of 1840, and the necessity for strap-rail was gone. Although the T-rail was to be used, the science of railroad building had not advanced far enough to discover that these rails could be put down properly without the intervention of longitudinal wooden sills between them and the ground as a resting place to give them firmness and to insure greater smoothness in the run- ning of trains. These sills were sixteen feet long, ten inches wide, and eight inches deep. Cross-pieces were fitted from sill to sill, about four feet apart, making a solid frame of each section of timber put down. The rails were fastened on top of the sills by spikes which were driven into the timber close to the rail, the one-sided projecting heads binding on the lower flanges of the rail, just as rails are secured to ties to- day, the ends of the rails resting in " chairs," a heavy iron platform with a groove into which the end of each rail fitted, and which clasped the flange with sufficient purchase to sus- tain somewhat of solidity and firmness at the joint, the chair itself being spiked to the tie. There were no " fish-plates " then — those stiff straps of iron which in these days of rail- road building are bolted across the joints of rails, between the flanges, thus making of each side of a track practically one continuous rail. Early in the summer of 1S40, Major Thompson S. Brown, who was then Engineer of the Western Division, was notified by the Company to go to England with Henry L. Pierson, of the Board of Directors, and assist him in contracting for the first rails to be used on the railroad. The following copies of the " documents in the case " tell the story of this mission, and should settle forever the persistent statement in the periodicals of this day that the original rails on the Erie were strap-rails : THE STORY OF ERIE 3 2 9 New York and Erie Railroad Company, London, August y, 1S40. Memorandum : 3,600 tons must be shipped by 5th October. 1,400 tons as soon after as convenient, 400 of this quantity to be de- livered by 1st November, the other 1,000 any time before April ; more convenient to be shipped to Liverpool than Newport. Price at Newport £9 05s Ditto Liverpool, from Ruabon 1 [5s 50 lbs. to the yard ; to be made by pattern. If the pattern proves to be less than 50 pounds to the yard, to be made 50 pounds by adding to the lower part of the stem ; if more than 50 pounds, to stick to the pattern. Staffordshire iron out of the question. It will be necessary that 450 tons be made each week for eight weeks to come, say : Abersychi >n 2S0 per week Ruabon 1 70 do. The quality to be similar to that of other rails, and the rails to be equal to any we have ever made. (Signed) A. Wilson. II. I.. PlERSON. T. S. Brown. (Specification for the Rails.) loth August, 1S40. Rails for the New York and Erie Railway Company. The rails to be of the form and dimensions exhibited by the draw- ing supplied, to be manufactured as follows : Good pigs to be selected and well refined ; the refined iron to be well puddled, anil the puddled ball to be taken to the hammer and hammered, and then rolled into bars, say No. 1, or puddled bar, the bill, say, in about the propor- tion of at least two-fifths No. 2 bar and three-fifths No. 1. Puddled bar to be heated and then rolled into rails in such a manner that the lamina of the pile be horizontal throughout. The length of each rail to be iS feet, except that 10 per cent, of the whole quantity may be made in lengths of 12 and 15 feet, the depth of 3'; inches, and the width of the top to be 1 - ! 4 inches, the base 3^ inches, and the thickness of the middle of the stem 0.625 of an inch, as per drawing — the weight of the rails being in proportion say about 51^ lbs. per lineal yard. Each bar must be entirely free from warping, perfectly straight, and free from flaws and imperfections, presenting a uniform unbroken surface in every part (or so much as they are made in all these respects at the other first-rate manufactories in South Wales) The ends must be cut square. An inspector may be appointed by the purchasers, who shall possess the right of, and the manufacturer shall at all times give every facility for, inspecting the iron or rail during the process of making, and the said inspector shall have full power to reject such rails as do not conform to the drawing, or to the true intent and meaning of this specification, but it is hereby expressly stipulated that the said inspection and rejection shall be made at the manufactories and nowhere else. Signed for the Managing Directors by J. II. Havenshaw. London, 221/ August, 1S40. To tlio Ma it '..•. ig /directors of the British Iron Company: GENTLEMEN: With reference to a memorandum of agreement for 5,000 tons of rails to be made by you for the New York and Erie Railwaj 1 ompany, dated 7th inst., and signed by Major Brown, Mr. Alex. Wilson and myself, in which it was stipulated that 400 tons of rails (in addition to 3,600 tons to be previously supplied I. were to be delivered by 1st November next, I have now to request that in lieu of this 400 tons you will supply 400 tons from your Staffordshire works, to be delivered with the utmost possible despatch in Liverpool, the pattern of which rails you have this day received from Buerly Hill. For these rails I agree on the part of the New York and Erie Railroad to pay £\o per ton, delivered in Liverpool ; terms of payment as al- ready agreed for the remaining part of this order, the iron expected to be delivered the 1st day of September. Very respectfully, II. L. I'll Ks. IN. Mr. Pierson had evidently received information from the Railroad Company that made haste in the delivery of the iron of importance. The matter was closed finally as follows : ement made August 31, 1S40, with Messrs. Palmer, McKillup, Dent & Company, and Fletcher, Alexander C~ Company, Ion- don, for the delivery of 5,000 tons of iron rails at Liverpool and Newport, England. LENGTH OF RAILS. From Staffordshire Works So per cent iS feet. 10 " " 16 10 " " 12 to 15 " " Ruabon " 90 " " .. 16 " " " 10 " " 12 to 15 " Depth, 3 1 ; inches ; width of the top, ■}% inches ; of the base. 3 \, inches ; depth of the top. 1 - ; 4 inches ; thickness of the middle stem, S/i of an inch. Weight — 2,000 tons, 50 lbs. to the yard ; 3,000 tons, 55 lbs. to the yard. Price per ton, from Staffordshire Works, 900 tons ^10 goo " 17 os. 6d. " Ruabon " per ton 9 15s. " " Abersychon il " 90s. 5d. Commission in England, 2 l 2 per cent. ; in New York for agency, 1 per cent. ; in New York on disbursements, 2yi per cent. Freight per ton from Liverpool, 10s. to 17s. 6d. sterling ; from Newport, 25s. to 27s. 5d. sterling ; from Bristol, 27s. 6d. sterling. All American H-rail, laid down for shipment at Newport, South Wales. Investment in stock. $75,000, on which 6 per cent, interest is to be paid by the Company, until the completion of a single track from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The first rails for the Erie thus cost $231,250, of which amount $75,000 was paid in stock of the Company. The contract was made with the British Iron Company, repre- sented by J. H. Havenshaw, the Managing Director, through Palmer, McKillup, Dent & Co., and Fletcher, Alexander & Co., commission men, and the first Erie agents abroad. The stock issued was for ami upon the Eastern Division of the railroad, between Piermont and Goshen. The contract was signed, " in presence of H. A. Lnce, 11 King's Arms Yard, London, 1. Peachy, 8 Frederick's Place, Old Jersey, London," by Henry I.. Pierson, T. S. Brown, Edward Haley Palmer, Charles D. Bruce, and Christopher Pearce. Mr. Pierson also contracted for 200 tons of rail chairs, weighing fifteen pounds each, at ^7 per ton, and 100 tons at ^7 5s. For negotiating this first transaction for the pur- chase of rails for the Erie, Henry L. Pierson was paid by the Company £4,000. It was an unfortunate transaction for the 33° BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES iron company, which accepted so large a part of its price in Erie stock at par. The stock was then held at about five dollars a share here. The iron company neglected to come in and take advantage of the reorganization of the Railroad Company in 1845, and lost its stock. So the first Erie rails were a bargain, and the English began early to have their disquieting experiences with Erie shares. I »i 1 ember 2, 1841, Walter Smith, of Dunkirk, completed a contract on part of the Huron Iron Company with the New York and Erie Railroad Company for 400 tons of cast- iron rails at eighty dollars per ton of 2,340. pounds. One half of the iron was to be delivered at Dunkirk, and the other half at Owego and Elmira. The iron company agreed to take 37 per cent, of the cost of the shares in stock. ical importance, young Griffis, " just to see how it would look," placed one of the rails upon a sill near the Pier, and spiked it down, thus having "driven the first spike" on the railroad that was eventually not only to unite the Ocean with the Lakes, but be one of the main links in the mighty chain of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In 1846 Griffis became General Wood Agent of the Company, a place of much importance, as at that time wood was the sole fuel on the railroad, and the purchasing and distribution of it was entirely in Griffis's hands until 1848, when the rail- road was opened to Binghamton. Then a second agent was appointed, the duties being more than one man could attend to. Griffis remained in the service of the Company until 1S53. He died in Susquehanna County, Pa., in 1896. DROVE THE FIRST SPIKE ON THE ERIE. Abner Griffis, then a young man, and having been two years a member of the engineer corps on the North Branch Canal, a part of the public works of Pennsylvania, came to George E. Hoffman began on the New York and Erie Railroad as Superintending Engineer of the Eastern Divi- sion in 1S40, and had charge of the superstructure, of the machine shops, and of the purchase of locomotives and cars. August 20, 1841, he was made Division Engineer of the Central Division, with headquarters at Bingham- ton. While he was in charge of the superstructure, early in 1 84 1, he became seized of a brilliant idea. This was that the wheels of the cars would meet with less resistance from the rails, and secure a better " bite " on them, if the rails were laid so that the wheels came in contact with only a small portion of their surface. He was so much convinced of the correctness of his theory that Camp & Co. were di- rected to lay a mile or two of the sills so hewn on one side that when the rails were spiked on they would be slanting, and present only about an inch of one edge to contact with the wheels. It required the passing of cars over that section of the road but a few times to demonstrate that while the wheels might be escaping more resistance from the rails, the rails were getting just as much grinding from the wheels as ever, and getting it all on a small portion of their surface, so that it would be but a short time before they were worn out and worthless, without having been of any corresponding ad- vantage as factors in the economy of railroading. Engineer Hoffman's brilliant idea died almost as soon as it was born, and the slanting rails were quickly set square on the sills. ABNER GRIFFIS. the Erie in July, 1840, to superintend the work undertaken by Camp & Co., between Piermont and Coffey's. " It was a hard time for money," wrote Griffis to the author in 1895, " and we had a serious time to get along. The Company had exhausted its funds on the grading, and the completion of the grading delayed us much. Great credit is due to H. C. Seymour and S. S. Post, civil engineers, for their mas- terly management. I have always said that they were the Fathers of the Road." No iron rails had been received yet, but some of the first cargo, it having come over from England as ballast in a vessel, was received at Piermont in October, 1840. Unofficially, and without much thought of its histor- The engineer corps of 1840 was organized as follows : Chief Engineer, Edward Miller. Salary, $4,000. Head- quarters at New York. He hail a secretary and an archi- tectural and topographical draughtsman. Associate Engineer, Major T. S. Brown, Dunkirk. Resident Engineers : Eastern Division, H.C.Seymour, Piermont; Delaware Division, A. C. Morton, Goshen ; Central Division, G. E. Hoffman, Bing- hamton ; Western Division, T. S. Brown, Dunkirk. Salary of each, $2,500 and expenses. Silas Seymour was Major Brown's assistant. S. S. Post was assistant to H. C. Seymour. Hoffman had three assistants, Conover, Starkey, and Morrell. Starkey is now the Bishop of the Newark diocese of the Episcopal Church. T. C. Ruggles was assistant to A. C. Morton. THE STORY OF ERIE The members of the Construction Department in 1841, and theii salaries, were : Edward Miller, Chief Engineer $3,000 per annum Samuel P. Lyman, < ieneral Commissioner. 3,000 " >.- 1 1 ■■, on tsii in. II C. Seymour, Division Engineer $2,500 per annum V Dallas Green, Resident Engineer 4 per day DELAWARE DIVISION. A. C. Morton, Division Engineer and Acting Com- missioner Si, 5°o per annum CENTRAL DIVISION. George E. Hoffman, Division Engineer and Acting Commissioner §1,500 per annum A U. Conover, Resident Engineer and Acting Commissioner 3.50 per day T. A. Starkey, Resident Engineer 3.00 " Jeremiah Rogers, General Agent 3.00 " SUSQUEHANNA DIVISION. Thomas A. Johnson, Commissioner $1,500 per annum C. B. Stuart, Division Engineer 1,500 I '. G. Pomeroy, Assistant Engineer 3 per day J. Sprinkling, Assistant Engineer 3 WESTERN DIVISION. T. S. Brown, Associate Engineer and Commissioner.$2,Soo per annum Silas Seymour, Resident Engineer and Commis'ner 3.50 per day C. R. Paxton, Resident Engineer and Commis'ner 3.50 " I. S. Stancliff, Resident Engineer and Commis'ner 3.50 " L, I>. Hodgman, Principal Assistant and Superin- tendent of < 'instruction 3.50 G. A. French, Land Agent 4.00 " Walter Chester, Land Agent 3.50 " Eai h of the five members of the Western Division staff last named was allowed 50 cents a day for horse hire ''while in use," and Si a day for travelling expenses " while em- ployed." The Commissioners of the several divisions had each under his charge and superintendence such agents as were neces- sary for the proper care and management of the works, for the protection of the interests of the Company dependent upon the performance of contracts, and for the security of property of the Company distributed along the lines. Hut notwithstanding the show of great activity all along the line, it was in the air that the actual foundation for it was not as substantial as it might be, and minors that there was irregularity in the management of the work by the Company's agents, engineers, and officers grew into positive charges, to which the New York Legislature at last turned its atten- tion, and an investigation was ordered to be made of the Company's affairs by a committee of the Assembly. This \\ is the first probing of an Krie management by the Legisla- ture, and much capital was made of it by the enemies of the Conipanv, who were many and vindictive. In May, 1841, Eleazai Lord resigned as President, although the railroad had so far advanced in building that it was on the eve of being opened half way between Piermont and Goshen. The inves- tigation did not uncover any serious wrong-doing ; in fact, the reports upon it vindicated the management. Mr. I,ord was succeeded by James Bowen. Till'. CARS BEGIN TO RUN. "The building of It" had progressed so well since the spring of 1840 that in the spring of the following year the coming of the locomotive had become a thing expected daily. The rails were laid as far as Ramapo June 17, 1841, and a locomotive, the " Eleazar Lord," was run from Piermont to Ramapo on that day. June 30, 1841, was the day on which the first train-load of passengers that ever travelled on the New York and Krie Railroad was carried. This was from 1'ier- mont to the heart of the Hudson Highlands. Among these passengers was President James Bowen, Vice-President Henry L. Pierson; Chief Commissioner Samuel P. Lyman, who had succeeded Eleazar Lord in that office in 1839 ; the Board of Directors of the Company; Chief Engineer Edward Miller; a number of guests from New York City, among them James Watson Webb, and citizens who were taken up at Piermont and other stations along the line. The New York guests left that city at 10 a.m. of June 30th, on the steamboat "South America," and arrived at Piermont at 11.30, where the pioneer jjassenger train was in readiness. The trip through the historic region between Piermont and Ramapo was made in sixty-five minutes. In his very meagre account of this memorable excursion, General Webb, in the New York Courier ami Enquirer, had this to say : " It is a well-ascertained fact that heavy trains can only be propelled by very heavy locomotive engines, and, of course, to sustain them, the most durable road is required. The heaviest loco- motive ever built, as we are informed, is that which was used on Wednesday, and with which we passed up a grade of 60 feet to the mile, the distance of four miles, at the rate of ten miles an hour. This locomotive was the ' Rockland,' one of the three original locomotives that' were received by the Company, in December, 1S40. It weighed 38,000 pounds. At Ramapo the distinguished party was entertained at his mansion by the venerable Jeremiah H. Pierson, who had been a steadfast and unceasing friend of the Erie project from the start, and was one of the Directors. Men of all parties united in an interchange of congratulation on this truly auspicious occasion, and the day was one of pleasure without alloy. To this city it was a day which will long be remembered when even the names of those who proposed this great work shall have been forgotten." The section of railroad thus opened was not put regularly in operation for business, and a delay that seemed unaccount- able to the impatient public ensued in finishing the work to Goshen. The truth was that although the management had had the use of a great deal of money, the Company was in debt to contractors and the treasury was low. It had been semi-officially announced that the railroad would be opened to Goshen in July, but the rails on a large part of the section 33 2 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES between Ramapoand Goshen were not down yel when August came, and in that month James Seymour, one of the assistant original survey of 1834, was employed by 1 make a tour of inspection of the entire route and report upon it. This was to prepare a way for an appli- cation to the Legislature of 1842 for more aid, the State having already granted assistance to the amount of £3,000,- 000. Sevmour's report was most favorable as to the work the Company had done and as to prospects of the railroad. THE RAILROAD OPENED TO GOSHEN. At last, early in September, the Company was able to make the announcement that the Eastern Division of the New York and Erie Railroad would " be opened for freight and pas- rs on Thursday, the 23d of September." This long- expe< ted event was made the occasion of a demonstration commensurate with its importance. Invitations had been issued to national, State, and municipal officials, judges of the Courts and members of the Bar, the clergy, financiers, the Chamber of Commerce and Hoard of Trade of New York City, the press, and many distinguished private citizens. The steamboat " Utica," commanded by Captain Alexander H. Schultz, left New York City at 8 a.m. on the day of the opening. Among the passengers on board were Governor Seward and his civil and military staff; United States Sena- tor Phelps, of Vermont ; Congressman T. Butler King, of Georgia ; Hugh Maxwell, Collector of the Port of New York ; the Mayor and Common Council of the city, and members of the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade ; promi- nent judges and lawyers ; several eminent clergymen, Bishop Onderdonk of their number; and numerous persons con- spicuous in business, society, politics, and journalism. Messrs. Chatfield, McKay, and Graham, of the legislative committee appointed to investigate the affairs of the Company, were guests on the occasion. The boat arrived at Piermont at 10.30 a.m., where the party was joined by Washington Irving, who had come over from his Sunnyside home. The Railroad Company was represented by the presence of President Bowen, Vice-President H. L. Pierson, Chief Commissioner Lyman, Eastern Division Commissioner H. C. Seymour, Chief Engineer Edward Miller, and the Board of Directors, the members of which present were Charles (). Davis, Richard M. Blatchford, Simeon Draper, Jr., George Griswold, Aaron Clark, Charles Hoyt, Elihu Townsend, Goold Hoyt, W. C. Redfield (the original suggester of a railroad over the Krie route), S. W. Roberts, A. L. Sykes, and Jere- miah 1L Pierson. Ex-President Eleazar Lord was also one of the pain. Two trains of four cars each were in waiting at Piermont to receive the guests, and the number filled them more than comfortably. Only two of these were passenger cars, all the Company had as yet, the rest being platform cars. The locomotive of the first train was the " Orange." The " Ram- apo" drew the second train. The cars sat so low down on their frames, burdened as they were with human beings, as topress the wood- work down upon the wheels, the flanges of which ground into it at every revolution. But in spite of this, which would be more than enough to start a panic among a railway excursion party to-day, the excursionists seemed to have had a most enjoyable trip from the waters of the Hudson to the meadows of Orange County, and they arrived at Goshen three hours after leaving Piermont, or about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The townspeople, the people from the hills and farms and towns for miles around, were there to welcome them with music, flags, and guns, and tremendous cheers. The gathering at the station and about it numbered thousands of enthusiastic and wonder-stricken people. The guests were welcomed in a speech by Gen. George D. Wickham, of Goshen, an early and constant friend of the Erie, and there were hours of feasting and speech- making and toast-drinking. President Bowen made an address in which he said : We have met to celebrate the completion of the first division of this great road. It is an event that well deserved this public celebration, for it insures the completion of the whole road, and thereby secures to this State and its commercial capital the trade of the great West. The advantages to result from this road are appreciated but by few ; in- deed, to many of our fellow citizens its existence is unknown, or if known, it is regarded by them as one of the thousand visionary specu- lations that had their rise a few years since, and, like them, it has ceased to be remembered but as another illustration of the folly and credulity of men. You who are here this day can testify that it has not been abandoned, and you can form some estimate of its ultimate benefits when you reflect that you have been transported from the bank of the Hudson through the counties of Rockland and Orange to the border of Sullivan in less than three hours. In a fesv short years, if this road is completed, the fertile hills and valleys of Steuben and Allegany, of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua, now comparatively unsettled, will be covered with a dense population, and amidst these vast solitudes will soon be heard the hum of cities, the abode of prosperous, intelligent, and happy souls. The great Appian Way will become the highway of nations, and their boundless products will be poured through this channel into the lap of our State, enriching it and adding to its power and greatness. Speeches were made by Governor Seward, James Watson Webb, Hugh Maxwell, Eleazar Lord, Senator Phelps, and others. Governor Seward's speech was in straight-out advo- cacy of State ownership of internal improvements, including railroads, and a declaration that railroad fares should not be greater than one and a half cents per mile. A grand feast was served to the distinguished guests at Major Edsall's hotel near the depot, the hotel now known as the Occidental. The trains left Goshen at sundown on their return trip to Piermont, and the steamboat " LTtica," on which a collation was served, arrived at New York at 10.30. the company's rolling stock in pawn. While officially the survey of the Western Division of the route was in charge of Ellet, the work was done by George C. Miller, a young engineer, but a year or two past his majority, who ran the line from Binghamton to Dunkirk, and drew all the maps and profiles of the rugged country through which THE STORY OF ERIE JJO it passed. He completed the work early in the fall of 1834, and returning to Owego, accompanied a delegation of promi- nent citizens of that place, among them the Pumpellys, to Auburn for an interview with William H. Seward, then a coming man in State politics, and who, as State Senator, had persistently opposed the Xew York and Erie Railroad pro- ject. Mr. Miller explained the result of his engineering work to Mr. Seward, and spoke so encouragingly, from a practical standpoint, of the enterprise, that the future great statesman became interested in it, and ever afterward used his influence in its behalf. Mr. Miller served his apprentice- ship in civil engineering on the Morris Canal, in Xew Jersey, long before railroads were occupying the attention of the profession. He afterward entered the service of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company, the first railroad chartered in the State of Xew York. He worked on the drafting of the plans for the now historic locomotive, the " De Witt Clinton," which hauled the first train-load of passengers on that pioneer railroad, in November, 1831. From the Mohawk and Hud- son Railroad Mr. Miller went to the Camden and Amboy Railroad, then building between those two places. In 1834 he joined the engineer corps that was to make the survey of the Erie route, under Judge Wright. When the letting of the contracts for the superstructure of the railroad were advertised in 1S40, Mr. Miller was in Xew York. He and his brother bid on the section mentioned, and secured the contract. The work was delayed by the slow progress of grading, and they could not get it done. George E. Hoffman, the Company's Engineer of Construction, requested them to relinquish it. It was taken by other contractors. Soon after the railroad was opened to Goshen, the Millers, in 1841, put in a claim against the Company for Si 7, 000, which the Com- pany refused to pay. The contractors threatened to sue, and as there was no doubt but that they would obtain judgment, which was something the Company could not well afford to have known just then, a curious compromise was made by the Company with George C. Miller, who had taken an assignment of his brother's interest in the claim. The Com- pany could not pay the cash, so, in consideration of Miller taking §1,500 of the claim in stock — which would insure the Company S3, 000 in State stock, Company stock being worth almost nothing, and State stock par — the Company agreed to give Miller a bill of sale for its rolling stock, the railroad having in the meantime been opened between Piermont and Goshen, as security for the payment to him of S500 a month until his claim was cancelled; also agreeing to the selection of Talman J. Waters, a former Secretary of the Company, as receiver of certain of the Company's moneys, to apply on the Miller claim. This was, perhaps, the most singular busi- ness transaction in the history of railroads, for through it the Xew York and Erie Railroad Company had actually assigned its rolling stock to a creditor, and placed itself in the hands of a receiver, without a single process of law or court. The rolling stock was redeemed and the receiver discharged, however, after a few months of this paying of the Company's debt on the installment plan. Mi. Miller became a citizen of Goshen, and married a daughter of Henry G. Wisner. Although engaged in business in Xew York, he continued his residence in Goshen, where he died in 1896, aged 86. In 1S41 the following donations of land for depots and water-stations were made on the Eastern Division : Cornelius J. Blauvelt, at Piermont, 99 acres; Eleazar Lord, at Pascac, 1 acre ; Ramapo Manufacturing Company, at Ramapo, 2V3 acres; Hudson MacFarland, at Monroe Works, 1 acre; Messrs. Townsend, at Chester, 2)4, acres; Gen. G. D. Wickham, at (loshen, 2)2 acres. HOW THE ERIE PAID CAMP & CO.'s CLAIM. Camp & Co., so the record shows, accepted S8,ioo of the amount of their contract in the Company's stock, but the record does not tell why they did so. Their reason for tak- ing the stock makes another entertaining story of those pioneer Erie days. By the terms of the contract the Company was to have the grading done as Camp & Co.'s work progressed, so that the timbers and rails could be laid and the material carried on a construction train from Piermont, as the line of work was ex- tended. The contractors found, however, that the grading of the road had not been completed even the ten miles west of Piermont. The Company could not keep its part of the contract, and the contractors were obliged to hire teams to haul and deliver their timber along the line of the work. The timber was hemlock, sawed S x 10. It was purchased at Honesdale, Pa., 150 miles distant, and brought to the work by the only available means of transportation, which was by the Delaware and Hudson Canal from Honesdale to Ron- dout, and thence by the Hudson River to Piermont. The sills were sunk in trenches dug for them, and the cross pieces mortised down upon them. By the time the first ten miles of the road were finished by Camp & Co., the grading was advancing westward, but the progress was slow. The Company's funds were low, and the prospects looked dark. All payments for labor were made in scrip issued by the Company, and holders of it had to submit to a heavy discount to have it cashed. The Com- pany was in arrears to its contractors, and Camp & Co. were heavily in debt to local merchants for supplies furnished their men. At last, the Company having broken it in various ways, they threw up the contract, and demanded a settle- ment. The Company's affairs were then virtually in control of the Chief Engineer Hezekiah C. Seymour and his assist- ant, S. S. Post. It was the common saying of the day that "Seymour ran the Directors, and Post ran the road." The contractors claimed that they had been compelled to do a large amount of work not called for in their agreement, and the Company disputed the claim. Seymour sent Engineer Hoffman to make an inspection of the work done by Camp & Co. all along the line. The contractors instructed Abner Griffis to go over the work and report an estimate of what it showed as being due them. ^ 3 1 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Contractor Camp and Aimer Griffis subsequently met Sey- mour and Post at the Merchant's Hotel, in Cortlandt Street, N. Y., to discuss the claim. Griffis's estimate was that there was due Camp & ( >>. from the Railroad Company ^24,300. Engineei Hoffman's estimate was several thousand dollars than that. The Company's representatives refused to pay the claim as Griffis mad.- it out to he. Camp was in need ol money, and anxious to get away to carry out other plans he had formed. He said he would leave to Griffis the dei ision as to what amount he ought to receive. •• ["hen," snd ( ,1 litis. •• if yon take a dollar less than 1 have made out your claim to be, you will lose money." This determined Camp to insist on every dollar of the claim. He declared to Seymour and Post that unless his claim was paid forthwith he would have recourse to the law to aid him in recovering it. A lawsuit was just the thing that the Railroad Company least desired in the situation it was then in. If Camp should sue, others would do the same, and it was more than likely that all would obtain judgments. A judgment against the Company at that time meant a sale of the road to satisfy it. The projectors of the great enterprise, the Western Railroad (now the Boston and Albany), which Boston capitalists were then pushing from that city as its eastern, to Albany as its western, terminus, to connect with the Erie Canal and the railroads soon to connect Albany with Buffalo, were watching the New York and Erie Railroad with a jealous eye, and leaving no means untried to cripple and de- lay it. The financial straits of the Erie gave the Boston peo- ple hope that they would at no very distant day have an opportunity to purchase that road and its franchises and put an end to it then and there. The New York and Erie peo- ple knew this, and they knew that in the event of Camp or m\ one else securing a judgment for so large a sum against the Company, the Boston Company's opportunity might come. So Seymour and Post did not dare to risk the out- come of a lawsuit, and they agreed to Camp's terms. "Griffis's estimate is a robbery of the Company," said Seymour, "but we will pay it to save trouble. You will have to raise the money for us, though, Mr. Camp. We haven't got a dollar." This was a novel and startling declaration. The idea of a man being expected to raise money himself to enable his debtors to pay him what they owed him might well have sur- I ii 1 Contractor Camp or any other man in his situation. " Well, gentlemen," said he, " isn't this rather a new prin- ciple in finance? " '• Perhaps," replied Seymour, "but it is an easy one. All you have to do is to subscribe for $10,000 worth of Erie stoc k. That will entitle us to receive $20,000 from the State. Then we will pay you 814,000 in cash out of that #20,000, and the $10,000 of stock will stand for the balance of your claim. More than that, we will have $6,000 in cash left for tin- Company's use, and we need it." Camp at last agreed to take one-third of the claim in stock, and thus "raised the money to pay his own claim." And thus, also, did the State of New York settle many other claims against the New York and Erie Railroad Company, in those early days, to leave a snug balance in cash each time in the hands of the Company's managers. After settling his affairs on the line of his late contract, Contractor Camp left New York State to go to Michigan, where he believed there was a great future for men in his business. But he never reached his destination. He left Buffalo on the steamboat " Erie," which went down in a tem- pest on Lake Erie, August 9, 1S42, with nearly every soul on board. Camp was among the victims of the ill-fated vessel. WHY THE RAILROAD WENT TO MIDDLETOYVX. The Western terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad was at Goshen not quite two years, but if the Company had adopted what was known as the " Slate Hill route " from that place, Goshen would have continued to be the end of the road at least six years, and the distance between the Hud- son and the Delaware would have been shortened ten miles, and the Company would have saved more than $325,000; but Middletown and Otisville would have been left off the line. The Slate Hill route extended from Goshen, in a south- westerly course, through the towns of Wawayanda, Minisink, and Greenville, and along the eastern base of the Shawan- gunk Mountains. It was run by the engineers in one of the surveys supplemental to the original survey of 1834. As has been stated, the Shawangunk Range was one of the great ob- stacles to the thoroughfare for the railroad that had been found between the Hudson and the Delaware, and no feasi- ble pass was discovered through the range except along its western face, beginning a mile beyond Otisville. This route required miles of deep rock cutting and earth excavation be- fore a bed could be made for the railroad. The Slate Hill route would have carried the road around and away from all those great difficulties, but there were several reasons why the Company did not adopt it. One of these reasons was that the prospect of financial aid, which was greatly needed, was more promising at Middletown than it was along the Slate Hill way. The great obstacle to the southwestern route to the Delaware Yalley was, however, that to escape the Shawan- gunk Mountain difficulties of construction the railroad would have to be carried over the State line into New Jersey, and pass for a mile or more through that State to the valley at Carpenter's Point. The Company's charter especially pro- vided that the railroad must be confined to New York State territory. To take advantage of the Slate Hill route, the Company would have been obliged to secure a change in its charter by consent of the Legislature, and the Company was an anxious applicant just at that time for legislation of far greater importance to its future than was the privilege of building its road through a corner of New Jersey. So the present course from Goshen west, with its capricious wind- ings and turnings, and big cuts and heavy grades, was the only one that could be chosen ; and it was the only practical one, at any rate. THE STORY OF ERIE 335 THE HEAVY HAND OF MISFORTUNE. Work along the line, under the contracts of [840-41, was kept going after the opening of the railroad to Goshen, but it was evident that the affairs of the Company were passing beneath a shadow. The story of the efforts the management wis making to dispel the shadows, and prevent an impending crisis, is told in detail in the chapter on James Bowen's ad- ministration in the " General History." The colossal error that was fatal to the future of Erie was made before the open- ing of the railroad to Goshen : the refusal of the management to unite the Erie with the Harlem Railroad, by constructing a brain h to that railroad from a point opposite Piermont, by which the Erie would have gained entrance to New York City, and secured its terminus there at what is now the Grand Central Depot of the New York Central Railroad. ("Ad- ministration of James Bowen," pages 52-56.) The people of Middletown, X. Y.. viewed with keener apprehension the faltering state of the Company's operations, perhaps, than those of any other locality on the route, for the railroad's western terminus was then but nine miles distant from that place, and at a rival village. The grading between Goshen and Middletown was partially done, but its progress to com- pletion was slow and uncertain. It was still in that condition when the contractors all along the line were notified in No- vember, 1841, that the financial status of the Company was such that if thev continued with their work it would be greatly to their risk. The contractors, however, had faith that the Legislature of New York would come to the aid of the Company at the session of 1842, and many of them kept at work, accepting the Company's obligations for future payment. The situation of the work along the line at the close of 1841 was this : 410 miles of the road were under contract. The grading between Goshen and Middletown was nearly finished. Forty miles from Callicoon to Deposit, the Com- pany announced, could be ready for the rails in thirty days, although not a stroke of work had been done on that section sin e 1 S3 7 : The Susquehanna Division, 117 miles, was two- thirds constructed (on piles), exclusive of iron rails. Sixteen miles of the road from Dunkirk, ea>t. was being prepared for superstructure, and rails were on some part of it. Super- structure was being laid between Olean and Cuba. Half of the rest of the Western Division was graded. $4,500,000 had been spent so far in the work, ami $200,000 worth of roadway had been ceded gratuitouslv. Hut the Legislature did not come to the Company's succor. There was barely a dollar in the treasury, and default was made to the State on interest due April 1, 1842, and the Company placed itself in the hands of assignees. There was due to contractors and for material $600,000. Work on the construction of the road ceased the entire length of the line, and for four years all was silent and abandoned on the great work in which so many millions had been sunk. The propcrtv of the Company was advertised by the State Comp- troller to be sold under foreclosure December 30, 1842. At a special session of the Legislature in August, 1842, friends of the Erie succeeded in having the sale postponed six months. At the time the assignment was made, there was not a dollar of the State stock in the hands of the Company un- sold, ami $439,000 of it was pledged to banks, contractors, and others for $385,908. And the funds of the Company on band, according to the report of Treasurer Pierson, March 1 1, 1842, were : In the Mercantile Bank (New York) $73 46 In the Bank of Commerce 40 74 Cash on hand with the Treasurer S7 13 Total $201 33 An encouraging prospect, indeed, for the completion of the railroad to Lake Erie ! During 1840, 1S41, and 1842, the following amounts had been paid to the leading contractors : Manrow & Higin- botham, Susquehanna Division, $383,473.16; Cheesebrough, Hassard & Co., Western Division, $166,400; John A. Tracy & Co., Western Division, $66,350 ; P. & H. A. Smith, West- ern Division, $103,900; Magee iV' Cook, Western Division. $273,300; Tracy iS: Cartright, $24,290.43; Carmichael & Stranahan, Eastern Division, $82,744.44 — a total of $1,100,- 458.03. THE RAILROAD FINISHED TO MIDDLETc i\VX. Pending the proceedings in the proposed sale of the rail- road, renewed efforts were made to resuscitate and rehabil- itate the Company and prevent the foreclosure. James Bowen retired from the management, and was succeeded by William Maxwell, of Elmira, and an entirely new Director)'. The Middletown Association was formed through the efforts of Samuel Denton, Thomas King, William Robinson, and others, and twenty-five citizens of that village made an agreement with the Company to complete the nine miles of railroad between Goshen and Middletown, paying for the work themselves, the amount to be reimbursed to the subscribers to the fund from the earnings of the railroad on that section. This work was done accordingly. The iron necessary for laying the track was taken from the original ten miles laid east from Dun- kirk, as that part of the road was to be abandoned. This iron was transported from Dunkirk, via Lake Erie to Buffalo, thence over the Erie Canal and the Hudson River to Pier- mont, and thence by the railroad to Goshen. This iron was part of a lot purchased from the Huron Iron Company in 1S40. The extension to Middletown was completed by the end of May. 1843, ami opened for business June 7th. Then Middletown became the Western terminus of the railroad, and remained such three years and a half. " The condition of the road in use at that time," the re- port of the Company for rS49 declared (the first report that had been made in four years), " was such as hardly to permit a train of cars to pass over it with safety. * * * Miles of road standing on piles, and high trestle-work in a decayed ;3 6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES state, which had to be filled up, requiring in many cases very expensive culverts, with long and heavy embankments. The locomotives, cars, buildings, and machinery in shops were entirely inadequate to the business. The road between n and Middletown, seven miles in length, brought into use in a partly finished state, and belonging to an associa- tion of gentlemen of the latter place, was held by the Com- panv under an agreement to ran it. This had to be pur- chased and put in order, like other portions of the road. There had been expended for these objects, and deemed absolutely necessary, the sum of ^695,421. The Company at that time (and for some time thereafter) were entirely de- pendent upon chartering such steamboats and barges as they could procure to do the business connected with their ferry." During William Maxwell's administration, legislation was ud postponing the sale of the railroad two years— to April 1, 1845. Horatio Allen succeeded Maxwell as President, in the fall of 184,5, and made strenuous but futile efforts to lift the Company out of its troubles and resume the work of construction. (" Administration of Horatio Allen," pages 67 to 73.) In the fall of 1844 Eleazar Lord was for the third time called to the Presidency of Erie. ONE WAY TO COLLECT A DEBT. The route of the New York and Erie Railroad was located through several of the finest of Orange County's farms be- tween Goshen and Middletown. With the exception of Adrian Holbert, the owners of those farms gave right of way for the road, some of them also being among the contributors of money toward insuring the extension of the line to Middle- town. Part of the Holbert farm was a wide stretch of low- lying meadows, a mile or so west of Goshen. There was no other course for the railroad to follow, and it was obliged to pass across the Holbert meadows or have its western termi- nus indefinitely at Goshen. The Company, therefore, came to Farmer Holbert's terms, and agreed to pay him his price for right of way through his property. The meadows were fertile, and on the surface fair to view, but when the contractors came to the making of a road-bed upon them, they found that the fair surface was but a marsh, concealing alarming instability of foundation. The land was so low that to equalize the grade the railroad was to be car- ried over it on piles driven in the ground. A contract was made with Farmer Holbert to furnish the piling necessary to establish the grade across his meadows. The pile-driving proceeded satisfactorily until the workmen were well afield, when suddenly the bottom seemed to drop out of the land, and the road-building became a repetition, on a small scale, of the experience the contractors had had on the Chester meadows. For a time it appeared as if Adrian Holbert would be unable to fulfil his contract for supplying the piles, but he was of the pushing and determined sort, and hired farmers in all the surrounding towns to cut and deliver to him the necessary timbers. The result was that he put them on the ground within the required time, and the road was built across his meadows. This piece of road-bed is to-day a solid, high embankment, apparently as ancient as the hills that rise on the right of it ; but when the rails were placed upon it, in 1843, they rode across the meadows on the tops of piling in some places several feet above the surface. These piles are still there, but were long ago hidden by the present solid road-bed, which is the artificial filling in of the space between the piles and the surface of the meadow. The railroad was completed to Middletown in June, 1843. Preliminary to opening it for business between that place and Goshen, June 7 th, one of the four locomotives then in the service was attached to a flat car and started from ( ioshen as an inspection train. Conductor W. H. Stewart had charge of the train. John Brandt, Jr., was the engineer. Super- intendent H. C. Seymour, Gen. G. D. Wickham, and others were on the car. When they reached the Adrian Holbert place they were surprised to see a rail fence, four rails high and three lengths long, built across the track there, and Farmer Holbert himself lying on a cross tie, with his arms and legs tightly clasped about it. The engine stopped, and the railroad men went forward and demanded an explanation of this placing of an embargo on pioneer travel over the New York and Erie Railroad. Farmer Holbert, who is remem- bered as a man in whom stubbornness predominated, ex- plained matters in decided terms. "This railroad can't run cars through my farm," said he, " until the Company settles with me ! " The Railroad Company, it seems, had not paid for the right of way across the Holbert fields, and there was an un- settled claim for timber Holbert had furnished. Having failed to get any satisfactory arrangement with the Company, Farmer Holbert resolved to take heroic measures as the best means to bring it to terms. So he had built the fence across the track as a signal that there was no thoroughfare there, and, rightly surmising that it would be no obstacle to the progress of the locomotive, had thrown himself in the way of it, feeling certain that the engineer would not proceed over his dead body. Remonstrance, appeal, threats, had no effect on Farmer Holbert, as he lay stubbornly clutching the railroad tie ahead of the locomotive. "Tell the Company to come here and settle ! " he cried. " Then I'll let business start up again." The engineer ran his engine to within a foot or two of Farmer Holbert, and set it to blowing off steam to the full extent of its power, with the expectation that this would frighten him away. " But," as the late W. H. Stewart re- called the incident for the writer, " he didn't scare worth a cent." Then the railroad men laid hands on him and essayed to remove him by force, but it required three of them to do it, and then only after a severe struggle. " A madder man you never saw," Mr. Stewart said, " when at last we got him loose from the tie, put him on board the car, and took him on to Middletown with us." It is scarcely probable that the Erie of to-day would recog- nize as effective methods of the kind Farmer Holbert adopted THE STORY OF ERIE >37 to enforce the settlement of a claim against it, but the Erie of that day recognized them, and without delay. Before Farmer Holbert had perfected his arrangements to proceed again with his barricading of the track, an agent of the Com- pany called at his farm and settled with him in full. Such is the account of the Holbert incident as the late W. H. Stewart recalled it, in conversation with the author, and as Jesse A. Holbert, a son of the stubborn farmer, says he remembers his father telling it. Wilmot M. Vail, of Port Jervis, who was a boy at Goshen then, and remembers being present on the occasion, says that the incident occurred after the railroad was opened to Middletown, and that the cars that Holbert attempted to blockade were freight cars that were being taken to Middletown. Holbert, Mr. Vail says, had simply thrown a few rails across the track, but did not prostrate himself before the cars, which knocked the rails off the track, and went on their way without further molestation. It was Adrian Holbert's fate to meet a frightful death on the rail, almost in sight of the spot where this incident oc- curred. One day, in 1S84, he was driving across the track of the Pine Island Branch of the Erie Railway, near Goshen, his wife being in the carriage with him. The crossing was a dangerous one, and before the carriage cleared the track it was struck by the locomotive of a train that came along just then. Mr. Holbert was so badly hurt that he lived but a short time. His wife escaped with slight injuries. AFTER THE COLLAI'SE. After the collapse of the Company in 1842, there was left along the line of the railroad, especially in the western part of the Susquehanna and the Canisteo valleys, thousands of dollars' worth of timber which had been furnished by people living along the road for the purposes of its construction. Chjef among these were white oak, chestnut, and pine, which had been cut and manufactured for piling, cross-ties, rails, and sills. The failure of the Company had left nearly every farmer in the western part of the State, within ten miles of the railroad, a creditor to a greater or less amount, of the payment of whose claims there seemed to be no prospect or hope. The value of the piling alone which had been deliv- ered along the railroad between Binghamton and Hornells- ville amounted to a loss of $500,000. Work was not re- sumed on this part of the road for six years after it was abandoned, during which time reorganization had been effected, the Company placed upon a substantial financial footing, and the railroad completed and in operation between Piermont and Binghamton. During this time, also, the fal- lacy of building a railroad on piles had been demonstrated, and all the money expended upon it, amounting to nearlv Si. 000,000, was entirely wasted. However, if the plan had been practicable, and if, when work was resumed, it was the intention to use the piling thus left uncared fur along the road, such a thing would have been impossible, for of all the pieces of timber originally placed along the Com- pany's grounds, at such expense and labor, but very few sticks remained. They had been used for firewood, for fence-posts, and for building purposes, and put to whatever other uses they could be adapted by the people living con- venient to the storage places. Thousands of dollars' worth of dressed stone, which the Company had provided for various purposes in the construction of the road, and hundreds of thousands of feel of dressed lumber which were left in a similar state of confusion and neglect, had also disappeared in the interval, and to this day evidences of this material may be seen in the dwellings of people of more or less conse- quence in that part of the State. RESUMPTION OF WORK UNDER ELEAZAR LORD. The property of the Company was to be sold under fore- closure April 1, 1845. Nothing but resumption of work somewhere on the line could prevent the sale. President Lord announced that $6,000,000 would be required to finish the work. In December, 1S44, the Company, presuming on favorable legislation at the session of the Xew York Legisla- ture of 1845, revived a contract made in 1841, for fifteen miles of grading and mason-work on Section 1 of the road, between Middletown and the Shawangunk Summit, and put men to work upon it. The situation of the work at this critical period in the Company's affairs may be seen from the following extract from a statement issued by the Company November 1, 1S44 : The actual outlay upon this work, including the value of dona- tions for roadway and other purposes, may be reasonably estimated at five millions of dollars ; consisting of stock of the 1 ompa'ny some- what less than one and a half millions ; debts, chiefly settled by obli- gations at five years, about six hundred thousand dollars ; and three millions furnished by the State. The donations of land furnished for the roadway, depots, stations, and other purposes are deemed to ex- ceed in value the loss incurred on the sale of State -tuck, and the damages to unfinished work, consequent on suspension and delay. Those best acquainted with the subject, with the amount ■ f labor and materials employed, and the prices paid, deem the v well worth all that it has cost ; and are of opinion that were it now to be commenced, taking into view the unavoidable loss of time required in such a case, a greater amount or value of results could not be accom- plished for a less sum. Much more than half of the w - ary to prepare the entire line of the road for the rails has been performed. The work is well done. No part of it requires to be altered, and it is believed to be susceptible of no material improvement. Fifty-three miles of the road on the Eastern Division are in prosperous and profitable operation. On the Delaware, east of Di -veen 30 and 40 miles are graded. Between Binghamton and the Lake, 150 miles are prepared for the superstructure, some of which is laid. The timber for the superstructure is provided for about 250 miles. At the Western termination the rails are laid on about 10 miles. The statement, in its declaration that " no part of the work required to be altered,'' demonstrated that President Lord had not changed his mind in regard to the use of piles as a roadway, no miles of which had been driven along the Sus- quehanna and Western Divisions, although Chief Engineer Thompson S. Brown had condemned such roadway, and it 338 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES » be entirety abandoned when work on those divisions was resumed. But the tenure of operations, even on the small beginning of 1844, depended on future legislation, and, to a great ex- tent, on the outcome of the agitation Eor a change of the itral Sullivan County to the Delaware Valley — which now. if occupied at all b) the railroad, would have to be occupied on the Pennsylvania side of the river — and of between Deposit and Binghamton. This question of change of route brought about such serious differences of opinion between a majority of the Board of Directors and President Lord, who opposed the proposed change, that he ied in the spring of 1845. Legislation that placed the Company on a sound financial basis, by cancelling the debt it owed the State (£3,000,000), authorizing it to reorganize — the assignment having been lifted in 1844, it having been de- clared irregular by the New York courts — and to issue bonds, and postponing all foreclosure proceedings six years, had been secured, however, during this third term of Eleazar Lord as President. REAL WORK, AT LAST, UNDER BENJAMIN LODER. Eleazar Lord was succeeded by Benjamin Loder, one of whose first acts was to appoint Major Thompson S. Brown Chief Engineer. (From Eleazar Lord' 1 " Historical Review of the New York and Erie Railroad" published in 1S55.) Before any new track was laid west of Middletown, he (Major Brown) set himself to the task of bringing about a change of gauge, so as to reduce the width from six feet to four feet eight and one-half inches. Such a change would involve the expense of relaying the track on the Eastern Division, and furnishing new cars and engines to suit, but the " benefit " would be realized in the remaining 400 miles of road. All the civil engineers in this country, except H. C. Seymour, those associated with him, and perhaps three or four others, and nearly all of those in Europe, were in favor of four feet eight and a-half inches as the width of gauge. That was the reigning and 1 theory, and, therefore, it would be wise to change back to that. The six-feet gauge was a feature in the system of management in order to meet speedy and complete success, must be promptly and wholly abandoned and condemned. The Directors, of course, sym- pathized with the Major in his views, in opposition to -Mr. Seymour, then Superintendent of the Eastern Division A formal controversy , and iv, is persevered in, at no inconsiderable expense of time and money, for some two years, and ceased only when the resistless, experimental and practical demonstration, established by Mr. Sey- years of experience and observation as Engineer and Superintendent, convinced and controlled the minds of a majority of the Direi standing that they were violently prejudiced I him, and prejudiced in favor of the pretensions and supposed competency of the Major." Lending the resumption of work on the construction of the railroad beyond Middletown, the science of railroad building had made great steps forward, and far-seeing engineers had begun to question the wisdom of a gauge of track six feet wide on a railroad that was destined to be the common rei eptacle of traffic from numerous railroads then building, whose gauge was to be a uniform one of four feet eight and one-half inches, and it came up for serious consideration by the Erie Board of Directors. Hezekiah C. Seymour, who had come to the service of the Company in 1838, and who was the personal friend of Eleazar Lord, had advocated and in- sisted on the six-foot gauge when the subject came up for ilis. ussion and settlement in that year, and he had been warmly seconded by S. S. Post, his assistant. Eleazar Lord had also reasons of his own for desiring the adoption of that gauge ("Second Administration of Eleazar Lord," pages 39-40), and it was adopted. Chief Engineer Brown having been in England, where the subject of narrowing all railroads to the four feet eight and a-half inch gauge was the all-absorb- ing one among constructing engineers, and where the change was meeting with favor, advocated the change of the Erie's gauge on the section of railroad already finished, and the laying of the remainder of the track to correspond. As above stated by Mr. Lord, the discussion of the important question occupied much of the time of the management, and, although a great majority of the ablest civil engineers of the country decided that the new departure would be one of undoubted wisdom (a fact that Mr. Lord cynically quotes as being something to condemn it, so long as H. C. Seymour did not approve of it), the Board voted at last to retain the broad gauge, a short-sighted decision, and one that cost the Com- pany more than S 2 5, 000,000 before it was forced to the con- clusion that Major Brown's contention was right, and the track was narrowed to the gauge he had advocated nearly forty years before. The question of the changes in the route of the railroad was still unsettled when President Loder became the head of the Company, and active operations were confined to .the short section of the road between Middletown and the Shaw- angunk Summit. The decision of the Commissioners in favor of the changes in the route was made August 25, 1S46, and that may be set down as the date on which actual oper- ations on the line were resumed after the dismal collapse of 1 841-2. The work on the Otisville section was vigorously prose- cuted, and the railroad was opened to that place, sixty-two milesfrom Piermont, November 1, 1846. Construction from Otisville to the Delaware River was immediately begun, and proposals for grading 130 miles between Port Jervis and Binghamton were advertised for. This work was let to twenty-two contractors, and they were compelled to take one- third of the amount of their contracts in stock. They be- gan work at numerous points in New York State and in Pennsylvania, and soon an army of 7,000 men and 3,000 teams was engaged on the construction of the road between the Shawangunk Mountains and Binghamton. Contracts were also made for all the iron rails required for the road as far as Binghamton. The grading of the branch from Newburgh to Chester was begun in the spring of 1846. THE STORY OF ERIE 339 IMPROVING A WATER SUPPLY. " During the interval of leisure, before they (the Company) were at liberty to commence their improvement on the Shaw- angunk Ridge," wrote ex-President Eleazar Lord in 1855, in his " Historical Review," " their attention was called to an important improvement in respect to the arrangement for supplying water to their engines at Middletown, near Goshen. The story as currently told, comprised the following par- ticulars : When the road was opened to that place some years before, a convenient and ample supply of water was furnished by means of a pump at the side of the track. About that time some unfortunate speculations in land took place. One of the purchasers of an elevated piece of land nearby gave a mortgage on his purchase for an amount greater than could afterward be obtained for the premises. Being threatened with a foreclosure, he conceived the idea of forming an arti- ficial pond on the side hill at an elevation somewhat above that of the top of an engine, filling it with rain water from the surface of the higher grounds, and selling it at a round price to the Railroad Company for a living spring, whence the water required for the engines might be conveyed in pipes, and a saving made of the expense of pumping. He formed his plan and carried it into effect. Having ex- cavated a basin of considerable capacity, and lined it with clay to prevent a loss of surface water conducted into it, and having by means of slight ditches filled it to the brim with water, he hurried off to the city to have an interview with the officers of the Company. Xo sooner had he explained the economical advantages to be gained by purchasing his spring, and announced that if paid immediately he would take the moderate price of $2,500 for it, than it was perceived that the purchase would be a great improvement, as it would be a change from the use of a pump, and therefore an improve- ment on what had been done before. The subject was of the greatest importance, since, without water, the engines could not move, and if they stood still the road would not be worth the 1 ost of construction. The Major (Chief Engineer Brown), the President (Mr. l.oder), and others repaired to Middletown to examine the spring, which was about 200 rods from the railroad. They were satisfied by the inspection of the spring. The bargain was closed, anil a deed of the spring was taken. The 52,500 was paid ; iron pipes, at the expense of about the same amount, were laid from the spring to the railway ; an elevated tank was prepared ; the valves were opened. The contents of the basin were exhausted in a few minutes. No further supply appeared, and the use of the original wooden pump was necessarily resumed. But the end was not yet. Some good-natured citizen shortly after in- formed the Company that the land they had bought with the dry spring was covered by a mortgage on the whole lot; that the part which they had bought for $2,500 had not been released, and would soon be sold, together with the kon pipes, in case the latter were not instantly removed. The responsible officers of the Company, having relied on the friendly feelings and good faith of the mortgagor, and having forgotten to inquire whether or not any incumbrance existed on the premises, and the affair having become somewhat notorious, sent up a competent force and had the pipes ex- humed and placed beyond the reach of the sheriff." RAILROAD BUILDING IX THE SHAWANGUNK MOUNTAINS. In building the railroad as far as Otisville, the original plan of superstructure was adhered to — the laying of rails on longitudinal sills, supported by countersunk cross-pieces. The new era of railroad building began with the work from Otisville westward. It had been demonstrated to railroad engineers that the placing of sills between the rails and the ground was foolish; unnecessary, and detrimental, as well as costly. No sills were used beyond Otisville, and rails were placed upon cross-ties as at the present day, except that at the joints they rested in chairs instead of being firmly held by the continuous joints of to-day. This abandonment of primitive methods in railroad building developed a new industry along the line of the railroad : the getting out and supplying the Company with ties. These were cut in the woods contiguous to the railroad, and delivered to the Company's agents at stated points. The railroad between Otisville and Port Jen-is passed down the west side of the Shawangunk Mountains, through a country where, up to that time, the land had been considered barely worth the taxes paid upon it. This applied particularly to the territory on either side of the railroad, covering an area of perhaps a mile wide and twelve miles in length. It was a thick growth of chestnut and oak, of small size. Wood was the fuel usei 1 then by the Company for its locomotives, and this stretch of Shawangunk country was particularly desirable as a posses- sion. Its timber furnished the best of firewood, and its con- venience to the railroad rendered the obtaining of it easy and economical. When the agent of the Company, however, attempted to purchase this hitherto worthless land, it had as- sumed a sudden value. Tracts that could have been pur- chased for three dollars an acre were held at fifty dollars, and land that the tax-assessor had in vain sought an owner for, was claimed by some of the most prominent fanners in the Neversink Valley. Instead of purchasing to any large extent of the Shawangunk land, the Company bought the cordwood of its owners, to be cut by them and piled along the road. East and west of this stretch of woodland were some of the rii hesl farmers in Orange County. During this time the laborers employed by the contractors on this sec- tion of the road were Irish. On Sunday hundreds of them swarmed through the adjacent country, despoiling the orchards of apples, digging the farmers' potatoes, stripping the fields of their crops, and helping themselves to even- thing which struck their fancy. Resistance on the part of the fanners was useless, and during the year the railroad was built down the Shawangunk Mountains, the farms of that part of the country adjacent to the work were almost as bar- 34Q BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ren of good to their owners as if the land had been stricken with famine. One feature of the road on the Shawangunk Section was a rock cut three miles east of Port Jervis, and a wall of solid rock, of which the mountain was entirely composed, was necessarv to be cut through before the road could reach the • ink Valley. The rock was on the farm of a wealthy old Dutch farmer named Van Fleet, who lived nearby. The Company had already paid him well for right of icross his property, the whole extent of ground over which the railroad passed not being worth fifty dollars, and did not suppose that he would charge them much for cutting a way through the solid rock on the edge of his farm ; but he w : as asked how much it would be. His was : •• Veil, the rock is not vort much. I von't sharge you much for dat." The workmen reached the point where the excavation of the rock was to be made, and the contractors put their men upon it. They were soon waited upon by the farmer, who told them they would have to settle before they went on with the work. After much argument with the contractors he was finally induced to set his price. "Veil, dan," he said, "it is vort one hundred dollars an acre." 1 1 « as too late to have appraisers appointed to condemn the property, for the railroad must be completed to Port Jervis by a certain time, and the old farmer stubbornly in- sisting upon his price, there was nothing to do but pay him for it. Of the area of rock necessary the least he would sell was two aires, the price of which was more than he could have received for his best meadow land. The making of this cut through the rock was not only ex- pensive in itself, but the consequential damages were con- siderable. The flats, one hundred feet below the cut, were occupied by residences and buildings of farmers. In blast- ing, large pieces of rock frequently were hurled on and among them, sometimes crashing through the roofs of houses and buildings, and now and then alighting in the fields among the cattle with disastrous results. All these had to be paid for, and the farmers' bills were never light. A correspondent of the Netu York Herald, December 18, 1847, wrote as follows of the Erie work at that interesting period : " Only to think of a force fully as large as our army that stormed and took the Mexican capital, and still holds it, battling away here among the rocks, with picks, spades, hoes, hammers, axes, and all manner of instruments, not excepting even the celebrated ' excavating machine,' patented by Otis F. Carmichael." THE SHIN HOLLOW WAR. President Loder being extremely anxious to have the road through to Port Jervis by January 1, 1X48, the contractors were offered handsome bonuses to hasten the work. The laborers, newly arrived in this country, were mostly of that class known as " Wild Irishmen," and all of them had the factional hatreds and belligerent traditions of their native land still as alive in their breasts, and as ready to prompt them to action, as they were among the bogs and on the green turf of Erin. It happened that those two bitterly opposed factions, the Far-downers and the Corkonians, were largely represented among these laborers. This was particu- larly the situation on the section of the work of which Shin Hollow was the centre. Shin Hollow was, and is, a considerable stretch of flat land lying between the western face of the mountain range and the foothills, four miles east of Port Jervis. The old Kingston and Milford turnpike, which crossed the mountain from Finchville, passed through Shin Hollow, and the course of that long-forgotten highway is yet visible there. The locality has been known as Shin Hollow longer than the oldest inhabitant can remember, but what the origin of that name was no one can tell. The grading for the railroad required the making of a cut a mile or more long through the western side of Shin Hollow, and the cut had necessarily to be made so deep that when the railroad was done and the cars were running, the surface of the Hollow was so far above the tops of the cars that, although the count v maps showed Shin Hollow as on the line of the railroad, passengers in the cars who might be on the watch to see what sort of a place it was, could see nothing but a forest-clad mountain front on one side, and a blank rise of earth on the other ; and that is all they can see of Shin Hollow from the cars to-day. Not that there is much to see of Shin Hollow, even if one should be curious enough to find his way to the top of the cut and take a look at the spot. There is nothing there but a lonely opening in the hills, with a couple of melancholy farms occu- pying some of the space, and a discouraged-looking house or two squatting on them, seemingly wondering what they are there for. But fifty years ago, when the railroad was building through that way, Shin Hollow was a lively place. It was the headquarters of Carmichael & Stranahan, contractors for making a big section, of that costly part of the railroad. They had in their employ about two hundred men, a force com- posed largely of the Corkonian element of the Irish, but comprising also a small contingent of quiet, plodding, unob- trusive Germans, familiarly and derisively known to the Irish as the " dom Dootch." The contractors had a big store at Shin Hollow. Wood & Shute had another one, anil for awhile Blizzard & Clark ran one. Thomas O'Brien was the sub-contractor who was cutting the way for the railroad through the great wall of rock a mile west of Shin Hollow, a passage known then as the Blue Rock Cut, but which modern nomenclature has transformed into Black Rock Cut. He had as foreman one James O'Brien, who labored to increase his income by keeping a boarding-house at Shin Hollow. Carmichael & Stranahan also kept a boarding-house. So did a German named Yolmer. All those buildings were rude but commodious shanties, the boarding-houses having lofts, or galleries, around the sides, which were held up by posts, and THE STORY OF ERIE 34i where the boarders slept. Besides these structures there were many smaller shanties scattered about in the Hollow, and also on the side of the mountain, in which certain laborers "boarded themselves," or where buxom "widdies" sought to turn an honest penny by catering to the railroaders in the ways of pork and " peraties," or a kindly "drop of the craythur." Thus the Shin Hollow of fifty years ago might have boasted of a steady population of at least 200, and, on occasion, of a floating ] population of a hundred or so more. In searching for the impelling cause of the Shin Hollow War. fifty years after it occurred, with no written record to guide him, the historian is confronted with the testimony of tradition, and the uncertain memory of a few who were among those living in the locality when the noisy riot oc- curred, and who live there still. The pay of railroad laborers on the Shawangunk Mountains section of the New York and Erie Railroad had been fixed at seventy-five cents a day. One story is that the Corkorian sons of the Green Isle came first upon the work, and established a precedent by accepting that pay as sufficient and satisfactory. Later, the Sham- rocks, or Far-downers, began to respond to the call for men, and their rich and hot blood soon rebelled at seventy-five cents a day, although Jim O'Brien is reported to have declared, in an early burst of confidence, that " Divil a wan o' dthem was afther eamin' dthe likes o' dthat in six days on dthe ould sod, bad 'cess to dthem ! " Another version is that the trouble began with the boarding-houses at Shin Hollow "skimping" the men in their rations, and with the con- tractors' clerks cheating them in settling, and overcharging them at the stores for their supplies. Still another account fixes the responsibility of the Shin Hollow War on the hiring of the Germans by the contractors, and putting them on the work. But the weight of evidence is that the number of Far-downers after awhile became much greater along the line than that of the Corkonians, and that at last the Old Adam got the better of them, and they felt that they would not be true to their traditions if they did not rise up anil break an sional Corkonian head. At any rate, about the middle of January, 1847, the Far- downers began to be aggressive. Fights with groups of the other faction of their countrymen became of daily and nightly occurrence, anywhere between Otisville and Shin Hollow. Saturday, January 30th, a large body of Far-downers formed near the top of the mountain, and marching to a section of Carmichael & Shanahan's contract, attacked the Corko- nians there with clubs and stones, wounding several severely, and compelling the gang to throw away their tools and take an oath that they would leave the work. The following Mon- day a still stronger force of the belligerent Far-downers, many of them armed with guns which they had in some manner got possession of, proceeded to another part of Carmichael & Shanahan's section, surrounded the laborers, fired a volley over their heads, and declared that they would riddle them with shot if they did not quit work. The Corkonians threw down their tools. Their foes then drove them before them to Shin Hollow, where they forced the contractors' agent to pay the men off and discharge them. In this assault many of the assailed were knocked down and badly beaten, and it was said, and is still believed by many, that one man was killed in the melee. After dealing thus with that gang of Corkonians, the tri- umphant Far-downers marched, with fierce yells and dire threats, upon that part of the work where the Germans were employed, vowing that they would show the " Dootch " no mercy. They were not prepared for the reception that awaited them. The Germans, although few in numbers, had cool heads among them, and they received the confident Irish with such vigor and determination that the htter were soon flying from the field, bearing with them two or three of their number whose ardor was not proof against the sturdy blows of the resolute Germans. These raids of the Far-downers created a panic among the other laborers, and work was almost suspended along the mountain. The Germans were the only ones that did not lose a day. The Irishmen who had been driven from their jobs still loitered about Shin Hollow. All remained quiet along the line after the affray until the evening of Wednes- day, February 3d. The rumor had spread that the Corkonians had resolved to return to work. Early on the evening of February 3d, firing of guns was heard at frequent intervals in the woods at different points between Shin Hollow and the Hog-back, as the summit of the Deerpark Pass was called, and through which the railroad was being constructed. These shots seemed in the nature of signals of some kind, but they ceased at last, and even-thing was quiet. The Cork- onians at Shin Hollow had climbed to their bunks in the boarding-house lofts, and the stores and shanties were closed for the night. It is to be presumed that Shin Hollow was wrapped in profound slumber when, at midnight, the Far-downers, in a body one hundred strong, and armed, marched into the place, divided their forces, and proceeded half to one board- ing-house and half to another. The inmates of the houses were ignorant of the presence of their enemies until they were awakened by the smashing of windows and doors, the discharging of guns and pistols through the breaches thus made, and the wild yells and cries of the assailing party. The Corkonians seemed to have been but poorly armed, for they made but a weak resistance to the attack. At O'Brien's boarding-house, where most of the men were in the lofts, they hastily pulled up the ladders by which they climbed to their bunks, and huddled down, as they supposed, out of harm's way. The Far-downers swarmed into the place and quickly beat into subjection such of the inmates as were to be got at. The men in the lofts refusing to come down and meet with similar treatment, the attacking party hunted up axes, and quickly chopped down the posts that supported the lofts, ami brought the latter and their frightened occu- pants crashing into a heap on the floor. After hammering the Corkonians until there were few unbroken heads, or noses that were not bloody, the rioters made their victims swear, at the gun's muzzle, that they would quit that locality forthwith. 342 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES A similar scene was enacted at the other boarding-house, although there it was not necessary for the rioters to chop down the posts to make the objects of their wrath " come down." One Corkonian, who was especially obnoxious to ir-downers, was shoved into a big Dutch oven, and im- prisoned and left there by his captors with the cheering as- surance that they would return when they got time, build a fire under the oven, and bake him. This gang of rioters i ompelled every one of their victims to get on his knees and swear that he would leave the place, after which he would be helped to his feet by a vigorous kick from the heavy brogan ot some lusty Far-downer. Having dealt to their satisfaction with their Irish fellow- citizens, some one of their number raised the cry : "To hell wid dthe Dootch ! " This was a signal for a rush to the German quarter of Shin Hollow. Race hatred was augmented by the recollection of the vii tory the Germans had won over the Irish a few days before, and the latter dashed forward to a new attack upon the ( Germans, confident this time of inflicting severe punish- ment upon them, and forcing them to fly from the Hollow. But the Germans, being more calculating and methodical than their Irish fellow-workmen, had suspected the possibility of such an outbreak as this, and were prepared for it. They had a leader named YVisler. He had quietly obtained guns and ammunition from Port Jervis, Otisville, and Middletown. The uproar made by the attack on the Irish quarter had aroused the Germans, and they were drawn up in line in the darkness, under orders from Wisler, ready for action when the wild Irish detachment came whooping and yelling to the assault. The Irish were within a few yards of the German quarter, when just ahead of them a streak of fire punctured the darkness, and they felt and heard shot rattling upon and about them. They halted in confusion. Before they could recover and make a second rush, another streak of fire showed them a momentary gleam of determined Teuton faces, and the Irish forces broke and fled toward the woods. The Germans pursued them, and captured one prisoner, who had been filled with shot from his neck to his heels. The most intense excitement prevailed at Shin Hollow the rest of the night. The Far-downers bombarded the place from the woods, whither they had fled from the Germans. The contractors now concluded that it was time to take some action toward putting an end to the troubles, for their work was being seriously delayed by the unsettled condition of af- fairs. A man was sent to Otisville with instructions to de- spatch a message to Sheriff Welling, at Goshen, by the train that left Otisville early in the morning. The sheriff with a posse arrived at Shin Hollow during the forenoon, but being unable to quell the riot or arrest any of the rioters, he called on the Deerpark Militia to aid him. Every town main- tained a company of militia in those days, and Capt. Peter Swartwout summoned his company, and led it from Port to the s.ene of the Shin Hollow War. In responding to this call to duty, the Deerpark Guards made their rendez- it Ililferty's Hotel, at Carpenter's Point, and man lied up the old Fin< hville road, under the high rocks, and, as High Private M. C. Kveritt says, " If there had been three or four old women, with their aprons full of stones, on top of those rocks, and had bombarded us just at that time, I think they would have routed us." There were twenty-five or thirty men in the company, most of them subsequently prominent in the affairs of Port Jervis and the surrounding country, but only two or three of them surviving. Among the volunteers, besides Mr. Everitt, were Charles St. John, afterwards Congressman, and Charles S. Ball, son of Dr. Ball, a man of more than local celebrity. Young Ball was one of the engineer corps then in charge of the railroad work west of Port Jervis. As the company ap- proached the scene of the disturbance they were divided into squads by Capt. Swartwout, for the purpose of reconnoitring and investigating the shanties that were scattered about in the woods. About this time a man came out of one of the shanties and ran for the better security of the woods. As he did so, Private Ennis, another of the Erie engineer corps, stepped forward from the ranks, and bringing his gun to his shoulder, cried out : "Shall I shoot?" Capt. Swartwout, true to the dignity of his office, and re- solved on maintaining discipline, smote Ennis a resounding blow with the flat of his sword across the seat of his trousers, and shouted : " Fall in here and wait for orders, or I'll shoot you .' " This the Captain could not well have done without con- fiscating for the moment some comrade's gun, for on leaving Hilferty's he had let High Private Everitt take the rifle he himself had started with, Everitt having no gun of his own, the Captain being content to march with his sword alone. Ennis fell back into the ranks without shooting, and the cam- paign was resumed. The Shin Hollow combatants, fright- ened at the advance of this formidable army of military, moving as it did with such amazing tactics, shut themselves up in such shanties as they could get into, or fled to the woods. The Deeqiark Volunteers, nothing daunted, scoured the locality, and took many prisoners. These, the Company re-forming in double line for the purpose, were marched to the office of the paymaster of the contractors, where they were paid off and promptly discharged, and warned to leave the neighborhood. For fear that they would not leave, and that more trouble would ensue, tw^o of the Deerpark com- pany, Samuel Smith and " Case " Caskey, were left on the grounds with a cannon to maintain the peace, and the re- mainder of the company returned home, covered with some glory, but not enough to suit a number of the volunteers, among them Charles S. Ball. He was " spoiling for a fight," and actually did fire at one man, but whether disastrously or not was never known. Smith, his comrade, and the cannon remained a week or so at Shin Hollow, when, it being appar- ent that the trouble was over, thev returned home. " If the rioters had only known it, though," says High Private Everitt, in recalling the incidents of the war for the writer hereof, "they could have had a great deal of fun with THE STORY OF ERIE 343 that battery of artillery, for neither Smith nor Caskey knew any more about loading or firing a cannon than if he had never seen one." This somewhat Falstaftian detachment of militia was at - companied by Oliver Young, Esq., lawyer and influential citizen. He addressed the rioters as the Deerpark Guards advanced, admonishing them that they were in serious con- tempt of the law, and that the whole power of the State would be called upon to suppress and punish them if neces- sary. Some of the prisoners taken were turned over to the Sheriff, who escorted them to Goshen, where they were given a hearing and heavily fined. They were then taken back to Shin Hollow, and the contractors settled with them and dis- charged them. This did not entirely quell the riotous spirit of the Irish. A squad of militia was kept on the grounds for nearly a month, by which time the ringleaders were found out, sum- marily discharged, and warned out of the region. These guards were from Middletown or Goshen. Unlike the Port lervis Militia, they had sought the seat of war clad in their dress parade uniforms, which included white trousers and fine boots. They were transported on a car run from Otisville, in charge of Conductor W. H. Stewart. He stopped the car about a mile from the scene of hostilities, and unloaded the " troops." The ground was covered with snow and slush to the depth of several inches, through which the dapper home guards were forced to march, much to their disgust and discomfiture. But peace was gradually restored, and the Shin Hollow War passed down into history as an engagement in which much blood was shed, but no lives were positively known to have been lost, although legend insists that the Germans killed three of the Irish in that night attack, ami buried them in the woods. THE LOCOMOTIVE CROSSES THE NEVERSINK. During i S4 7, the thirteen miles of railroad between the Shawangunk Summit and Port Jervis were completed. Pres- ident Loder had divided the road into sections, for the com- pletion of which he had fixed certain dates, the finishing of the work on such dates being provided for in the contracts, a failure being attended with cost to the contractor. Thus, December 31, [847, was the day on which the locomotive was to enter Port Jervis. The extraordinary character of the work to be done may be imagined from a brief description of some of it. At the summit of the mountain, near Otisville, was a rock cut upwards of fifty feet deep in the deepest place, ami extending with some interruption over a length 2,500 feet. The contractor for this work was Thomas King. A little more than a mile beyond was a heavy embankment, to be supported on the lower side by a retaining wall more than fifty feet high, and several hundred feet in length. This was followed immediately by a heavy thorough cut in the rock, 1,000 feet long and thirty feet deep. Half a mile further on was another enormous embankment, to be sup- ported on the lower side by a wall fifty feet high. These sections were in the hands of Charles Story. At Shin Hollow, about half way between Otisville and Port [en-is, was a cut upwards of three-fourths of a mile long and more than fort)' feet deep, in the 1 ontrai t of Carmichael & Stran- alian. Beyond that was an embankment upwards of fifty feet high, and 1,500 feet long. Immediately adjacent to this embankment was another enormous thorough cut in rock upwards of fifty feet in depth. In those early days of railroad building such an undertak- ing as this cutting of a roadway along the rocky side of that wild mountain pass was something that required more cour- age, endurance, and perseverance than a work many times as formidable would in these days of advanced constructive science; but the work was pushed forward with all possible facility by the contractors, under the persistent spurring of Silas Seymour, the Constructing Engineer. The rails that were to be put down from Otisville west were the first American T-rails for which any actual order for extensive use of them had ever been given. Up to that time England supplied this country with rails. These for the Erie were rolled at Scranton, Pa., and were delivered to the Company by means of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad and canal. (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages 90-91.) The 31st day of December, 1847, came. The rails were all laid between Otisville and the east bank of the Neversink River, and were ready on the Port Jen-is side of the river. But the trestle bridge was not yet completed to carry the rails across and make connection so that cars could be run to what was to be the Port Jen-is, or Delaware, station. People from the " Port," and from all about, had flocked to the aid of the railroad laborers for days, helping in the laying of tails and the construction of the trestle. Daniel Hilfertv, who kept a hotel at Carpenter's Point, threw open his house to the workers, and refreshments and good cheer of all kinds were free. The big-hearted boniface said afterward that the demand for these was so great that railroad mud from the feet of thirsty ami hungry helpers covered his floors three inches deep by the time the trestle was completed. A locomotive and two flat cars, loaded with railroad men and citizens, left Otisville in the afternoon, to be the first train to run into Port Jervis on the stipulated time. Knowing the situation, bets were freely made at Otisville and Port Jervis that the train could not get to its destination in time. This construction train arrived at the east end of the un- finished trestle, and added its complement of men to the crowd thatwas already straining every nene to get the bridge in shape to carry the locomotive and flat cars over. It was late at night when the woodwork was ready, and the rails had yet to be put down. At a few minutes before eleven o'< lock the track was all down with the exception of a gap of one rail, and that rail had to be cut to fit the space. Whether it was a rail of extraordinary toughness, or whether the excite- ment and suspense were so great that the workmen ami the bosses lost their heads, it is impossible to say, but it is known that it took them one hour to cut the rail and spike it to its >44 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES place. Then, with a tremendous shout, all of the crowd that could do so clambered upon the flat cars, and the locomotive put on steam, cr - Neversink, and ran to the Port Jervis ius of the n>ad, arriving there just seventeen minutes before the advent of January i. 1848. What few people there were in the hamlet of Port Jervis were on the spot, and were wild with joy and ex< itement. Silas Seymour was among those who rode in on the construction train. The uproarious crowd lifted him from his feet and carried him on its shoulders to the Union House, on the canal, nearly a mile from the railroad, and there tendered him all the honor and homage that shouts and revelry, continued long into the night, could be made to be the sponsor for. The hotel was kept by S. O. Dimmick. It is there yet, and has the distinc- tion of being the scene of the first celebration of the com- pletion of the New York and Erie Railroad between the Hudson and the Delaware, a celebration none the less hearty and historic because it was impromptu and informal, and unofficial. The late William H. Stewart had charge of the construction train as conductor, and the engineer was " Dutch John " Zeigler, who had been Eleazar Lord's coachman, but who was promoted by Mr. Lord, during his control of Erie affairs, to the railroad service, where he culminated as a locomotive engineer. The locomotive was the " Eleazar Lord." The official opening of the railroad to Port Jervis was on Thursday, January 6, 1S48. The Sullivan County Whig, a newspaper then published at Bloomingburg, near Middletown, thus described the features of the occasion, in its issue of January 14, 1848 : " On Thursday last the Directors and a party of invited guests took an excursion upon the New York and Erie Rail- road from Piermont to the limit of its extension on the Del- aware, a distance of seventy-four miles. This was the first train of cars that had passed over the road from Otisville to Port Jervis. " On arriving at the latter place the party, numbering over an hundred, sat down to a sumptuous dinner prepared at the hotel of Samuel Truex, after which the President, Benjamin Loder, made an address, in which he congratulated all inter- ested in the successful completion of that portion of the road, notwithstanding the great obstacles that had to be overcome. He spoke of the proximity of the road to the States of Penn- sylvania and New Jersey, ami invited their citizens to share in its advantages and benefits. Mr. Loder then proceeded to give a brief history of that portion of the road just com- pleted, which he considered by far the most difficult and expensive portion on the entire route to Lake Erie. He read from a memorandum prepared by Mr. Silas Seymour, Super- intending Engineer, the following interesting statistics: In the construction of the road from Otisville to Port Jervis, a dis- tance of thirteen miles, 317,000 pounds of powder had been consumed, 210,000 cubic yards of solid rock and 730,000 of earth excavated, 14,000 yards of sloping wall constructed, 300,000 days' labor bestowed upon it by 3,000 laborers, and 30,000 days' labor by horses. He further stated that from this point to Binghamton, a distance of about 130 miles, nearlv every section is being worked, and a large portion will be readvfor the superstructure by the month of June or July; and before the first of January next, unless unexpected diffi- culties shall occur, the Directors intend to have the cars running to Binghamton, if not further. " The section between Otisville and Port Jervis has been mainly constructed since June last. The President having determined to complete the work by the 1st of January, 3,000 laborers were sent over their road gratuitously. "The contractors, Carmichael & Stranahan, C. Story, and Thomas King, deserve credit for the energy and enterprise with which they have fulfilled their contracts. The grading alone between Otisville and Port Jervis cost about $30,000 a mile. The rails were manufactured at the Lackawanna Iron Works, m the Wyoming Valley." The progress of the Erie at this time inspired the poet of the New York Herald, in a " carrier's address " for January, 184S, to this burst : Get off the track ; — five hundred pounds of steam To each square inch don't make a trifling team. Patent greased lightning only could begin To run beside this iron horse and win. Whizz ! how she travels ! coppers hot, each one ! We may get " busted," but we'll have our fun. Hands off the brake ! — Chain down this valve ! Hurra ! We're through by daylight ! Yes, Sir-ee ! We are ! Get off the track! Whe-w-w! Hear that whistle scream! Hard down the brake! There, quick! Shut off the steam! Jump! Turn that switch! Chuff! Choof! Ch-e-o-u-gh! Hurra! We're through by daylight! Yes, Sir-ee ! We are ! Hundreds of people from the surrounding country thronged the village. Cannon boomed, and bunting floated in the breeze. The hotel mentioned as being the scene of the official feast was called the New York and Erie Hotel, and was on the southwest comer of Pike and Main streets. The Union House, on the corner of Main street, near the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal, was the scene of another jubilation in honor of the event. This hotel was kept by Samuel O. Dimmick, still living at Port Jervis. Silas Seymour, the Constructing Engineer of the railroad, gave Mr. Dimmick an order to cater to all who might participate in the celebration at his house — gave him carte blanche, in fact, and told him to send his bill in to the Company and it would be paid. The night of January 6th there was a great "spread" at the Union House. Mr. Dimmick was ill, and not able to be present during the evening. Next morning it was reported to him that his wine cellar was empty : that there was not a drop of anything in the bar to begin business with for the day, and that there was scarcely a whole piece of crockery left in the hotel. The opening of the railroad hail been evidently celebrated by the opening of everything openable in the house; and the first " smash-up " as a result of the railroad was the smash-up of things at the same place. The THE STORY OF ERIE 545 hotel was replenished, and when Mr. Dimmick saw Mr. Sey- mour he explained matters, and said he thought a bill for 56oo would be about right, "and not any too much at that." Seymour said he guessed that would be about right. " Make it out as ' for supplies to the Railroad Company,' " said he. Mr. Dimmick made the bill out in that way, and it was paid. Sam Truex, at the New York and Erie House, had many guests, also, as a result of the railroad celebration, besides his official ones, and they enjoyed themselves with the contents of his house in about the same manner that the Union House's guests had with the stores of that hostelry. Tmex asked Dimmick what he had charged the Company. Dimmick told him, and Truex put in a bill for the same amount, independent of his bill for the official entertainment. But Tmex had had no order from the Company to keep open house on the occasion, and his bill was returned unpaid. And it is unpaid to this day. When the Erie was thus opened to Port Jems, it had seventy-four miles of railroad, ten locomotives, nine passen- ger cars, seventy eight-wheel freight cars, seventy-seven mail and baggage cars, one machine shop (at Piermont), and em- ployed 182 men in its transportation department. There are now forty-two miles of track in the Port Jervis yard alone, and a single freight train frequently consists of sixty cars. To construct the road to Port Jervis from Piermont had cost 13,276,67s. THE STORY OF A LITTLE RAILROAD AND A BIG BRIDGE. On preceding pages (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages S9-90) has been told how the further progress of the railroad was threatened by the opposition of the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company, a local corporation of Pike County, Pa., which had been chartered in 184S, and how that opposition was removed by the Erie agreeing to construct and maintain forever a bridge across the Delaware at Mata- moras, Pa., near Port Jervis, arranged for a railroad and a wagon way. and to build a track across the bridge and from it to the Erie track at Port Jervis, to give the local railroad connection there; this so that the Erie might be permitted l" change its point of entrance into Pennsylvania, as fixed by the Legislature in 1846, to one more suitable and economi- ( al. three miles further up the Delaware, at the present place of crossing, the c hange being vital to the Company, as with- out it the railroad could not have been progressed sufficiently to get it finished in time (May 14, 1S51) to save the Com- pany's charter and property from forfeiture and foreclosure. The truth of history compels the statement that if the New York and Erie Railroad Company was moved to this compromise in a spirit of good faith, that spirit soon became weak, for, although, according to the provisions of the act of the Pennsylvania Legislature of 1848, the bridge at Matamoras was to have been completed for use by 1 >< tober 1, 1S52, ground had not only not been broken on the work in all that interval, but the Railroad Company hail sought the intervention of the courts, and exhausted all its persuasive powers before the Pennsylvania Legis- lature, in efforts to abrogate its agreement for building the bridge, but had failed everywhere. A provision of the act granting the change of route was that if the Company neglected to build the bridge according to the provisions of the act, it should pay a tax of one dollar on each passenger passing over the road into Pennsylvania until enough money was raised to build the bridge and the connecting railroad. The Railroad Companv having at last exhausted the patience of the Pike County people, measures were set afoot by them to enforce the act. Then the Company began work on the bridge, and it was completed in 1854. It cost S8o,ooo. This bridge had a history that connects it closely with the career of the Erie. The Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company was organ- ized in January, 1 854, but no work was done toward the build- ing of a railroad until many years afterward. The project lay dead until 1870. The Pennsylvania Legislature granted a charter in 1868 for a railroad from the Lehigh coal regions to the Delaware River at Matamoras. This charter was secured by individuals who organized, in 1S69, the Lehigh and Eastern Railroad Com- pany, for the purpose of building such a railroad. This alarmed the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company, whose charter was on the eve of lapsing, and it revived itself, reorganized, and went to work with some activity toward making its long-neglected railroad. Contracts for grading the road were about making, in the winter of 1870, when, in March of that year, the Erie bridge at Matamoras, which had been waiting twenty years for the railroad to come up from Milford and cross it, was destroyed in a gale. This did not disturb the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company, though, for under the act of Legislature granting the Erie Company the right to enter Pennsylvania at Sawmill Rift, that Company was bound to maintain a bridge at Matamoras for- ever, under penalty of forfeiture of all its rights in that State, including tight of way. So the Milford and Matamoras Rail- road Company notified the Erie Railway Company, which was then under the management of Jay Gould, that the Matamoras bridge was down, and that the Erie would be ex- pected to put a new one there without delay. The Erie Rail- way Company made no move to rebuild the bridge, and after waiting until July, a committee of directors of the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company went to New York and had audience with Gould. Eisk was also present. The visitors inquired of Gould as to his intentions toward the bridge. "Bridge?" said Gould, as if surprised. "What bridge, gentlemen? " "Your bridge across the Delaware at Matamoras," the committee's spokesman replied. "Our bridge across the Delaware at Matamoras?" said 346 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Gould, still apparently in a quandary. " Fisk, have we a oss the I ' il Matamoras?" •■ We did have a bridge across the Delaware at Matamoras," replied Fisk, "but it tumbled down last spring." ■■ That's the one ! " the committee's spokesman said. ■• You know the Erie is bound by law to keep a bridge there, and we came to tell yon that if you do not replace that bridge forthwith we shall have recourse to the law, and shut you out of Pennsylvania." "Why, that's the bridge that we sold all our right, title, and franchise in to the l.amonte Mining and Railroad Com- pany, a few weeks ago. isn't it, Fisk?" said Could. •• That's the bridge," replied Fisk. " Yes, gentlemen," said Fisk to the committee, "we have no rights at all in that bridge any more. It belongs to the Lamonte Mining and Railroad Company. See them. They'll talk to you about it." The surprised committee returned home and began a search for the Lamonte Mining and Railroad Company, of which they had never heard before. They discovered that such a company had been chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature, March 26th of that year, a few days after the Matamoras bridge blew down. By that charter the company was empowered to purchase all the right, title, and franchises of any bridges on the Delaware that wanted to sell. Further than that no sign of the existence of the Lamonte corpora- tion could be discovered. There was no record at Harris- burgh to show by whom the bill had been introduced in the Legislature. It was learned that a representative of the Erie Railway Company had been some time at Harrisburg, about the time the bill was passed, and that he had said to member of the Legislature Keene, of one of the coal counties, upon bidding him good-by on leaving Harrisburg : " I had $15,000 in this satchel when I came here. I haven't got it now." The representative from the Pike and Wayne district in the lower house of the Legislature, where this mysterious bill originated, was William II. Dimmick, a young Honesdale lawyer. He was called to attend a meeting of indignant stockholders of the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Com- al Milford, and explain how it was that his constituents stood thus betrayed. He attended the meeting, and his ex- planations were not entirely acceptable to the people until he made a revelation that came as another surprise from the Legislature. The same I egislature that smuggled the mysterious Lamonte Act through passed another bill appropriating from the State Treasury to the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company for ninety-nine years the Si 0.000 annual bonus the Erie Railway Company was obliged to pay the State for right of way through Pike County, and authorizing the local railroad > ompany to issue its bonds to the amount of $160,000, thus virtually giving to such bonds the State's guarantee. The legislator for Pike County assured his constituents that the Lamonte bill was unconstitutional, and would be so declared as soon as it was brought before the Supreme Court; so the Milford and Matamoras Railroad was looked upon as being as good as built. The Company was reorganized, the bonds were immediately issued and placed, and the first installment of the Erie State annual bonus of Sio,ooo collected. But in the reorganization of the Company, which was controlled by W. II. Dimmick, many of the old stockholders were left out, and the result was that, although contracts were let for grading the road-bed, and much of the grading was done, the opposition of the old stockholders was so great and persist- ent that it resulted in the repeal of the act appropriating the Erie $10,000 bonus to the Milford and Matamoras Railroad Company, in response to a special message from Governor Geary to the Legislature, early in the session of 1871. Suit was brought against the Erie Railway Company in that vear, through the Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, to have the Lamonte Mining anil Railroad Company legislation declared unconstitutional, and to compel the Erie Railway to build the Matamoras Bridge, but pending the proceedings a private bridge company purchased the charter of the Lamonte Com- pany — which was a company only in the minds of the Erie managers — and proceeded with the building of a bridge, known as the Barret Bridge, across the Delaware at the foot of Pike Street, Port Jervis. Although this bridge was a very long way below the original bridge, assurances were made to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that it was satisfactory, and, much to the surprise of the people of Pike County, the Attorney-General withdrew the proceedings against the Erie. That the people would have established their contention, and the Erie Railway Company been compelled to rebuild the bridge that hail given them the right to change its route, save it half a million of money, and many weeks of invaluable time, the best lawyers have but one opinion. The Milford and Matamoras Railroad remains still unbuilt, although a corporation known as the Milford, Matamoras and New York Railroad Company constructed, in 1S9S, an iron railroad bridge on the foundations of the old Erie bridge, and built a railroad from Port Jervis across it to certain slate gravel beds below Matamoras, the avowed intention being to some time extend the railroad to Milford. THROUGH THE DELAWARE VALLEY. Pending the dispute over the change of the route for the railroad from Matamoras to Sawmill Rift, the Company was not idle in the Delaware Valley. The herculean task of hew- ing a way for the rails along the rocky edge of Pike County was in the hands of Ives, Farrell & Co., a member of which firm was j. S. T. Stranahan. In constructing the road on this difficult section, between what is now Parker's Glen and Handsome Eddy, and other places, where the rocks rose almost perpendicularly from the river's edge, it was necessary to suspend the laborers from the brow of the lofty ledges in baskets at the end of stout ropes, while they drilled holes for blasting, and tamped in the powder and fuse. When a fuse was lighted, the men would be drawn up by fellow-workmen to the summit. Life frequently depended on the security of THE STORY OF ERIE 347 those fastenings as the workmen dangled high in midair, and on the activity of the men operating the windlass at the top. The blasts frequently hurled great masses of rock across the Delaware River and into the Delaware and Hudson Canal, much to the interruption of navigation during the open season, and to the damage of the canal property. Not a few boatmen refused to run on the canal during the season of 1847, and numerous suits for damages were brought by the Canal Company against the Railroad Company. Whenever " railroader" and '' canaller " met, anywhere between Lacka- waxen and Port Jervis, rich Irish blood was sure to flow. This antagonism between the employees of the two companies has been put on record all these years as having been the cause of the Callaghan-Kays tragedy at Lackawaxen, Pa., in 1 848, but such is not the fact. THE CALLAGHAN-KAYS TRAGEDY. The bridge for the railroad over the lackawaxen River at Lackawaxen, a structure 400 feet in length, was being built in December, 1848. Henry Dutcher was foreman of one side of the bridge, and Jacob Dunkle of the other. On the east side of the river was a heavy embankment for nearly a quarter of a mile, under contract by Clark & Carman, who had about two hundred Irishmen at work on it. When the bridge was ready to be raised, the chords had been stretched, and the runways laid for running in the timber. The Irish railroad laborers gave a great deal of trouble by insisting in going across the bridge to the hotel at the mouth of the river for whiskey, frequently a dozen or more at a time. They were afraid to walk the single plank used for a runway, but would get down on their hands and knees and creep across. This was done sometimes twenty times a day, much to the annoyance and loss of time of the bridge men. To do away with it a substantial foot bridge was constructed a few rods ive the railroad bridge, but the Irishmen would not use it. They persisted in crossing on the runways. One day, when about a dozen of them went on the bridge, Dunkle, who was an impulsive, quick-tempered fellow, took up an iron bolt three feet long, and swore that if they did not get off he would break their heads. They got off, but as they did so they swore vengeance on Dunkle, calling him " a damned black Dutch- man," and declaring that they would get even with him. Henry Dutcher, who had the good will of the laborers, advised them to use the foot bridge, and they took his advice, but that night, out of revenge toward Dunkle, they invaded his side of the bridge and carried off one of the main braces, twentv-five feet long, and two oak keys, three feet long. The next morning Dunkle missed his timber, and at once mis- trusted where it had gone. He took a good man with him and went over among the Irish shanties. There he found a man cutting up the brace for firewood. Procuring a warrant from Justice Thomas J. Ridgway, who lived close by, Dunkle had the fellow arrested and taken before the Justice. The Irishmen supposed they had taken him to Dutcher's tavern, where most of the bridge men boarded. Bent on revenge, a dozen or more of them went over the river to the tavern. It was then about half-past eleven in the forenoon. They were there when the bridge men went to dinner, had been drink- ing freely, and were ready for a fight. The men had to pass through the bar-room to get to the dining-room. One of them began to talk to the Irishmen, calling them names. Henry Dutcher collared him and shoved him into the dining- room. Dutcher was the first to finish dinner. " I went down in the room where the Irish were," says he in relating this. " talked with them a few minutes, passed out, and went to Joel Shannon's store, about two hundred yards above the tavern. I had just got into the store when I heard some one crying : " ' Catch him ! He has stabbed a man ! ' " I rushed to the door in time to see a man running by, with James Salmon close at his heels. Salmon got near enough to strike the man in the back of the neck, knocking him several feet clear off the ground. As he struck the ground his head went under a bunch of shingles. We secured him and took him back to the tavern, where he was held until a warrant could be procured. The rest of the Irishmen had fled in all directions. " I found the man who had been stabbed lying dead upon one of the benches. His name was George Kays. He was one of the quietest and most peaceable men on the bridge job. The name of the man that stabbed him was Patrick Callaghan. It was a deliberate and unprovoked assault. Rays had not spoken a word to Callaghan or to any one else, but was in the act of pulling off his pea-jacket preparatory to going to work, when Callaghan plunged a knife into his left breast, just below the nipple. The knife must have struck the heart, for Kays was dead in less than five minutes. The stabbing had been preceded by an altercation and loud words between some of our men and the Irishmen. " We took the body of Kays into an upper room and noti- fied the Justice of the Peace, who acted as Coroner. He summoned a jury anil held an inquest. The jury returned a verdict that George Rays had come to his death at the hands of Patrick Callaghan. " The funeral of the murdered man had to be arranged for. There was no coffin to be had except at Port Jervis, X. V., or Honesdale, Pa., either place twenty-five miles dis- tant. I told the men that I would make the coffin if they would find the lumber. There was no lumber nearer than Holbert's mill, three miles up the valley. By this time it was dark, and the men were afraid to go after the lumber, so I started up the track alone, went to the mill, selected the lumber, and sent a team after it. Returning, I went over the river to our tool-house, near where the Irish shanties were, got my tools, and worked until 2 o'clock in the morning, in an open shed near the tavern, and could not get a man to hold a light for me, they were all so afraid of the Irish. The next day I finished the coffin, and in the afternoon we had the funeral, I reading the burial service over the grave. " The next thing to do was to take the prisoner to Milford jail. To do this we selected eight men, arming them with 348 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES muskets and revolvers, to accompany the Sheriff, for they had to go right past where the Irishmen were at work, and they expected that the Later would try to rescue the prisoner. This was not an ungrounded (ear, for as soon as the posse had driven past where the Irishmen were at work, the laborers started with picksand shovels to make a raid on the wagon the prisoner was in. But our men sprang out, made a mark across the road, and covering the advancing body of men with their guns, retreated about fifty feet, and told them that the first man who put his foot over that mark would be a dead one. The Irishmen wavered, halted, held a short con- sultation, and turned back. It was well for them that they did. Our men had a hundred pounds of ammunition, and were in dead earnest." The ] irisonei was safely lodged in Milford jail, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged, but Governor Johnson, of Pennsylvania, refused to sign his death warrant, and the next Governor, William Bigler, held that it was the dutv of his predecessor to sign all death warrants of those convicted of murder during his term of office, and he re- fused to sign it ; so Callaghan was never hanged, but lay in Milford jail five years, and was then pardoned and discharged. Callaghan afterward went to Port Jervis, and worked as brake- man on the Delaware Division of the Erie for twenty years. He was killed by being run over by the cars not many miles from the spot where he had murdered poor George Kays twenty-five years before. At the time of the construction of the Erie, the building of railroad bridges was in its infancy, or experimental stage. The bridges were all of wood. The design first in use was the Bunn, the bridges being covered. Later the Company adopted the Fowler and the McCallum. In constructing a bridge of either of the two latter designs, a level platform as long as the bridge, and at least twenty-five feet wide, was erected, on which the whole broadside of the bridge was drafted. Then the outside posts of the bridge, after having been framed for the chords and arches, were put in place and firmly fastened ; the braces were framed and fitted in position ; the chords and arches (there was an arch to each span of the bridge), were placed in position, and the top posts and braces were framed and similarly placed. Thus a whole broadside of the bridge was completed. This had to be all taken apart and piled by itself, and the other broadside constructed in the same way. The building of a large bridge of this kind made a long, heavy job, requiring the handling of several thousand tons of timber at least seven times over, besides the work of framing. TIIK FIRST SIGHT OF THE ENGINE. The first locomotive on the Delaware Division was the " Piermont." It was dismantled at Piermont, loaded on a canal boat, taken up the I [udson River to Rondout, and thence by the Delaware and Hudson Canal to Lackawaxen. There it was set up, and used to distribute iron and ties, to lay the track on the Delaware Division. This was in the summer of 1848. The engine was in charge of William Van de Graff, as engineer. Along in October of that year it became neces- sary to go to Narrowsburg with the engine. The news got circulated around, and the result was that, from a long dis- tance about, men, women, and children came out of the backwoods settlements, two or three hundred strong, to see the iron horse. The locomotive was run up in front of the station and stopped, and in a few minutes some of the more courageous ones began to examine the " critter," as they called it, and not a few climbed upon the engine. Suddenly Engineer Van de Graff, full of mischief, sounded a full blast on the whistle. The effect of that may be more easily imagined than described. It was a "very hurrying time of year" just about then. Those on the engine tumbled off like a lot of mud-turtles dropping from a log. Some fell ; others yelled, and tumbled over each other in their haste to get at a safe dis- tance. Van de Graff was so convulsed with laughter that he rolled on the footboard to ease himself, and the experience was his favorite " stove committee " tale for many a long day. HUNTERS AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. The region through which the Delaware Division ran, fifty years ago, was almost a wilderness, and there were few who then lived in the region who were not in profound ignorance in regard to the locomotive ; and being accustomed to the hunt and the ways of the forest, it was but natural that they should associate the sound of the steam whistle with the cry of some wild animal, especially when the whistle was heard at a distance of a mile or two. To not immediately set themselves to work to capture the animal responsible for that noise would have been contrary to their nature. A short time after the locomotive "Piermont" created the excitement at Narrowsburg by its first arrival, it was neces- sary to go with it to Callicoon. The track being new and not ballasted, the run was very slow, not more than six or eight miles an hour. The whistle was blown at short inter- vals. Some of the famous hunters of the Pike Pond region, back in the mountain, hearing the whistle and taking it for the scream of a panther, which fierce beast still lurked in these hills, started with dogs and guns in hot pursuit toward Callicoon in an effort to head off the "varmint," and if pos- sible capture it. The locomotive beat them several lengths, however, but had been standing but a short time at the sta- tion when three or four men rushed out from the bushes just across the track, their clothing all in tatters, covered with mud, and soaked from wading streams and swamps. The men were nearly exhausted, for thev had run miles through the woods and swamps and across streams to inter- cept their game. Their surprise and chagrin to find that the object of their pursuit was not a wild animal, but a locomo- tive, standing quietly on the track in front of the station, may be imagined. THE STORY OF ERIE 349 TRAPPING A LOCOMOTIVE. Another hunting incident occurred in connection with the early locomotive, in which John Quick was the chief actor. He lived about five miles from Milford, in Pike County, Pa., at a place called Schocope, and about as far from Carr's Rock, now Parker's Glen. The locomotive had been in use distributing ties and rails along the line from Shohola toward Port Jervis for some time. Quick, hearing the shriek of the whistle one day, thought it was the scream of some wild animal. He was a great trapper, and he at once got out his bear traps, shouldered as many as he could conveniently carry, and started for the woods. After travelling four or five miles to the head of the glen leading down to Carr's Rock, he set his traps, and every two or three days would go to look them over, and see if he had caught the beast that yelled so. At last, while visiting his traps one day, he heard the scream of this animal. The sound came from toward the river, two miles away. He cautiously started in that direction, his rifle ready to send a bullet into the beast the moment he sighted it. Frequently he heard the same screech repeated. He kept on until he came in sight of the railroad. Then, to his disgust, he found that for a month or more he had been trapping for a locomotive ! Quick was a famous hunter and trapper, and for years afterward he enjoyed telling this story. GETTING OVER THE RANDOLPH HILLS. During 184S, the Company completed and had in use 200 miles of railroad, and was vigorously prosecuting its further extension. Work was under contract from Binghamton to Corning, a distance of seventy-six miles. The grading be- tween Binghamton and Owego was finished, and the railroad was completed between Piermont and Binghamton. The difficulty of getting over the dividing ridge between Deposit and Binghamton was great. The original route of 1834, via Nineveh and Bettsburgh, was forty-five miles long, and had two summits, 905 and 1,200 feet high, with grades as steep as eighty-two feet. Another route was reconnoitred, via Windsor, which was sixteen miles shorter, with two rises of 728 feet. Another via Windsor had grades sixty-six feet, and required three tunnels, 700, 3,400, and 2,600 feet long. This route was thirty-seven miles in distance, with a rise of 1,840 feet. Benjamin Wright, James Seymour, Edwin F. Johnson, H. C. Seymour, C. B. Stuart, T. S. Brown, nor George E. Hoffman could succeed in discovering any better route than either of these. In making the surveys in 1840, the remarkable glen at Gulf Summit, between the waters of Cascade Brook, going to the Susquehanna, and McClure's Brook, going to the Delaware, was discovered. Passing be- tween the towering rocks, just wide enough for the road, an engineer named John Anderson traced a line from Deposit to Lanesboro in 184 1. It was continued by Hoffman to Great Bend and Binghamton, thirty-nine miles. The grade of this route was sixty-six feet on the Delaware side and seventy feet on the Susquehanna side, a distance of sixteen miles. The original line of 1S34 ran one mile and a half from Bingham- ton, and was unsatisfai tory to the people. This Anderson line passed directly through that village, and, after the legis- lation authorizing the Company to go into Pennsylvania, it was the route chosen between Deposit and Binghamton — the route of the present day. THE BIG ROCK CUT AND CASCADE BRIDGE. One of the most difficult and expensive tasks in the mould- ing of the way for the railroad westward was at the summit of the Randolph Hills, beyond Deposit. This was the cut- ting through the vast wall of rock that barred the passage of the mountain there — the last desperate stand that obstructing Nature made against the persistent and plodding engineer in his determined fight to force a place for this great highway. This formidable barrier was half a mile in width, the left wall being 200 feet high from road-bed to summit. To carve a road-bed through that beetling obstacle cost the enormous sum of $200,000, and then the passage was onlv wide enough for one track. Time did not permit of building the railroad for the future when this work was being pushed forward, fifty years ago. Until the time came, years afterward, when this cut was widened to make room for a second track, a strong current of air was constantly sweeping through its narrow confines, and the temperature on the hottest davs of summer was uncomfortably cool, while in winter old Boreas howled along the corridor between the high walls of the arti- ficial canyon, a very demon of frigidity. In the early davs of railroading on the Frie, snow blockades were sure to be met with in that cut whenever wintry storms swept over that moun- tain's riven pinnacle. Few train-men in active sen-ice on the Erie Railroad to- day remember the Cascade Bridge, and no traveller born less than a generation and a half ago ever saw that remarkable structure. Indeed, no traveller over the Erie, no matter how long ago he may have travelled, ever did see the Cascade Bridge unless he alighted from his train for the purpose of getting a view of it. This bridge, in its day, was regarded as one of the engineering wonders of the world. When the engineers finally located the route the railroad was to follow over the range of hills that divided the Delaware Valley from that of the Susquehanna, they came to a deep ravine, well down the western escarpment of the range. Exact measurements of this great chasm in the rocks gave its depth as 184 feet and its width 250 feet. The walls were of solid rock. A small creek flowed at the bottom of the gulf, on which, a short distance above the spot where the railroad must cross if it were to proceed on its way farther, the water tumbled over a broken precipice thirty feet high, and, just below, leaped sheer down the face of a lesser cliff. The gloom of the ravine was deepened by a dense growth of hemlocks that found strange tenure on its sides from base to summit. To fill in this yawning gulf so that a foundation for the railroad might be made was deemed a task too stupendous to even JO 1 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES spend time in considering. Eminent bridge engineers and builders of that day were consulted, and John Fowler, inventor of the Fowler truss bridge, agreed to undertake the throwing of a bridge across the Cascade Gulf that would successfully solve the serious problem that confronted the Company at the brink of that mighty chasm. The work on the Cascade Bridge was begun in the spring of 1847, and was a year and a half in building. It consisted of a solitary arch of 250 feet span, with a rise of fifty feet. The abutments were the solid rock that formed the sides of the ravine, each leg of the great arch being supported on a deep shelf hewn into the rock. The arch w : as constructed of eight ribs of white oak, two feet square in the centre, and two feet by four at the abutments. These were interlaced with wood and iron braces so as to combine strength and lightness in the airy structure. The width of the bridge was twentv-four feet, the surface of its material being protected In" a ( oating of cement and gravel. This bridge became famous as the longest single-span bridge constructed of wood in the world. In spite of the difficulty and risk that attended clambering down to the bottom of the Cascade Gulf, from which point alone a satisfactory view of the bridge could be obtained, this really remarkable structure, hanging high in the air, like the thread of some huge spider-web, became such an attraction that scarcely a train arrived at Sus- quehanna, during the years the bridge was a part of the rail- road, from which tourists did not alight for the purpose of visiting the ravine and the bridge that spanned its dizzy sum- mit— Susquehanna being the nearest stopping place. Once, in those early days of Erie, Gen. Winfield Scott was a pas- senger on a train that was stopped at Cascade Bridge to enable the passengers to view the bridge from this chasm. General Scott, after gazing at the airy structure from the depths of the gulf, exclaimed : " The man who could throw a cow-path like that over this gulf deserves a crown ! " The bridge cost §72,000. In 1854 there were rumors that the Cascade Bridge was showing signs of weakness, and the Railroad Commissioners of New York State sent an engineer mine it. He reported that the bridge was safe. The 1 if Railroad Commissioners inspected the bridge them- selves in 1S55, and they were satisfied with its condition. But the Company in that year decided that, owing to the possibility of the bridge being destroyed by fire, which would practically stop all operations on the railroad until a substi- tute 1 ould be provided, it would be wise to cross the gulf by changing the route, filling in the ravine, and making a cul- vert for the creek. This work occupied five years, being completed during the receivership of Nathaniel Marsh, in i860, and the wonderful Cascade Bridge was abandoned and demolished, i is now only a memory. A man nai I .vis, of Canandaigua, was a workman on the Cascade Bridge. One day he fell from the trestle work to the bottom of the ravine, more than 100 feet, and alighted in such a way that, incredible as it may seem, he escaped with so little injury that he returned to his work the same day. In 1S54, the Fowler bridge across the Susquehanna River west of Susquehanna Station was ordered replaced by a McCallum bridge, and Lewis was one of the men employed on the work. The height of the bridge above the island on which one of its piers rested was not more than fifteen feet. Lewis fell from the bridge one day and was killed. THE STARUCCA VIADUCT. The valley of the Starucca Creek, about two miles beyond Cascade Gulf, was the next difficulty in the way of the rail- road — a sudden, deep, and wide depression in the hills, a hundred feet or more below the lowest elevation the road- bed could find. This valley was more than a quarter of a mile wide, and there was no way around it. At first it was proposed that this broad and deep stretch should be graded up to the level of the road-bed by constructing an embank- ment across it, but the plan was abandoned on the score of cost and the great length of time that would be required to raise that enormous mound of earth. The crossing of the valley by a viaduct was then decided upon. The great work was begun about the time the Cascade Bridge was begun, but it was dragging, and threatened to defeat the efforts of the Company to get the road through to Binghamton by the end of 1848. Three different contractors had failed and thrown up the work. James P. Kirkwood was a Scotchman, and learned civil engineering on the Boston and Albany Railroad, an early work from which a number of engineers and contractors came to the Erie when it was building. He was a brother-in-law of Julien \V. Adams, who was a leading contractor and bridge- builder on the Erie, his great work being the above described wooden bridge over Cascade Gulf. In the spring of 1848, Contractor Adams was appealed to by the Company's repre- sentatives. "Who can build that viaduct?" he was asked. " I know of no one who can do it," he replied, " unless it is Kirkwood." The matter was presented to Kirkwood. He visited the spot, investigated the facilities for getting stone and material, and reported. " I can build that viaduct in time," he said, " provided vou don't care how much it may cost." He was told to go to work at it regardless of cost. He did so. The quarries from which the stone for the work was obtained were three miles up the Starucca Creek. Kirk- wood put down a railroad track on each side of the creek, from the quarries to the work, and brought the stone in on cars. The labor was all done by the day, and every available man in that vicinity was employed. In May, 1S48, at the viaduct and quarries, 800 men were employed. The false work was in thirteen tiers, and extended across the Starucca Valley. Operations on this remarkable structure were pushed night and day, and with such system and method that the viaduct was ready for use long before its use was required. THE STORY OF ERIE 35i This engineering feat gave Kirkvvood great prestige with the Company, and resulted in his being selected as General Superintendent to succeed H. C. Seymour in 1849. James P. Kirkwood was a native of Edinburgh, and came to America in 1834. He was a graduate of Edinburgh College, and a civil engineer. In 1835 he became Assistant Engineer of the Stonington Railroad, and in that year surveyed the route for the Long Island Railroad, and had charge of the construction of that road until operations were stopped by the panic of 1837. Kirkwood later was engaged on the Boston and Albany Railroad. He left the Erie to go to the south- west to construct railroads, and he made the first survey for the Pacific Railroad west from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. The Starucca Viaduct was at the time it was built the greatest work of railroad bridge masonry in the United States, and is to-day a conspicuous example of that branch of engineering science, even among the stupendous feats of modern bridge construction. The viaduct is 1,200 feet long, no feet high, and has eighteen arches with spans of fifty feet each. It was wisely constructed for a double track, and was made thirty feet wide on top. The cost of the structure was 8320,000, the most expensive railroad bridge in the world at that time. The views of Starucca Viaduct and Cascade Bridge, between pages 94 and 95, were made in the spring of 1851. WHEN THE LOCOMOTIVE FIRST CAME AMONG THEM. (From the Binghamion Democrat, November 17, 184S.) Great numbers of our citizens have been attracted to the railroad to see the first locomotive on the track. Some who have often seen this spirited animal before, and been conveyed by its wonderful speed, are delighted to witness his antic gambols among the hills of Broome. Others who have never ventured beyond the limits of the " sequestered counties " are amazed at the gigantic power of the steam horse, while he sni ■rts and snuffs the fresh breeze of our valleys, and vanishes away to the morning fogs of the Susquehanna. The boys throng the track to 1 which way the /W/gine is coming. All are exceedingly grati- fied to realize the beginning of the long-waited-for completion of the New York and Erie Railroad. This locomotive was the " Orange," and it was taken on that section of the railroad to aid in and hasten the construction eastward. ("The Turning of Its Wheels," pages 391-393.) FIRST TRAIN OVER THE DELAWARE DIVISION. The Company had announced that to celebrate the com- pletion of the railroad to Binghamton special excursion trains woulel be run between Piermont and that place Wednesday, December 27, 1848. The track along the Upper Delaware Valley was yet in an unfinished condition, and Major T. S. Brown, Chief Engineer of the work, decided that it would be wise to run a preliminary train over that part of the track, from Port Jervis to Deposit, a few days before the regular excursion trains were to pass, in order that their safety might be insured and all cause of delay removed. The Rev. Henry Dutcher, now of Warwick, Orange County, N. V., then an employee of the Company, was one of those who made that initial trip over the Delaware Division, and he thus relates his reminiscences of it to the compiler of this history : "The train consisted of an engine, one passenger car, and two flat cars. Among those aboard were Major Brown; H. C. Seymour, General Superintendent: Silas Seymour, Major Morrell, W. H. Sidell, of the engineer corps ; H. O. Beckwith, William A. 1 ditcher, a man of the name of Rice, myself, and others, making fourteen in all, besides a gang of laborers with pails, picks, and shovels. We started from Port Jervis at two o'clock p.m. on Friday, December 22, 1S4.S. At I.acka- waxen the engine ' Piermont ' was attached ahead of our en- gine. We proceeded to Narrowsburg, arriving about seven o'clock. After supper we started on. It had been snowing all afternoon, the snow being from six to eight inches deep. It continued to snow as we proceeded, so that our progress was very slow. When about two miles above Cochecton, six miles from Narrowsburg, our locomotives ran out of water. We stopped at a creek, the embankment being some thirty- feet above it, and forming a line, passed six hundred pails of water up to the engines. Some of the men froze their fingers. Proceeding on our way, at daylight next morning we found ourselves about a mile above Hankins Station, hav- ing travelled about twenty miles during the night. At this point we came to a dead stop. We found a mile and a half of track not laid, and no iron nearer than Narrowsburg with which to lay it. The snow was badly drifted. There were from two to three feet of snow on the road-bed. We got the trackmen out and set them to shovelling, and sent one engine back to Narrowsburg after iron to fill the break. Leaving orders to proceed with the engines as soon as the track could be laid, fourteen of us, without any breakfast, started to tramp it up the track through the snow, which was in many places to our hips. At about two o'clock in the after- noon we arrived at Long Eddv. " ' Now,' said Superintendent Seymour, ' we will have something to eat.' " He leading the way, we all followed, ravenous, having eaten nothing since seven o'clock the night before, and hav- ing toiled incessantly all that time. The house he took us to was kept by John Geer. And another such a place ! The bed-room, kitchen, sitting-room, parlor, up-stairs, and down- cellar were all in one room, and not a very large one, nor a very clean one, at that. Seymour told the old lady of the house that we were as hungry as wolves and wanted some dinner. She took a box from her dress pocket, treated her- self to a large pinch of snuff from it, wiped her fingers on her apron, and replied that she did not know how it would be, but she would do the best she could. Lifting a trap-door in the floor, she descended to an apology for a cellar, and brought up a loaf of bread, a plate of butter, and a dish of honey. The honey undoubtedly was clean, but the butter 03- BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES had the appearance of having been sprinkled with pepper and salt. The bread, while it looked good on the outside, showed layers of dirt through it when cut, as though it had been kneaded on the floor. In addition to the above, she brought from a cubby-hole at one side of the old-fashioned chimney a dish of potatoes that had been warmed over at some time, and a dish of beans, both frozen, and a plate of tried pork, and another of mackerel, each of which looked as though it had been picked at by the hens. These were all put upon a bare tabic, with knives and forks, but no plates — and our dinner was ready. •■ \\ e mechanically went through the motions of eating, but it was a miserable failure. Our dispositions were to eat, but our stomachs would not agree with our dispositions, and we did not eat a sixpence worth. After resting ourselves for a few minutes, Major Brown asked the old lady how much we were indebted to her. After taking another pinch of snuff, she said she could not tell. " ' It wasn't much of a dinner, anyway,' she said, and we thought her judgment correct. Major Brown handed her a twentv-five-cent piece for himself, and asked her if she thought that would be about right. She thought it would ; so we each handed over a quarter, thus paying three dollars and a half for what would not have fed a chicken. From there we went to the Company's shanty, opposite Big Equinunk, where we got our supper at about five o'clock. From that point we proceeded two miles farther to Jeremiah Lord's, where twelve of the party hired Lord to take them to Han- cock that night. It being Saturday night, Ray Clark and myself concluded to stay with Lord over Sunday. Monday morning we got Lord to take us to Hancock, where we found the others waiting for the engine. This did not make its appearance until four o'clock Monday afternoon. We found that between Hancock and Deposit there were three miles of track not laid, so that there was no way to get further with the cars until that breach was filled, and the iron had to come from the other direction — from Susquehanna. Major Brown ed that he must go through to Binghamton at all haz- ards. The rest of the party resolved to go no farther, but I told the Major I would stick to him as long as there was a button on his shirt. The trouble was to get to Deposit. We found a lumberman who was going there, but he had no better accommodation than a pair of bob sleighs. Turning one up over the other to make a seat, we rode the thirteen miles without buffalo robe or blanket ; and what a bitter cold night it was ! When we reached Deposit we found Engineer Joshua P. Martin, with the locomotive ' Orange,' with which he hai 1 1 >rought the iron to lay the three miles of track, and was waiting for us to take us to Binghamton, forty miles distant. After getting our supper we boarded the engine, with nothing to shelter us. There were no cabs on the engines yet. Facing a strong northwest wind, with the mercury at zero, we rode over that bleak country, arriving at Binghamton at half- past eleven o'clock Monday night — three days, nine hours and a half getting over the division. But we succeeded in getting the road in order so that the excursion train on the following Wednesday passed over the division without acci- dent or delay." OPENING OF THE RAILROAD TO BINGHAMTON. This event was celebrated by the running of two excursion trains from Piermont to Binghamton, filled with distinguished guests. The party left New York Tuesday evening Decem- ber 26, 1848, on the steamboat "Oregon," Captain St. John, engaged for the occasion. The boat arrived at Piermont at ten o'clock, where the party remained all night. The trains left Piermont at five o'clock Wednesday morning, the 27th. The trip, owing to the early hour and the darkness, was un- eventful until the excursion approached the Delaware Valley. When near the bridge where the line crosses the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the engine of the first train got off the track, and there was a detention of nearly an hour in a blind- ing snow storm. Near Lackawaxen happened the only unpleasant event of the excursion. Orders had been given to keep even-thing off the track throughout the new line until the special trains had passed. After the passage of the first train, some workmen, probably ignorant that a second train was on the road, had replaced their dirt car, and were leisurely riding upon it, in advance of the second train, which, in spite of every attempt to avoid such a catastrophe, came in collision with it. Most of the workmen had jumped off the car, but of those who were unable to do so, two (John Faust and George Hines) were seriously hurt, the former receiving a severe fracture of the hip joint, which it was feared might prove fatal, and the latter a deep flesh wound in the thigh from the cow-catcher, and a fracture on one or more of his ribs. A collection amounting to Si 96 was made for them, and President Loder, on behalf of the Directors, promised that they should be well cared for until they recovered. At Narrowsburg a cold collation was provided. The train again pushed on, battling with the storm and pushing off the accumulating snow, which had reached a considerable depth. An incident of the. passing of this pioneer passenger train over the Delaware Division occurred at Callicoon and is worthy of note. A large number of people had gathered there to greet the train on its arrival. A banner presentation had been arranged for, but the train did not stop. It ran at a very slow speed, however, and as the last car came along, Peter Traynor seized the banner and handed it up to the brakeman on the rear platform. On it was inscribed the following : " The iron horse from the Hudson is welcome to drink of the waters of the Callicoon." It was between eight and nine o'clock in the evening before the train arrived at Deposit, so desperately had the trains to fight their way over the almost untried road, through the oppos- ing obstruction of the drifting snow. A large concourse had assembled to greet the arrival of the party at Deposit. Across the railroad was thrown a large and beautiful arch, gaily deco- rated, and bearing in mammoth letters formed of evergreens the welcome word "WELCOME"; on the top of the arch THE STORY OF ERIE 353 stood a noble deer, which, with others, was presented to the Directors. " One could not help a passing thought of sad- ness," said one of the excursionists afterward, " as this first toll of a wild and sportive race to the stronger power of man sug- gested the coming destruction which henceforth awaits them in their native woods. Here, too, in the gorge of the moun- tains, cannons roared and bonfires flashed and threw their glare upon thousands of human faces." While this courageous excursion party was struggling on its way through the wild, snow-swept Delaware Valley, on that memorable 27th of December, this was what was transpiring at Binghamton : " Early in the morning," wrote John R. Dickinson in the Binghamton Democrat, " the inhabitants of this and the ad- joining counties began coming into the village. About ten o'clock a snow storm came on, which continued all day and through the night. Notwithstanding the severity of the storm, thousands continued to assemble. About four o'clock p.m., the multitude, men, women, and children, assembled at the depot, and awaited the arrival of the first train of cars from New Yurk to Binghamton. Hundreds were promenading the depot grounds through the mingled storm. Hundreds more surrounded a large and powerful locomotive, that had come in from Fort Jervis with a train of freight cars in the early part of the day, and were expressing their admiration of its iron muscle, and their surprise at its wonderful power and speed. At another point the cannon were stationed, about which a multitude of men and boys were congregated, ready to touch off the guns at the first sound of the whistle of the train. " The large room of the depot-house was filled to overflow- ing — the adjoining room was reserved for the exclusive occu- pancy of the committee of arrangements, with a doorkeeper to keep out the common people. The car-house, which was located about fifty rods east of the depot-house, was well warmed and lighted, two tables spread there extending its entire length (150 feet), with the best the Phenix Hotel could provide. Near the middle of the car-house a platform was elevated, upon which Littlewood's band was stationed. " From four o'clock, hour after hour passed away. Some becoming impatient left for their homes. The clock struck nine, ten, eleven. A large portion of the crowd had gone. Anxious speculations as to the safety of the first train from New York were passing among the remaining crowd, when, a little before twelve, midnight, the sound of a distant whistle came booming down the line. Bang ! bang ! went the can- non, an 1 suddenly all was excitement. Many who had gone home and retired to rest arose and repaired to the depot grounds. The cooks and waiters set themselves to the final arrangements at the long tables. The firing of cannon con- tinued. The whistle sounded nearer and louder, and the long pent-up hurrahs of the crowd becoming more enthusi- astic, altogether greatly marred the usual midnight stillness of our quiet village. At this moment the stately train, drawn by the panting locomotives, approached and halted at the car-house, where the refreshments were in waiting. From 300 to 400 passengers alighted and entered the car-house, and began at once the discussion of the merits and bounties of the table. The honorable committee in the meantime were in waiting down to the depot-house, under the charge of doorkeepers, preparing to receive the distinguished guests from the city. It was evident from the lofty bearing of many of them, and the precautions taken by the doorkeepers to prevent a contact with the common people, that they had screwed themselves up to sufficient dignity to receive with ap- propriate demonstration the Honorable the Mayor, and the Common Council of the City of N'ew York, the President and Directors of the Erie Railroad Company, and other dis- tinguished guests. After waiting a while and learning that the New Yorkers were partaking of the repast at the car-house, the committee, evidently disappointed in not being permitted to take that conspicuous part in the reception they had antici- pated, followed up to the car house and joined in the festivi- ties of the occasion. "After the cloth was removed, Mr. Loder, the President of the Railroad Company, w-as called for, and entertained the assemblage with remarks embracing a history of the affairs of the Company and interesting facts and statistics, touching the commencement, progress and completion of the road to Binghamton, and its future prospects, which were received with great applause. Calvin E. Mather then arose on behalf of the committee, and addressed the assemblage with great spirit and animation. Toasts were given, after which William E. Dodge made appropriate remarks. He was followed by the Hon. Zadoc Pratt, Chief Engineer Brown, and others. The guests then retired to lodgings at public and private houses in town which had been tendered to them. " Al otn nine o'clock in the morning all assembled again at the depot grounds to see the train go out, and tender to our guests a cordial expression of our thanks for their visit and a wish for their safe return. While the preparation to start was going on the crowd assembled in the car-house and were ad- dressed by Mr. Franklin, Mr. Dodge, Mr. Davies. Mr. Fol- som, Mr. Diven and others, in spirited and interesting speeches, which were received with enthusiastic applause. The best of feeling prevailed, and the citizens of New Yoik and Binghamton greeted each other as friends and neighbors, separated only by a few hours' ride. " At twelve o'clock, M., the two trains went out, amidst the hurrahs of the thousands assembled to witness their depart- GETTING THE RAILROAD BEVOXD BIXGHAMTON. The contract for building the railroad from Binghamton to Corning was taken by John Magee and Constant Cook, of Bath, N. Y. ; John Arnott, of Elmira : Charles S. Cook, of Havana, N. Y., and John H. Cheddell, of Auburn. N. Y. (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," page 92.) This was an easy portion of the railroad to build, lying as it did in and along the fertile flat lands and in the thickly settled por- tions of the Susquehanna and Chemung valleys, and each 23 354 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES contractor made a large fortune out of the arrangement with any. The locomotive "Orange" did duty in the work of construction on that part of the railroad. J. S. T. Stranahan, Joseph White, and Horace G. Phelps did much of the work as sub-contractors on the road between Elmira and Corning. The railroad was so far complete between Binghamton and o on June i. 1849, that an excursion train from New York, bearing distinguished guests, was run as far as Bing- hamton on May 31st. and on to Owego the next morning. This first passenger train arrived at Owego at ten o'clock a.m.. fune 1, 1S49. Church bells were rung and cannon were fired. Considerable preparation had been made to celebrate the occasion so long waited for. Hon. Thomas Farrington was President of the day; Hon. John M. Parker, E. S. Sweet, Esq., Hon. John J. Taylor, and Franklin Slosson, Vice-Presidents; Col. X. W. Davis, Marshal. A dinner for the invited guests was spread in the big dining-room of the depot (Ow-ego having been designated as a dining station), and a public feast on platforms outside, by S. B. Dennis, proprietor of the Tioga House. President Farrington de- livered a speech of welcome to the distinguished guests that arrived on the train. It was responded to by William E. Dodge, President Loder not being present. After dinner, speeches were made by Shepherd Knapp ; William E. Robin- son, of the New York Tribune ; Hon. James Brooks, of the New York Express, and E. S. Sweet, and Hon. S. B. Leonard, of Owego. There was no general jollification made over the opening of the railroad to Elmira, the first train from Xew York on which occasion arrived at Elmira on the morning of October 2, 1849. ^ was welcomed suitably and joyously by the El- mira people. A', the railroad approached Corning, the people of the Canisteo Valley, in Steuben County, through which the orig- inal route of the railroad was surveyed, became greatly alarmed over rumors that the people of the Cohocton Valley, especially at Bath, where the influential Magees and Cooks dwelt, had brought such arguments to bear upon the Company that it was considering the propriety of diverting the railroad between Corning and Hornellsville from the Canisteo Valley to a route that would follow the Cohocton Valley instead, by the way of Hath. To protest against this, and to show the Company how unwise it would be to make such a change as that, a great uniting of all that excited country was held at Mrs. Jones' Tavern, Cameron, Steuben County, July 28, 1849. Jeremiah linker was chairman ; John K. Hale, secretary. William M. Ilawley, Nathaniel Finch, Thomas J.Reynolds, William R. Smith, and F. C. Denninny drafted, as the sense of the meeting, a memorial, which was printed in a pamphlet. The committee reported to a meeting of people held at Iluik's Hotel, Addison, August 24th, following. Gen. Ran- som Rathbone was chairman of the meeting and Xathaniel Finch read the memorial, and William R. Smith, Gen. Ran- som Rathbone, and James Alley were appointed a committee " to go to Xew York, and present to the President and Chief Engineer, and each of the Directors, and to such others as they may deem expedient, a copy of the same." Eloquent speakers, representing the Company's interest, chief among them being Asher Tyler, of Elmira, addressed the meeting, assuring the people that the Company would take its railroad to that route that gave it the most encouragement, and thus secured many a Canisteo Valley farmer's hard-earned dollars, grants of land, and rights of way in behalf of a railroad that was bound to go that way, anyhow, for the light of subsequent events showed that there had at no time been any probability of the route being diverted from the Canisteo Valley. The Hon. Asher Tyler was a man of much consequence in the Southern Tier of Xew York, as well as elsewhere, in his day. He was born at Bridgewater, Oneida County, X. Y., May 10, 1798, and was graduated from Hamilton College, in that county, in the class of 181 7. He studied law, not for the purpose of a general practice, but that he might apply it as agent of the Devereux Land Company, that had considerable real estate in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. He was a member of Congress from the Cattarau- gus district in 1843-45, and was contemporary there with some of the most distinguished men of the country. He became friends with them and retained their friendship as long as he lived, corresponding with many, and being visited by them at his Elmira home. He conducted the purchase of the land for the Erie in all of the counties east of Broome, examining titles and getting clear rights. His judgment was of the best, and there is no record of its ever having gone astray. During this period of his life he lived at Ellicott- ville, Cattaraugus County. In 1848 he went to Elmira to live, and spent the remainder of his days there. He died at the age of more than eighty years. His wife was the daugh- ter of John Youle, an ironmaster of the city of Xew York. The Youles were of English origin, and the family, in the early part of the century, was one of the highest in social standing in the city. The rare Tyler homestead in Elmira is occupied by his daughters, ladies of high culture and accom- plishment. Xathaniel Finch, of Hornellsville, succeeded Asher Tyler as General Land Agent, and was made a General Attorney of the Company. He was a native of Greenwich, Conn., and settled at Hornellsville in 1S37. He was a lawyer, and was employed by the Erie as early as 1841, to secure right of way for the railroad through the Canisteo Valley and along the West- em Division. He subsequently became the Erie's attorney and claim agent for that section. He remained in that service until his death in 1866. He was succeeded by his son, John M. Finch, who had been his father's assistant since the age of eighteen, and who held the place until 1S69, when he retired. Much of the route of the old piled roadway of 1841, in the Canisteo Valley, was abandoned for a more feasible one, and THE STORY OF ERIE 355 as late as 1895 long rows of piles could be seen on the fiats on the lower side of the Canisteo River, melancholy remind- ers of one costly folly in the building of the Erie. Among the contractors on the work between Coming and Homellsville were Benjamin Folsom, Wells & Dutcher, Henry A. Fonda, Peter C. Ward, and M. McMahon, the father of the present Gen. Martin T. McMahon, of New York. The civil engineers were : L. D. Hodgeman, Thomas A. Emmet, and Messrs. Stancliff, Pumpelly, and Stoddard. Under date of Monday, August 26, 1850, President Ben- jamin Loder wrote from New York to a friend : " I want to go West this week as far as Homellsville, as we hope to open to that place Monday. Shall have no jollification over forty- one miles of railroad." Miss Susan Kress, a young woman of Dundee, Yates County, N, Y., was the first female to ride over the Sus- quehanna Division from Corning to Homellsville, which she did on a construction train, Saturday, August 31, 1851. Miss Kress became the wife of H. E. Buvinger, who has been for more than forty years a prominent employee of the Erie at Homellsville. The first locomotive crossed the Canisteo River into Hor- nellsville on Sunday, September 1, 1S51. The locomotive was the celebrated " Orange." The day was cold and rainy. When the " Orange " and its pioneer load of passengers for Homellsville arrived at the Canisteo Creek, east of Homells- ville, it was found that the bridge was not yet ready for the rails. The party was obliged to wait several hours in the drizzling rain for the bridge to be finished, and the last rail laid. It was dark when the locomotive at last was permitted to cross, and entered Homellsville whistling shrill responses to the loud shouts of the assembled populace. The whistle of the locomotive reached the ears of people who were at church, and the pastor of at least one church (Rev. Horatio I'attengill, of the Presbyterian church) praised God and dis- missed his congregation, who flocked to see the iron horse, whose coming had been awaited so many years. President Loder was among those on the flat car. lODY AXD FATAL FACTION' FIGHTS. \t Alfred, eighteen miles west of Homellsville, where the railroad route wound round the hillside, as it rose to the summit of the Alleghany Mountains, there were heavy cuts to be made through the obstructing banks, and deep gullies to be filled to the level — one of these a mile or more long, the longest and deepest fill on the entire work. The con- struction on that section was in charge of Contractor Henry A. Fonda, who had a small army of Irish laborers in his employ. Three factions of these sons of the Green Isle were represented among them : the Far-downs, the Tipperaries, and the Corkonians. Naturally, as had been the case elsewhere on the work, the ancient feuds of these factions were bound to take on vim and vigor whenever the only thing in common with these diverse fellow countrymen, love of the insidious " potteen," was indulged in overmuch, or even when one faction could find the slightest excuse for attacking another, and then violent " ructions " were sure to follow. In June, 1850, John Pardon, a Far-down, while passing through Alfred with his family, on his way to Andover, "was attacked by aggressive members of both the Tipperary and Corkonian factions, but was rescued and sheltered by Paris Green, a citizen. This enraged the attacking Irishmen, and they collected in a large mob, determined to prevent the Pardon family from proceeding on its way. The out- break became so serious that the militia of the towns of Alfred, Andover, and Almond were called out, and two con- stables' posses, one from Alfred and one from Andover, were organized. The Andover posse escorted the Pardon family on their journey, while the Alfred posse arrested a number of the mob leaders and took them to Alfred Centre, two miles distant, for trial. While the trial was in progress the Justice of the Peace had warning that the mob was approaching in force, armed with all manner of weapons, to rescue their friends from the officers of the law. The militia had a six- pound brass cannon in their possession. This was loaded to the muzzle with chains, nails, scraps of iron, and such other missiles as could be obtained, and the gun placed in the road where it could be trained on the rioters when they appeared around the curve, just below. But the battery was not called into -action. When the leaders of the advancing forces turned the curve and suddenly faced the frowning gun, a retreat began, not a dignified and orderly one, but such a one as has been seldom witnessed in the ordinary tactics of war. Xeither fences nor other obstacles checked the fleeing mob, as it scattered in even- direction leading to the woods, leaving hats and motley weapons behind. Thus this riot was quelled without bloodshed, but brawls ending in murder were of frequent occurrence. In October, 1850, during a row in a shanty one night, Contractor Fonda and his foreman, a man named Kent, were called in to quiet it. As they entered the shanty the lights were extinguished, and a free fight followed. When it was over, two young Irishmen were dead, shot through the heart, and Kent was unconscious from a blow on the head. He did not regain consciousness, and died in a few days. It was never known who was responsible for any of the killing. The next day after this broil the Company hired fifteen of the militia to act as guards. It was their duty to seize all firearms found on the laborers, and to confiscate all whiskey brought into the village. This prevented any further serious outbreaks, but occasionally the factions would come together in battle, with fatal effects on one another, and the big fill just below the station at Alfred, so tradition insists, contains the bodies of many missing natives of the Emerald Isle, who fell in these affrays, and were secretly buried to prevent un- pleasant official investigation. CHANGING THE ROUTE. In 1S3S Maj. Thompson S. Brown had located the western section of the road, surveying east from Lake Erie, o:r BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES placing it through the Conewango Valley to Randolph, thence over Cold Spring Summit to the Alleghany River south of the present site of Salamanca, thence up the river to Olean. The contracts for building the road were let in [840-41 over this route, as we have seen, and piles had been driven the greater part of this distance, when the failure of the Company in 1X42 stopped the work. In 1849, Silas Seymour, having succeeded Major Brown as engineer of that part of the work, was instructed to find a shorter and better route. The result was the abandonment of the route as located by Brown, and the present route through the Alleghany Valley and thence to Dunkirk was adopted, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that had been expended in railroad building over the old route were added to the other sums similar railroad making in the Susquehanna and Canisteo valleys had absorbed. The disappointed people of the Conewango Valley, who were to be left at last without a railroad, after all their long years of waiting and efforts in behalf of the Erie, by this abandonment of the route of 1839, made a strong endeavor to have the decision of the Company reconsidered, and succeeded so far that another engineer was sent to examine the different routes, his report to be final. This engineer was McRae Swift, and if ever a m3n was wined and dined and treated with marked consider- ation, Engineer Swift was, during the time he was studying the merits of those two routes from the Alleghany Valley to Lake Erie. He at last confirmed Silas Seymour's judgment, and that was the end of all the hopes of Conewango Valley in the railroad between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. WHAT THE LAND WAS GOOD FOR. The right of way for the railroad was obtained at different times, as work on the road progressed, and much the greater part of the right was donated by the land-owners. One notable exception to this occurred on the Seneca Indian Reservation in Cattaraugus County. The railroad had neces- sarily to pass for several miles through the Indian lands in the Alleghany Valley. The land needed was of no great in- trinsic value, and the Company's representatives in the secur- ing of right of way hoped to find thoroughfare through the reservation for very small remuneration, if not entirely free highway. They were much taken aback, therefore, when they had placed the matter before the Indian Council at Bucktooth (now Salamanca), to be informed by the President, a hard-headed and worldly-wise Seneca, that the Reserva- tion required Sio.ooo for right of way through its lands. The spokesman of the Right of Way Committee argued long and eloquently with the Council, explaining the great benefit the railroad would be to the Reservation and its occupants, and how they could well afford to donate right of way for the road the entire distance through the lands. '• The land we want," said he, " is of no actual use to you. You cannot raise corn on it : you cannot raise potatoes on it. What is it good for, then? It isn't good for anything." The wily and long-headed President of the Indian Coun- cil simply grunted and said : " Him pitty good land for railroad!" That closed the argument. The Railroad Company had nothing left to do but pay the $10,000 before it could get title to right of way through the Reservation. This money was paid in cash, and the President of the Council placed it in a leather bag and took it to his house. The next day he reported to the Council that some one had broken into his house during the night and stolen the bag and its valuable contents. The robber was never found, and to this day there are Indians on the Reservation who have their opinion about the loss of the money. DRIVING THE LAST SPIKE. The work was pushed forward, in both directions, on the Western Division, and by February, 185 1, the rails were down as far west from Homellsville as Cuba Old Station, a mile east of the present station at that place. February 5 th, William A. Kimball, the second engineer to run regularly on the Western Division, ran the first train on the Erie from Homellsville west. He had Hinkley engine No. 70, and a train consisting of a passenger car, a baggage car, and thirteen flat cars loaded with railroad iron. The road was so new and unstable that the clay of the road-bed was forced up by the weight of the train — or, rather, the rails were pressed down so in the clay that it came over the rails and stalled the train. One of the brakemen on the train lay on the foot- board of the engine and put sand on the track out of a bucket, there being no sanding attachment to the locomotives then. Kimball was nine hours getting his train to the top of the grade west of Homellsville, thirteen miles. Trains were run as far as Cuba, principally freight, passenger trains beiijg merely an incident, until the railroad was completed to Dun- kirk and opened, May 14, 1S5 r. There was a depot, a water- tank, and a turn-table at Cuba. Here, April 19, 185 r, eleven years after the first spike was driven at Piermont, in October, 1840, the last spike was driven in the last rail that made of the New York and Erie Railroad a continuous track between the Hudson and Lake Erie. The strokes of the sledge hammer that sent this spike home were delivered by Silas Seymour, who had seen the first shovelful of dirt thrown out at the breaking of ground for the railroad at Deposit. X. Y., November 7, 1835, and who had followed the continuous construction of the railroad step by step since it was started down the Shawangunk Mountains, west of Otisville, in 1S46 — having located the western end years before. April 19-20, 1851, previous to the grand opening, the officers and Directors of the road, with a few invited guests, made a trip over the line from Piermont to Dunkirk, remain- ing over night at Elmira. They reached Dunkirk amid the booming of cannon and the wildest enthusiasm of the people. Soon after that, Charles W. Tuffts, who came from THE STORY OF ERIE JO/ Boston to Dunkirk in the latter part of 1850, to help set up '• No. 90," the first locomotive on the western end of the road, and who subsequently went to Hornellsville to ran Engine No. 73 on a construction train, was with the latter locomotive at Tip-top Summit. Suddenly, without a moment's warning, the locomotive, track and all sank in the swamp, an 1 were almost entirely submerged. A track was built around the sink, for the use of trains, and the locomotive was extricated after a week's hard labor. The grand triumphant completion of the railroad to Dun- kirk and the monster celebration of the event at Dunkirk on .May 15, 1851, are described in graphic detail on pages 94 to 109 ("Administration of Benjamin Loder"). The ocean was indeed at last united with the lakes. OPENING OF THE NEWBURGH BRANCH. It may truly be said that, aside from its value and impor- tance as one of the many ramifications of the present Erie system, the Xewburgh Branch stands as a perpetual reminder of a great crisis in the history of the Erie. If no railroad had been assured to Newburgh in 1845 ("Third Administration of Eleazai Lord," pages 76 to 83), the Company and its work would have gone down in pitiful collapse, and what the un- fortunate fate of Erie might have been no one may now con- jecture. For that reason the opening of this branch was an event of much moment in the history of Erie. Ground was broken for the Newburgh Branch July 4, 1846, on land donated by Captain Robinson, in the village of New- burgh. The work shared in and suffered from all the subse- quent vicissitudes that made of the construction of the main line such a desperate struggle. It was completed, and the branch was opened January 8, 1850. (From the Newburgh Gazette, December 15, 1S49.) A locomotive, with a Passenger Car attached, passed over the Newburgh Branch on Wednesday, December 15th. They arrived in Newburgh about 4 o'clock and remained an hour. Mr. Loder, the President of the Company, and several other gentlemen came as passengers. The appearance of the Locomotive excited much in- terest, and its entrance into the village was welcomed by a large con- course of citizens. It is said that the regular passage of freight trains will be put on the road early in January — perhaps next week. The citizens of Newburgh held a public meeting on the evening of December 20, 1849, and made arrangements to celebrate the opening of the branch in fitting manner. Samuel J. Farnum was President of the meeting. A com- mittee consisting of J. J. Monell, Enoch Carter, C. C. Smith, Robert A. Forsyth, David Morse, Richard A. Southwick, Samuel J. Farnum, James Belknap, Hiram Falls, John K. Dawson, Charles U. Cushman, Isaac S. Fowler, and W. L. Warren, was appointed to arrange the programme for the celebration, which they did. January 8th was the anniversary of the battle of New Or- leans, a day celebrated with much enthusiasm, especially by the Democratic party, half a century ago, and as that division of the State of New York was Democratic then, the opening of the Newburgh Branch was made by many the occasion of a double celebration, individually, although officially only the railroad celebration was recognized. The sleighing was fine, which brought hundreds of people in from all the surrounding country. The multitude assem- bled at the Newburgh depot and filled all the neighboring approaches, to await the coming of the train bearing the officers and Directors of the Company and their guests, who were to be the guests of Newburgh. At one o'clock p.m. the train signalled its approach, and it was greeted with the booming of cannon and the vociferous cheering of the people. President Loder was prevented by iljness from being present. The officers and Directors and their guests were conducted to the station platform, where F. J. Betts, Esq., welcomed them in a long and eloquent address. William E. Dodge, who seems to have been the Company's spokesman on occasions of this kind, on behalf of the officers and Directors responded in a felicitous speech. The public repast was spread in the Company's round- house. The guests of honor were taken to the United States Hotel, where 200 sat down to dinner. Toasts were dmnk, and congratulatory speeches made. The prominent speakers of the day were Gen. Joseph Hoxie, Shepherd Knapp, Will- iam E. Dodge, and others. The public feast at the engine-house lasted during the en- tire day. It consisted of one ox, roasted whole, weight 761 pounds; tour sheep, roasted whole and stuffed, weight 500 pounds; 600 pounds of pork and beans; 400 pounds of ham ; 256 pounds of a-h-mode beef ; 231 pounds of corned beef; 160 pounds of beef tongues; 400 pounds of head cheese ; 1 hog, roasted whole, weight 400 pounds ; 1 deer, roasted whole, 256 pounds; 300 loaves of bread, besides two loaves that weighed 150 pounds apiece: 12 two-bushel baskets of sandwiches; vegetables and fruit by the barrel. No intoxicating drinks were permitted to be served at the barbecue, but no such restriction was placed upon the dis- tinguished guests at the hotel. The manner in which this barbecue and feast was served attracted such wide and favorable comment that a similar entertainment, on a much larger scale, was decided upon by the citizens of Dunkirk to be one of the features of the cele- bration which was to occur at that place the following spring, upon the opening of the railroad between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, and the caterers who had prepared the New- burgh affair were engaged to take charge of the great Dun- kirk barbecue. Their chief was Enoch Carter. The engine- house in which the public feast was given was a structure 1 50 x 75 feet, with a dome, or arched way, covered with heavy plates of tin. It was at that time the finest railroad building of the kind in the country. EXPERIENCES OF PRESIDENT LODER. The following extracts from private letters from President Loder, written during the construction of the railroad from 353 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES [ervis toward Dunkirk, although brief, tell more elo- of Directors, in placing the whole business in my hands, viz. : to tory of self-sacrifice and of the magnitude of the car task than a volume of detail could : law. Here I find a week's work on hand, and negotiations with other railroad companies of the most important character. BlNGHAMTON, yl May, 1847.— I arrived here yesterday (Sunday) g at three o'clock, having travelled nearly all night, which, to- gether with a severe journey on horseback over an almost intolerable 1 about IOO miles up the Delaware River, and a bad cold and he, confined me to my bed nearly all day. I shall leave during the day for Owego and Cayuga Lake. NARROWSBURGH, 23 1S35, the provision compelling the completion of the railroad within five years from July 4, 1S31, was repealed, and provided for the use by the company of the track of the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, then building through Bergen Hill to the Hudson River. A supplement to the charter, passed March 3, 1S37, increased the capital stock of the company §250,000. January 18, 1844, the company was authorized to issue bonds to the THE STORY OF ERIE 359 amount of $100,000 to purchase iron for improving the rail- road. Ground was broken for the railroad July 4, 1831, at Pater- son. November 4, 1832, the railroad was opened to the junction of the Newark turnpike, at the Bergen Hill. The H ickensack River was crossed by a drawbridge, the first railroad drawbridge ever built. Ex-Govemor Philemon Dickerson was the first president of the company. The equipment of the railroad was " three splendid and com- modious cars, each capable of accommodating thirty passen- gers, drawn by fleet and gentle horses." Connection was made with the New Jersey Railroad at " West End," which was the west end of Bergen Hill. The cars were drawn by horses until 1S34, when a locomotive, built by George Stephenson in England in 1833, was put on the railroad and did the work for several years. The Paterson and Ramapo Railroad Company was incor- porated by the New Jersey Legislature March 10, 1 841, which named as incorporators Elisha B. Clark, Cornelius (;. Garrison, Abraham Godwin, David Roe, Jacob M. Ryerson, Cornelius S. Van Wagoner, John S. Van Winkle, John ('.. Ackerson, Charles Kinsey, Henry B. Hageman, Frani is Salmon, Jacob H. Hopper, Lauriston Hall, William (1. Hopper, John Ward, Christian A. Wanmaker, to construi t a railroad from " a suitable place in or near the town of Paterson to some suitable point or points in or near the division line between the township of Franklin, in the county of Bergen, and the State of New York." The rail- road was to be begun within two years and completed at the expiration of six years after July 4, 1843, an< i to be f ree for the passage of any railroad carriage thereon, on pay- ment of the prescribed tolls, five cents per mile for each ton of freight and three cents per mile for each passenger, the tolls in the company's cars being ten cents per mile per ton and six cents a mile for passengers. The time for begin- ning the railroad was extended February 21, 1843. The stock sufficient to organize a company not having been subscribed, the Legislature authorized organization February 15, 1844. The time for completing the railroad was extended February 5, 1847, for five years from July 4th of that year. The railroad was completed in October, 1848, and the first train was run over it November 1st of that year. September 1, 1S52, the L'nion Railroad Company was or- ganized under the General Railroad Law of New York, its purpose being to build a railroad from the terminus of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad, at the State line, to connect with the New York and Erie Railroad, at Suffern, about one mile. October 10, 1834, the Paterson and Hudson River Rail- road Company made an agreement with the New Jersey Rail- road and Transportation Company to use the tracks of the latter from Bergen Junction, west of Bergen Hill, to the terminus at Jersey City, paying for the privilege six cents per ienger and ten cents per ton of merchandise carried over those tracks. September 9, 1852, the Union Railroad Com- pany leased the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad and the Paterson ami Ramapo Railroad, with all the rights and privileges granted by their charters and by agreements with the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, which leases were assigned to the New York and Erie Railroad Company September 10, 1852, and on the same day that Company leased the Union Railroad. This virtually made of the New Jersey Railroad and the Union Railroad a part of the Erie main line. The leases and assignments and agreements, of which there were thirteen in all, were signed by Benja- min Loder and Nathaniel Marsh, President and Secretary of the Erie ; Gouverneur Morris and John Hopper, President and Secretary of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad Com- pany; Robert Bayard and John J. Zabriskie, President and Treasurer of the Union Railroad Company ; John Colt and A. S. Pennington, President and Treasurer of the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad Company, and J. Phillips Phoenix and W. A. Whitehead, President and Secretary of the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. The rolling stock obtained by the Erie by the lease of the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad was as follows : 2 S-wheeled passenger cars, 60 seats, $Soo $r,6oo 3 8-wheeled passenger cars, 56 seats, $500 1,500 'j S-wheeled old cars, $300 600 2 4-wheeled short cars, $200 400 3 8-wheeled baggage cars (good), $525 1.575 4 S-wheeled platform, $275 1,100 27 4-wheeled box cars (short), $85 2,295 21 4-wheeled open cars, $70 1.470 2 4-wheeled short gravel cars, $200 and $170 370 Paterson engine 3,000 Passaic engine 3.500 Whistler engine r,20o McNeal engine 900 $19,510 February 21, 1S56, the New Jersey Legislature authorized the New York and Erie Railroad Company to extend the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad, and to make a railroad from any point on the same to the Hudson River at some point opposite New York, and purchase and hold in its own name land necessary for the use of its terminal business. The Governor, Chancellor, Attorney-General, Treasurer, and Secretary of New Jersey, the Justices of the Supreme Court, and the Judges of the Court of Errors of the State, and the Members of both houses of the Legislature were permitted to travel free of charge over the railroad included in the New Jersey leases. The Long Dock Company was incorporated by the New Jersey Legislature February 26, 1S56, the incorporators be- ing Peter Bentley, Mary Bell, Abraham O. Zabriskie, Charles G. Sisson, Homer Ramsdell, and Stephen D. Harrison. The capital stock was 8800,000. Peter Bentley, Homer Ramsdell, David S. Manners, Abraham O. Zabriskie, and 360 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Charles G. Sisson were the first directors. It was em- red to improve the Long Dock property, south of the centre line of Pavonia Ferry, in the Fourth Ward of Jersey C'itv, and to purchase other lands, under and above water, and to establish a ferry at or near Pavonia Avenue, to be located between South Second and Xorth Fourth Streets, fersey City. Work had to be begun within two years, and Si 00,000 expended within five years from the date of the act. The contract for boring the great tunnel through Bergen Hill, so that the completing and perfecting of the scheme for the Erie terminals at Jersey City might be accomplished, was let to Stanton, Mallory & Co., of Newburgh, X. Y., and the work was begun June 1, 1S56. The locomotive " Eleazar Lord," Henry Shimer, engineer, hauled away the first load of stones and earth, on the track built for that pur- pose, and dumped them in the Hudson River, where all the excavated debris from the Bergen Hill was to be dumped, to aid in making the water-front now owned by the Erie at Jersey City, particularly at Pavonia Ferry. The financial troubles of the Erie hindered the progress of the work on the tunnel seriously, and in October, 1857, the contractors were forced to abandon the work for lack of funds. Operations were not resumed for a year and a half. Work was rushed, and August 2, 1S59, the workmen met in the two ends of the drift, and let daylight through the hill. The contractors were again in financial straits, and the two semi-monthly pay days having been passed in September, 1859, without the men receiving their wages, thev quit work September 16th, to the number of 500, and began rioting. They blockaded the Erie west of the tunnel by turning gravel cars upside down upon the tracks, and piling the road high with rocks and other obstructions. The barricades were guarded by scores of the rioters, and all efforts of the Com- pany to clear the tracks prevented. After traffic on the road had been suspended for a day, the Company was compelled to charter a steamboat and carry passengers to Piermont, which place for the time became once more the eastern terminus of the railroad for all through trains. On the third day of the insurrection, the workmen refusing to come to terms, the Company appealed to the authorities of Jersey City. They were unable to quell the riot or clear the tracks, and the Xew Jersey militia was called out. Sunday morn- eptember 19th, a large military force, under Brigadier- General Hatfield, accompanied by hundreds of citizens, man hed to the scene of the disturbance. Two large field pieces, mounted on a Hat car, were carried to the spot, but the rioters wel< omed the soldiers and the cannon with fierce derision. They hooted the efforts of a priest to quiet them. A strong force of police first man hed upon them. They beat the police back with many broken heads. General Hat- field then ordered his men to charge the crowd with fixed bayonets. The mob gave- way before the soldiers, and was soon flying in all directions. A large number of them were captured, many of them ring-leaders. They were taken to Hudson City and lodged in jail. The tracks were cleared, but toward evening the rioters began gathering again. Gen- eral Hatfield again marched against them, and captured thirty more of the mob. After that, quiet was restored. Work in the tunnel was not resumed, however, for a long time. Then A. B. Seymour assumed the contract, and operations once more began. The tunnel was completed early in 1861, and was formally opened to traffic February 6, 1861. From March, 1S59, until June, i860, the work was in charge of John P. Cumming, contractor, and J. P. Kirkwood, chief engineer. It was completed by A. B. Seymour, contractor, under the supervision of John Houston, engineer. Eight shafts were sunk eighty feet in depth. The tunnel was cut through solid rock 4,300 feet of the distance, or more than half way: Its height was twenty-three feet, width twenty-eight feet. The average number of men employed daily on the work was 700. Fifty-seven persons were killed during the tunnel construc- tion. The opening of the tunnel was made the occasion of a great celebration, the first train through being an excursion train. MAKING PAVONIA FERRY. January 7, 1733, George II. granted to Archibald Ken- nedy, Esq., the sole right to run ferry-boats or scows, and to erect wharves for same, between " a place called Pavonia, alias Ahasimus," on the New Jersey side of the Hudson, and the New York side of the river. Kennedy did not act upon his privileges, and forfeited them. March 23, 1753, citizens petitioned the Common Council of New York for a ferry from " the west end of Pearl Street to Harsimus." Nothing came of that. May 3, 1 765, Archibald Kennedy and Will- iam McAdam tried to get the exclusive right to run a ferry from New York to the New Jersey shore, but failed. April 13, 1 81 8, another petition of citizens of Xew York City was made for a ferry between Chambers Street and Harsimus. Nothing further was heard of it, and there was no Pavonia Ferry until the completion of the Bergen Tunnel for the Erie by the Long Dock Company in 1861, although a Pa- vonia Ferry Company had been incorporated February 28, 1849. The Erie Railway Company revived and established the Pavonia Ferry. It began business May 1, 1861, with three old boats, the " Niagara," " Onalaska," and " Onala," which were obtained from the Brooklyn ferries. The early new ferry-boats of the Erie were the "Pavonia," 1861 ; "Susquehanna," 1864; "Delaware," 1S65. The Twenty- third Street Ferry was established in May, 1868, and the Company built the following new boats : the " Jay Gould," 1869; "James Fisk, Jr.," 1869; "Erie," 1873. HOW IT GOT TO BUFFALO AND ROCHESTER. The steady advance of the Xew York and F'.rie Railroad into Western New York aroused intensely the people living to the north and south of it who were without any railroad THE STORY OF ERIE 361 connection, and a general desire for the building of railroads to form junctions with the Erie prevailed. The region be- tween Corning and Buffalo and Avon and Rochester were particularly exercised, because they had, until 1849, enter- tained strong hope that the New York and Erie Railroad would be permitted to follow the Cohocton and the Gene- see valleys, and from the Genesee proceed directly to Buffalo, and make that place its western terminus, a route having been surveyed over that course and found feasible. Roch- ester was then to obtain connection with such a road by the building of a railroad from that city to Avon. But the Erie took the route from Painted Post through the Canisteo Val- ley westward to Dunkirk, the chartered terminus. Then the people between Buffalo and Hornellsville took steps to have an independent railroad to connect with the Erie at Hor- nellsville. The Attica and Hornellsville Railroad Company was organized, there being already a railroad between Attica and Buffalo. When it came to the building of the road, however, the Attica and Hornellsville enterprise languished, and at last seemed to have passed into a state of total col- lapse. Then the people in the Genesee and Cohocton val- leys resolved to have a railroad that would connect Buffalo with the New York and Erie Railroad for their sole benefit. A route for one was surveyed, and also for a railroad to con- no t with it at Avon and extend to Rochester. The engi- neer's report being favorable (the connection with the Erie to be made at Painted Post, N. Y.h John Magee, of Bath, with others interested, consulted with the directors of the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad, for the puqjose of learning whether that company intended to proceed with its road, for it was not possible that the aid of Buffalo could be obtained for two railroads from that city to connect with the Erie. The result was that it was agreed to abandon the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad in favor of one by way of Painted Post, and citizens of Buffalo agreed to raise one-third of the cost of a railroad over that route. July 25, 1850, the Buffalo and Cohocton Valley Railroad Company was incorporated with a capita] of St, 400,000. John Magee was elected Pres- ident : Orson Phelps, Vice-President; Edward Howell, Jr., tary ; A. D. Patchin, Treasurer. In September follow- ing, however, the project of the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad was revived. This discouraged some of the prime movers in the Cohocton Valley route, but citizens of Living- ston and Genesee counties declared at public meetings that the roid from Batavia to Painted Post could be built inde- pendently of Buffalo, and went to work to do it. Many hum- ble citizens along the route mortgaged their homes and farms to get money to put into the stock, the mortgagees being in some cases officers or directors of the < ompany. The work was put under contract, and progressed steadily. March 3, 1852, the name of the company was changed to that of the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad Com- pany. The total cost of the railroad was to be Si, 706,000 without equipment, or S.1,950,000 with equipment. The construction cost was covered by the stock subscriptions, of which nearly S5oo,ooo had been paid in. Early in April, 1 85 2, for the declared purpose of raising funds to pay for the equipment of the railroad, the directors of the company mortgaged its property and franchises for Si, 000,000, to se- cure the payment of bonds for that amount to be issued by the company. The railroad was opened for operations be- tween Painted Post and Kennedvville, at the Livingston County line, April 13, 1852, a distance of forty-five miles. The issue of bonds had filled many of the stockholders along the line with apprehension. This feeling was made stronger when, in March, 1853, the directors executed a second mort- gage upon the franchises of the corporation for S6oo,ooo to secure an issue of bonds to that amount. The road was completed to Batavia in 1854, when work ceased. October 1, 1855, the company defaulted in the interest on its first mortgage bonds, and December 1, 1S55, on the coupons of the second mortgage bonds. Proceedings in foreclosure were begun. Many of the stockholders .believed tint this default was utterly uncalled for, and the result of collusion, for the purpose of throwing the company into bankruptcy and giving the bondholders, chief among whom were directors of the company, an opportunity to profit themselves by the sale of the road, regardless of all stoi k- holders' rights. Charges to that effect were made against the managers and directors, and the Board of Railroad Com- missioners was petitioned to investigate them. An investi- gation was ordered, and was begun August 13, 1856. A gen- eral denial was entered by the accused. No report wis ever made by the Railroad Commissioners as to their finding in this investigation. The reason for that was this: The Board of Railroad Commissioners, which had been in existence for two or three years, had proved to be extremely harassing to the railroads of the State, especially to the Erie and the Xew York Central. The Commissioners were clothed with much power, and were authorized to make close inquiries into all the details of railroad management in this State, and report to the Legislature and recommend legislation which seemed to them necessary to correct and improve such management. This was at times very incon- venient for boards of directors and railway officials, as it had a tendency to keep the public too well informed in regard to their ways and means. Dean Richmond was then the power in the New York Central Railroad Company, and Alexander S. Diven was a potent factor in the affairs of the Erie. In the fall of 1S56, Richmond, in an interview with Diven, sug- gested that it would be a good thing to do away with the inquisitive Railroad Commission, and intimated that he had a plan for repealing the act under which theywere organized. The Commissioners were paid good salaries by the State, and it was not at all likely that they would sit idly by while they were being shorn of their comfortable perquisites. Richmond suggested to Diven that the latter draft a bill that would re- peal the Railroad Commission Act, have it presented at the coming session of the Legislature, and he would do the rest. The bill was drafted, and during the ensuing session was in- troduced in the Assembly. No one appeared in opposition to it, much to the surprise of the legislators, and it was passed, y<- BETWEEN THE OCEAX AND THE LAKES was signed by the Governor, and the Board of Railroad Com- missioners passed out of existence. Dean Richmond had offered the Commissioners §25,000 not to oppose the repeal. A bird in the hand being worth two in the hush, theCommis- s accepted the bribe and were content. The New York and Erie Railroad Company refunded to the Central one- half the purse of consolation. This was about the time that Commissioner Swain was taking testimony in the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad investigation. Before the work was entirely done he had been legislated out of office, and there the matter rested. And there it rests to this day. The stockholders of the Buffalo, Coming and New York Railroad Company sought to prevent the foreclosure sale of the property in the courts, but the courts sustained the con- tentions of the bondholders. October 31, 1857, the railroad and all its franchises were sold for $3,000,000 for the benefit of the bondholders. Every dollar that had been invested along the line in the stock of the Company was swept away by that proceeding, and hosts of the small subscribers to the stock were mined — the homes of not a few being sold under mortgages that had been given to obtain money to take stock in the railroad — the larger stockholders having exchanged their stock for bonds, thus not only saving themselves from loss but making money on the transaction. The company that purchased the Buffalo, Coming and New York Railroad was the Buffalo and New York City Rail- road, the original Attica and Hornellsville, which was reor- ganized October 29, 1857, as the Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad Company. October 1, 1858, this company leased the Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad, extending from Avon to Rochester, eighteen miles, and which had been opened in 1854, connecting with the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad. The Attica and Hornellsville Railroad had been originally chartered May 14, 1845, to build a railroad from Attica to Hornellsville, which charter was extended in 1S49, with a provision that other railroad companies could take stock in the company. As stated above, work was begun on such a railroad in the fall of 1850. April 15, 185 1, the name of the company was changed to that of the Buffalo and New York City Railroad Company. The railroad was opened between Hornellsville and Portage, thirty miles, January 22, 1852, and owing to want of locomotives the company was able to run but one train a d ,_• eai h way. That train was drawn by the 1 notive " Orange," the famous Erie locomotive, which had been purchased from the Erie in October, 1851, for the work of construction on the new railroad. Anew locomotive was received Man h 22(1, and then the "Orange" was put to work hauling iron for the rest of the road. July 26th the railroad was finished to Attica, ninety miles. Trains had be- gun running in connection with the Erie at Hornellsville, May 3. lS 5 2 - A brilliant feat of engineering was performed in carrying this railroad over the great chasm through which the Genesee River passes at Portage, a chasm 250 feet deep and 900 feet wide. How to bridge it was a puzzle to the engineering science of that day, and not until a congress of engineers was called was the definite plan of building this one-time wonder of the world in bridge architecture decided. It was built entirely of wood, in fifty-foot spans, with a height of 230 feet above the river. The bridge was nearly two years in building, and took the product of over 300 acres of closely grown pine lands, amounting to 1,600,000 feet of timber, 106,280 pounds of iron, and cost $175,000. The bridge was completed August 9, 1852. The locomotive "Orange," which had been used in the construction of the railroad, drew the first train across — four cars filled with people. Among them were Governor Hunt and Lieut. -Governor Patterson, of New York ; Benjamin Loder, President of the Erie ; ami President Heywood, of the Buffalo and New York City Rail- road. The event was made a great celebration. This bridge was used until the spring of 1875, when it was destroyed by fire. In forty-seven days from the burning of the old bridge trains were passing over the present spider-like iron structure. This bridge, 850 feet in length, is broken up into spans varying from 113 feet to 50 feet. The Portage Bridge is one of the famous attractions to the tourist over the Erie, and to the local pleasure excursionists. The Buffalo and New York City Railroad had a hard time to exist. Early in 1854 the financial condition of the com- pany was such that a committee representing the bond and stockholders and creditors of the company was appointed to investigate its affairs and report some plan by which it might be placed on a substantial footing. Pending the result of this investigation, the committee learned that Aaron D. Patchin, president of the company, had been made the lessee of the railroad and its property by the board of direct- ors, May 20, 1854, he having purchased, March 21st pre- viously, the rolling stock, which was sold under foreclosure of a chattel mortgage, and which had cost $275,000, for $10,000, and held it in his own name. The Erie had been operating the road, and improved it greatly. By the terms of Patchin's lease he was to pay to the company monthly what was left of the gross receipts of the railroad after he had paid himself 10 per cent, from them, and all the ex- penses of the railroad. This arrangement discouraged the investigating committee, and December n, 1854, the rail- road was sold under foreclosure, and the property was pur- chased by Patchin, who continued to run the railroad during 1855. In 1856 the Erie operated the road again, and spent $75,000 in repairs. January 1, 1S57, the railroad was sold under foreclosure, and was purchased by Patchin again. At the last reorganization, when the company became the Buf- falo, New York and Erie Railroad Company, in October, 1857, and purchased the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad, it seemed to have a future. It finished that rail- road from Batavia to Buffalo, and ran it as a connection of the Erie, in a haphazard, unsatisfactory manner, until 1863, when the Erie Railway Company leased it for 450 years, at a rental guarantee of the interest on its bonds at 7 per cent. per annum, the leasing Company to stock, operate and main- tain the road at its own expense. The Erie also leased the THE STORY OF ERIE 36; Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad, and thus the new acquisition became known as the Rochester Branch of the Erie, and until the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Rail- road Company extended its line through that country to Buffalo and Rochester, in 1880, and became a competitor of the Krie for tne traffic of that region, the Erie conducted the Rochester Branch in a manner better calculated to di patronage away from it than to attract business to it. The railroad came into the possession of the Eric by the reor- ganization plan of 1895, and is now part of the property of the Erie system, with the official designation of the Rochester Division. In 1S61, however, the Buffalo, New York and Erie Rail- road, between Hornellsville and Attica, had become perma- nently a part of the Erie system (" Administration of Nathaniel Marsh, Receiver," page 134), and the Erie, by its lease of the railroad between Painted Post and Buffalo, secured a ter- minus at Buffalo for all time, and any hope that Dunkirk might have had of being eventually made great by the Erie disappeared forever. The first superintendent of the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad was Jared A. Redfield ; of the Buffalo and New York City Railroad, Silas Seymour. THE NYPANO. In 1836, in anticipation that the New York and Erie Rail- road would be constructed, and that it would pass through the valley of Casadaga Creek, in Western New York, citizens of Chautauqua County obtained a charter for a company to build a railroad from a point near the junction of the Casa- daga Creek and the Chautauqua Lake outlet, upon the line of the New York and Erie (which had been surveyed to run near the village of Jamestown), to the western boundary of the State, in the direction of Erie, Pa., a railroad being then in contemplation from the State line through Pennsylvania to Erie Harbor. But the troubles of the New York and Erie Railroad Company at that early stage of its existence dashed the Weste n New York people's hopes of the coming of the railroad from the Last, and that pioneer project for a rail- id to give the Erie a link toward connection with the West was abandoned. The opening of the Erie to Dunkirk in 1S51, how aroused interest anew for railroad communication, the later surveys of the Erie route having left Jamestown thirty-four miles distant from that railroad, although the first meeting to the building of a railroad between the Hudson River and Dike Erie was held at Jamestown in 1831, and the first notice of application for a charter for sin h a railroad adopted at thai meeting and published. The result was the anizing of the Erie and New York City Railroad at James- town, June 30, 1S51, to build a railroad from what is now West Salamanca, through Randolph and Jamestown, to the Pennsylvania State line. The work was not begun until May 1 0, 1853. It was abandoned January 5, 1855, for lack of funds. Before this project of the Erie and New York City Rail- road had developed, however, Marvin Kent of Franklin, Trumbull County, Ohio, conceived the idea of connecting the then nearly or quite constructed Erie with the embryo Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, by one direct six-foot road. He was proprietor of a glass works, a woollen factory, a flour- ing fai tory, et ., at Franklin, ami was then constructing a cot- ton factory. He wanted railroad connections, and March io, 1851, procured a charter from the Ohio Legislature for a railroad he had in mind. When the charter was introdui ed in the legislature, the title of the proposed railroad was given as "The Coal Hill Railroad," a ruse to repel the lobby sharks, whom a revelation of the real nature and extent of the enterprise might have summoned to impede or blackmail the undertaking. Nobody cared about or thought of " The Coal Hill Road," but on its third reading, and just before its passage, the name was quietly changed to "The Franklin and Warren Railroad Company." This was one of the very last charters granted under the old Constitution of Ohio and it gave authority to build a railroad from Franklin to Warren, in that State, and to extend it eastward to the State line, and southwesterly to Dayton. Under this charter the Franklin and Warren Railroad Company was organized. Work on the railroad was begun in July, 1S53. Henry Doolittle and W. S. Streater were the contractors. In September the Com- pany, under authority of an act of the General Assembly of Ohio (January 12, 1853), changed its name to The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company. Marvin Kent was the first president. The ultimate object of the projection of this work was communication with New York and Eastern markets by con- nection with some through line in that State. The Erie was open between Dunkirk and New York, and the New York Central had come into existence on the consolidation of the five local railroads between Albany and Buffalo. But to form any connection with either of those trunk lines it was necessary that the Ohio interests should have a rail- road through Pennsylvania, and that was not an easy thing for a foreign corporation to secure in those days. The Pennsylvania Railroad was completed from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and work was in progress from Pittsburg to Cleveland. The Sunbury and Erie Railroad was projected from Sunbury to Erie Harbor, and the Pittsburg and Erie Railroad from Pittsburg to Erie. Neither of these lines was yet built. There was no railroad acr< -tate of Pennsylvania between Ohio and New York, and such transit was jealously guarded against by the selfish interests of Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Erie. Railroad charters in Pennsylvania could only lie granted by legislative enactn and all legislation was controlled by the united interests of those cities. Many attempts had been made to pass the barrier by open and covert attempts in the legislature, without avail. The decision had gone out that all land commerce to and from the East, through Pennsylvania, must pass by way of Pittsburg and Philadelphia. This was the embarrassing dilemma the projectors of the 3 6 4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Atlantic and Great Western undertaking were in, when it was found that under the liberal privileges of the Pittsburg and Railroad Company's charter as to the construction of brandies of the main line, a branch could be constructed from the Ohio line, near Kinsman, across Pennsylvania to point in Warren County at the New York State line. To further the interests of its own railroad project, the Phila- delphia and Erie Company was willing to permit the building of such a branch by Meadville interests under its charter. i ), i.ibcr.S, [852, a meeting of representatives of various railroad interests was held at the American Hotel, Cleveland, ["he Mahoning Railroad Company was represented by Jacob Perkins, president ; the Clinton Line Railroad by Prof. H. N. Day, president ; the Franklin and Warren Railroad Company by Judge Kinsman, Marvin Kent, Dr. Earle, and Mr. Boyer; the Cleveland and Ashtabula by Judge Humphreys ; the Erie and New York City by Judge Benjamin Chamberlain ; the Pittsburg and Erie by Dr. William Gibson, David Garver, and E. Sankey; and the Meadville interests by William Reynolds and D. A. Finney. The object of the meeting was the consideration of the proposition of the Philadelphia and Erie as to the branch through Pennsylvania. As the New York connection naturally was to be by way of the New York and Erie Railroad, a committee consisting of Prof. H. N. Day, E. Sankey, Henry Doolittle, Judge Church, and William Reynolds of Meadville, was appointed to confer with President Loder of the Erie. The conference took place October 26th. As a result, the Erie made, at its own expense, a preliminary survey in Pennsylvania to ascertain the character of the route of the proposed branch, which was so vital to the interests involved. Thus it was that the Erie's association with the Atlantic and Great Western began even before that railroad itself had a beginning. The report on the route was satisfactory. On August 19, 1853, ground was broken with much ceremony at Meadville, and work was begun. This contract was abandoned after a few miles had been graded. The Erie had held out the hope that it would be able to give some financial aid to the enterprise, but its own financial straits prevented. April 3, 1857, the Mead- ville Railroad Company was chartered by the Legislature of Pennsylvania to build a railroad from Meadville to Erie, Pa., and was vested with the right to receive from the Pittsburg and Erie Company a transfer of the latter's branching privileges. This opened a way for the route from Ohio to New York. July 13, 1857, the Company was organized. William Reynolds was chosen president. July 23, 1857, the Pittsburg and Erie Company made sale and transfer of its branching privileges to the Meadville Railroad Company for $400,000. July 27th, the transfer was ratified by the Mead- ville Railroad Company, and a contract made with A. C. Morton, for the construction of the railroad. August 31st, Morton made a < onstruc tion contract with the Erie and New York City Railroad, and he and Henry Doolittle went to Europe to push negotiations for money and iron. A deed of trust was executed for that purpose, and bonds prepared to the amount of $2,500,000. Then the memorable panic of 1S57 came on, and the money was not forthcoming. Morton and Doolittle returned home. Morton was unable to go on with his contract, and it was cancelled ; and April 16, 1858, another one was closed with Henry Doolittle and W. S. Streator. April 15, 1858, by a supplement of the charter of the Meadville Railroad Company, the name was changed to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of Penn- sylvania. The infant project of 185 1 was taking on pro- portions that required stupendous effort to sustain it. Investors at home were timid. Foreign money and in- fluence alone could keep the project alive. Recognizing this necessity, the Ohio and Pennsylvania companies appointed C. L. Ward, Henry Doolittle, and William Reynolds to visit Europe, with full powers to negotiate for the sale of bonds and the purchase of iron. Ward and Doolittle went to England, and there made contracts with James McHenry to furnish money and iron for the contract. Such was the coming of McHenry into the enterprise, the future of which was to involve him and it and the Erie in such a labvrinth of costly trouble, and to feed the great lawyers and courts and legislatures and money lenders with millions that should have either been left in the pockets of confiding investors or over in the treasuries of the companies concerned. The arrangement made with James McHenry was condi- tional, the condition being that T. W. Kennard, an eminent railroad engineer connected with the house of McHenry, should, on examination, approve the enterprise. In November, 1858, Kennard came to America as the representative of McHenry and other European interests. He went over the entire line of the railroad, and made a favorable report to London. In July of that year Salamanca, of Madrid, a Spanish nobleman, placed one million of Atlantic and Great Western bonds in that country. In 1859 the company saw the necessity and advantage of a greater consolidation of interests. It had as yet no organi- zation in New 7 York ; so, under the provision of the general railroad law of the State, such an organization was perfected May 7, 1859, under the name of the Atlantic and Great West- em Railroad Company of New York. William Reynolds, of Meadville, Pa., was elected president by a strong Board of Directors, among them Gaylord Church, James J. Shryock, John Dick, A. V. Allen, and William Hall. The first impor- tant move of this company, after executing a contract of mutual guarantee of the bonds of the three separate com- panies, was the purchase, by legislative authority, of the line of the Erie and New York City Railroad, and the making of a contract for construction with Henry Doolittle and W. S. Streator, James McHenry contracting to make sale of the bonds of the company. Work was begun in May, i860, and the road opened to Jamestown September 11, i860, and to Corry May 7, 1861. But then financial difficulty obtruded itself again in the way of the work, and further operations along the line were suspended. The Civil War had come upon the country, absorbed popular interest, and disarranged plans in general. Another call for foreign aid for the rail- THE STORY OF ERIE 565 road was decided upon, and in August, 1861, Henry A. Kent and William Reynolds were appointed by the three companies, with T. W. Kennard, to visit Europe to solicit such aid. The Committee visited London, and, with James McHenry, went to Paris to see tbe bankers of Duke Rien- zares and Queen Christina, and thence to Madrid to see Salamanca, in the interest of the mission. All questions were satisfactorily adjusted for renewal of the work on the rail- road, when the cloud of war with England raised by the seizure of the mail steamer Trent by Commodore Wilkes again brought matters to a stand, and it was far into 1862 before work was resumed. March 12, 1862, for greater convenience of the companies. the general control was placed under a central board of two directors from each of the companies. It was made up as follows : The Ohio Board, Marvin Kent and W. S. Streator; the Pennsylvania Board, William Reynolds, John Dick ; the New York Board, A. F. Allen, T. W. Kennard. William Reynolds, President of the Board. During this same year the line to Franklin was contracted for by James McHenry. This was subsequently extended to Oil City, to which place it was completed in June, 1S64, being the first railroad into the oil regions. In February, 1863, Sir Morton Peto became interested with James McHenry in the affairs of the Atlantic and Great Western. In July, 1863, the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad was leased for ninety-nine years by the Atlantic and Great West- em, and an additional rail laid thereon, so as to give the hit- ler a broad track into Cleveland. The opening of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway to Cleveland, " completing the broad-guage connection be- tween the Atlantic and the lakes," was celebrated at Cleve- land November 18, 1863. Great embarrassment was, of course, constantly present in the prosecution of the work, as a result of the war and the great premium on gold ; yet, in the face of all the difficulties, the work was brought to a successful termination, and the list spike was driven connecting the Atlantic and Great Western with the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad at Dayton, June 20, 1864. On this memorable occasion the three companies were represented by their officers, and a banquet was given by S. S. L'Hommedieu, president, and A. Mi I,aren, superintendent, of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and I >ayton. The completion of the Atlantic and Great Western made a broad-gauge connection from New York to St. Louis, a six- foot gauge having been laid on the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton to Cincinnati. President Reynolds's connection with the enterprise was terminated October 1, 1S64, after the work of twelve years. He resigned because of the desperate financial condition of the Company, and the impossibility of controlling the expen- ditures of the European parties at interest. During the early- years of the enterprise the control was with the American boards, and the business was carefully managed, but as the work progressed the European association found increasing difficulties in negotiating securities, and, in contravention of express instructions, hypothecated large amounts of the bonds. This was the beginning of a perpetual financial trouble. The war, the stoppage of specie payments, the high rate of exchange and price of gold, were factors which had not been taken into account at the commence- ment of the work. However this may have been, the com- panies were not satisfied with the manner of expenditures, which they regarded as in many cases extravagant. But as the foreigners were furnishing all the money it was a difficult matter to control. William Reynolds was succeeded as president of tin- At- lantic and Great Western Railroad Company by James Robb, formerly a New Orleans banker. He was in offii e but three months, when he resigned, for the same reasons that had led President Reynolds to resign. He was succeeded by S. S. L'Hommedieu, but the burden of the foreign contingent was too great to be borne, and the Company went into the hands of a receiver, April 1, 1867. The receiver was Robert B. Potter, of New York. The railroad was operated under his direction until December, 1S6S, when the Erie Railway Com- pany leased it for a term of twelve years, the minimum annual rental to be Si, 800,000, which was to be increased by whatever sum 30 per cent, of the net earnings of the railroad would yield. Jay Gould was then President of the Erie. James McHenry brought another suit for foreclosure, but he was now dealing with men who were past masters in the art of legal manipulation when it came to receiverships, and be- fore McHenry had moved beyond the preliminary steps in his suit, Judge Barnard, in April, 1869, had acted on the motion of Gould, and appointed Gould and W. A. O'Doherty re- ceivers of the Atlantic and Great Western. This receivership was transferred to Reuben Hitchcock, of Cleveland, in No- vember, 1869. In February, 1X70, a second lease of the railroad was made to the Erie, pending foreclosure. The sale under foreclosure occurred October 2, [871, and the property was purchased by Gen. George B. McClellan and William butler Duncan, with others. The company was reorganized under the name of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of New York. November 7, 1S71, it was consol- idated with the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Com- pany of Pennsylvania, under the name of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of New York and Penn- sylvania. November 20, 1871, these were consolidated with the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of Ohio, under the old name of the Atlantic and Great Western Rail- road Company. In the organization General McClellan was elected presi- dent. He was succeeded by J. 11. Devereaux, of Cleveland. The property had now virtually passed into the absolute possession of M< Henry and foreign bankers, and it « is the power they possessed through it that led to the "rescue" of the Erie Railway Company from the control of Jay Gould, in 1872. While Peter H. Watson was President of the F.rie, and near the close of his administration, in May. 1S74, ;66 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES McHenry ded in leasing the Atlantic and Great n Railroad to the Erie for ninety-nine years, on terms generous to the lessor. This lease was repudiated by Presi- dent fewett, who succeeded Watson at the head of Erie. December i<>, 1X74. the Atlantic and Great Western went into t: <>f a receiver again— J. H. Devereaux— and the long, tedious, costly Jewett-McHenry, McHenry-Jewett to make scandalous chapters in the history of both companies. In lanuarv, 1SS0, the property was again sold at fore- closure to five trustees, who represented the old security 1 who organized the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company. By this arrangement the Company was 1 ontrolled by the bondholders in England. |. H. Devereaux was elected president of the new com- pany, and the offices were removed from Meadville to Cleve- land. In 1880 the gauge of six feet was changed to the standard gauge. The capitalization in 1875 was #108,687,602, -'8,000 per mile. In 18,80 it was ^132,500,000, or s;i 5,128 pei mile. In 1894 it was £169,473, 168, or $395,000 per mile. March 6, 1883, the railroad was leased by the Erie, under Hugh I. fewett ("Administration of Hugh J. Jewett," page 262), Jan is M. Adams then being president of the lessor company, and February 24, 1896, the property was sold under foreclosure, at Akron, O., by Receiver John Todd, and was purchased by representatives of the Erie Railroad Company, to which company it was transferred (" Adminis- tration of Eben B. Thomas," page 283), and it began, with the Erie, an unharassed career at last. James McHenry was the son of a well-known physician of Lame, Country Antrim, Ireland, who came to this country in 1S1 7 when James was but six weeks old. He settled at Philadelphia, where he practised his profession successfully for many years. The son grew to manhood in that city. While yet a youth he became clerk to a large mercantile house there, and in time a member of the firm. The death of his father in 1845 placed him in possession of resources ample to set in operation a scheme he had long contem- plated—the establishing in Great Britain of a market for the sale of American products in that country. He pushed the project without delay, and founded a house at Liverpool. He is credited with having been the first to import to Eng- land American butter and cheese. The venture was so 1 11I that consignments from this country to the house of Mi Henry iV Co. frequently reached the enormous quan- tit) of twenty shiploads a day. But notwithstanding the perity of the house, financial disaster over- took it within a year, and its creditors compromised at a ruts in the dollar. McHenry engaged in other ts, and was so successful that within a few years he paid the debts of McHenry & Co. in full, although he was not legally bound to do so. When the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, whose subsequent career had so much to do with the difficulties and scandals that are a large part of the history of Erie, was projected, James McHenry became interested in it, and had no difficulty in inducing abundant English capital to invest in the enterprise. He took the contract for the construc- tion of the railroad on such terms that he was able, sub- sequently, to acquire absolute ownership of it. His idea throughout was to make it a necessarv possession of the Erie Railway Company on conditions that would relieve him of its complications. The story of the results of his efforts toward accomplishing such an end is told in the chapters on the administrations of Jay Gould, Peter H. Watson, and Hugh J. Jewett. The Duke of Salamanca, the financial adviser of Queen Isabella of Spain, had subscribed largely, at McHenry's request, toward the building of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. After the Spanish Revolution, Queen Isabella and her son Alfonso found refuge at McHenry's splendid home, Oak Lodge, Kensington, London. It was through McHenry's efforts that Henri Bischoffscheim, the London banker, became financially interested in the resto- ration, and the two men provided the funds which helped place Alfonso to the Spanish throne. There also existed a strong friendship between McHenry and Emperor Napoleon III., and when the Empress Eugenie and the Prince Imperial fled to England, after the downfall of the Empire in 1S70, it was at Oak Lodge that they found welcome shelter and unbounded hospitality. The Prince Imperial was educated at Woolwich, and McHenry willingly became interested in schemes looking toward the restoration of the Empire, with the young prince at its head. These schemes were in progress when the final blow to the restora- tion was given by the death of the Prince Imperial in Eng- land's Zulu war. James McHenry numbered among his close friends many distinguished Americans as well as foreigners. His nature was generous and sympathetic. It was in a burst of gen- erosity that he purchased the magnificent estate at Glen Cove, L. I., and presented it to his then friend and adviser, S. L. M. Barlow, later so conspicuous in the Erie-Atlantic and Great Western entanglements. In personal appearance James McHenry was not unlike that of his persistent foe, Hugh J. Jewett. A prominent nose, heavy jaws, and firmly set lips gave to his smooth- shaven face an appearance of unusual strength. His manner was earnest at all times, but courtesy marked it through- out. He died March 27, 1891. THE BRADFORD BRA?\"CH. The Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad Company had its originas the Buffalo and Pittsburg Railroad Company, which was organized at the Tifft House, Buffalo, N. Y., October 13, 1852, under the general railroad law of New York State. Orlando Allen was elected president. The pur- pose of the company was to construct a railroad that would connect Buffalo with the semi-bituminious coal fields of THE STORY OF ERIK 567 Northern Pennsylvania. Contracts for grading a section of the road between Ellicottville and the Pennsylvania line into the valley of the Tunungawant, and for the mad from Elli< ott- ville to Buffalo, fifty miles, was let, but the work was soon abandoned. March 14, 1856, the Buffalo and Bradford Railroad Company was chartered by the Pennsylvania Legis- lature, to build a railroad from the New York State line, in the valley of the Tunungawant Creek, up the valley to the coal mines in Lafayette township, McKean County, Pa., with the privilege of constructing lateral lines in the counties of McKean, Elk, and Clearfield, and to intersect with the Sunbury and Erie Railroad and Allegheny Valley Railro the railroad to be begun in ten years. Daniel Kingsbury, who owned large tracts of what he believed to be valuable coal lands in that region, which was then an undeveloped wilderness, was the projector of and principal stockholder in the company, which was organized with Kingsbury as presi- dent. Frank Williams was chief engineer. Augustus \V. Newell, still living in Bradford, was of the engineer corps of that pioneer railroad in Northern Pennsylvania. His remi- niscent es of the work, as related to the author of this history, are interesting : " We commenced the survey very early in the spring of 1856, the snow in the hemlock swamps, the heavy down tim- ber, and dense underbrush rendering the work almost impos- sible. There were ver) few settlers, and of very little means, living in small log houses, except in the villages. The roads up the valley were almost impassable, and a bob-sled drawn by a pair of oxen was a conveyance common in summer as well as winter. 1 was assistant engineer; or, in other words, I did the work. Every centre stake and every level was set by me from Brie Junction, now- Carrollton, to Bradford. Our first contractors were King & Loomis, and afterward John S. King, who graded the mad to Bradford and seven miles up the West Branch. " We got the rails laid to Bradford. The ' Orange ' was the first locomotive. We had an engineer, fireman, express . and one or two brakemen, and I think several con- ductors. The receipts did not pay the running expenses, and the trains were discontinued after a few weeks. I did not get my pay for services on the road (and never did). "The road was abandoned for a time, and briers and weeds grew up the whole length of it. I bought a hand-car and tried to make a living that way, and that was work. Then I took a set of wheels and boxes from a gravel car and made a red platform car. Upon this, after much difficulty, I placed a little five-inch single-cylinder engine, formerly used in drilling oil wells, connecting it by a belt to a pulley on the axle. To the surprise of all. 1 made it wink, and I made it pay. 1 1. ni this engine about one and a half years. I was 'busted,' a bankrupt, and mighty few friends ; but $10 z and upwards that I made running my train soon brought them back and brought the road into notice. "My old friend Charles Minor, Superintendent of the Erie, I took over the road. He enjoyed the trip heartily. I le and his friends in the Erie bought out the company, putting me in as one of the new directors. We then changed the road to its present location. I continued to operate the road on shares for a year or more, employing my own men, until my contract expired, when a conductor named Kerr took the train. Joe Haggerty was engineer. He was a brother-in-law t H. G. Brooks. " 1 laniel Kingsbury was an uncle of mine, and was the sole owner of the road at the time the Erie, or its offii ers, rather, bought it. The present coal beds now owned and worked by the Erie were a part of his lands. He failed to get an outlet during his lifetime." In 1859 the buffalo and Bradford Railroad and the Buffalo and Pittsburg Railroad companies were consolidated under the title of the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad Company. In 1863, the railroad then being built as far as the hamlet Littleton (now the city of Bradford), Samuel Marsh, Vice-President of the Erie; Charles Minot, Superin- 1* f I 1 NI W'l.II.'s PIONEER TRAIN' (INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR). DRAWN FROM A SKETCH BY MR. NEW I I I . tendent of the Erie ; John Arnott, Dorman B. Eaton, and others interested in the Erie management, believed there was a future in the wilderness railroad, and purchased it for a song from Daniel Kingsbury. They extended the road to Buttsville, Pa., and leased the operating of it to A. W. Newell, the Erie furnishing the rolling stock, as above stated by Mr. Newell, and with the result mentioned. In 1866 the pur- chasers of the railroad, the expected developments in coal and mineral not having been made, and all of the pn >| being Dire< tors in the 1 rie, disposed of the property by per- petual lease to the Erie, on terms that netted them a small fortune each. How the stock of the road was used by 1 lan- iel Drew in his Erie stock manipulations is told on page 1 49 of this history. In 1873 ulc '•"^'' P ur< nase "' ' "•'' ' ! '' the region was made by the Erie, and in 1875 the Bradford region became the Me. 1 a of oil producers, and for ten years was the petroleum centre of the world. The Bradford branch of the Erie at once became the most valuable collateral property the Erie had. Under the Jewett administration the railroad was extended to Johnsonburg ;' the great Kinzua \ iadui t was built in 1882, and the railroad that was alone in an unbroken wilderness a few years before, became the main ;68 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES thoroughfare in a region populous and productive. It enjoys the dignity now of being a division of the Erie (the Bradford ion) with a Superintendent all its own. A RAILROAD WITH A MIS>IM; LINK. The Honesdale Branch (which is the nine miles of railroad between Hawley and Honesdale, in Wayne County, Pa.) and the Jefferson Division of the Erie are parts of a railroad for the building of which a company was chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature April 23, 185 1. What should be another part of the railroad never got any farther along than the survey between the Lackawaxen Valley at Honesdale and th.- headwaters of the Starucca Creek, between Carbondale an 1 Lanesboro, Pa. Why the railroad should be called the " [efferson Railroad," there being no county or town or strerm or locality through which it runs or was intended to run that bears or ever did bear the name of Jefferson, is fre- quently a source of curious inquiry, and no one who ever made the inquiry has had his question answered, for the reason that for years only one person living has known the answer to it, and he never happened to be the person of whom the inquiry was made. As the history of the Jefferson Railroad is virtually a part of the early and later history of Krie, its storv, in itself interesting, belongs to this chronicle. When the necessity for the Erie to enter Pennsylvania with its railroad became apparent to the Company more than fifty years ago (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages 87 to 90), the people of Wayne County, Pa., knowing that the Susquehanna Valley could be reached by a much shorter route through the interior of that county than by the one from Lackawaxen through the Delaware Valley, made vigorous effort to induce the Company to adopt that route, the saving in distance being estimated at from seventeen to twenty miles. Meetings of the people were held and addressed by prom- inent men, to awaken an interest in the matter that would have its influence on the Erie and on the Legislature. For reasons then misunderstood, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company opposed the movement. It sent its friends and employees to the various meetings, and by them every plan that was proposed in favor of the Erie route was voted down, thus giving the meetings an appearance of hostility to the measure. By this means the first application of the Erie, in 1845, for f'g 111 of way through Pike County, Pa., was rejected in the Legislature, the Senator from the Wayne and Pike district being the Hon. William H. Dimmick, who was also the attorney of the Canal Company. Charles S. Minor, a leading lawyer of Honesdale, saw the advantage to that region of the coming of the railroad into and through it, and resolved to bring it about if it could be done. In 1846, however, the opposition by the Canal Company to the Erie getting entrance into Pennsylvania was withdrawn. The en- abling act was passed, but permitted the railroad to be built only through a part of Pike County, which would carry the railroad on up the Delaware. Mr. Minor was still determined to help the Erie to a way through Wayne County if possible. When the term of Senator Dimmick expired, Mr. Minor drew up a charter for a company to be known as the Jefferson Railroad Company, and the reason he called it the "Jeffer- son" Company was to avoid all opposition to the measure, having taken his idea from the Washington Railroad Com- pany, which had been then recently chartered. " I believed," says Mi. Minor, who is still (1898), although an octogenarian, in the practice of his profession at Honesdale, " that if the people in this section saw a notice of the bill they would think it appertained to Jefferson County ; while if the people of Jefferson County noticed it they would see that it was nothing that affected them ; and thus the bill passed without attracting any attention." But by the time the charter was passed the Erie had been extended through the Delaware Valley into the Susquehanna Valley, and was well on toward completion to Dunkirk. A survey of the route from Honesdale to the Susquehanna was made and found feasible, there being no grade exceeding fifty feet to the mile, and the distance between Lackawaxen and Susquehanna being twenty miles shorter than the Dela- ware Valley route. President Loder, of the Erie, having verified the survey, declared to Mr. Minor and Francis B. Penniman, who had waited upon Mr. Loder to ascertain whether the advantages of the Wayne County route would not warrant the Erie in building the railroad anyhow, that if the Erie could have gone through Wayne County originally it would have been greatly to its advantage. " But the road is now built along the Delaware," said he, " and we have no money to build another through Wayne County. At some time in the future, however, it will probably be desirable to build a road on that route." It was necessary to raise money to pay the tax 1 on the Jefferson charter, in order to obtain articles of incorporation, and under the circumstances there was some doubt in the minds of its sponsors whether the charter was worth it. The Hon. Thomas H. R. Tracy was a man of considerable local authority in the management of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company then, and Messrs. Minor and Penniman resolved to consult with him on the subject. It is generally the belief to this day that the Canal Company fought the coming of the Erie into that region because it feared the railroad as a rival in the coal traffic, but, according to the revelation made by Judge Tracy to Minor and Penniman, such was not the actual cause of that opposition. When the custodians of the Jefferson charter asked Judge Tracy whether it would be advisable to pay the tax on it, he said : " By all means ! And if the amount of the tax is any con- sideration, the Canal Company will pay it, for we shall have occasion to use the road to send off coal one of these days. We were never opposed to the railroad. When the Erie road proposed to come into the Ctate we were afraid the idea would go forth that it was aiming at the coal fields, and that would put up the price of coal lands. All we wanted was one year in which to buy coal lands, so we fought off the Erie the first year, bought coal lands, and then withdrew all our opposition. We are in favor of your road." THE STORY OF ERIE 369 Mr. Tracy paid the tax on the account of the Canal Com- pany, and from that time that company was friendly to the enterprise, but nothing was done toward it, and the charter lapsed. The Washington Coal Company charter of 1849 was a revival of a charter granted by the Pennsylvania Legislature in [839 (April 13). At the same time the Pennsylvania Coal Company was chartered, and the two companies combined. The name was changed to that of the Pennsylvania Coal Company in 1850, and the gravity railroad from Pittston and 1 lunmore, Pa., tc Hawley, Pa., was built for the transporta- tion of coal from the Company's mines. For years the coal was transported to market from Hawley in the boats of the 1 lelaware and Hudson Canal Company, resulting in the fre- quent clashing of interests between the two companies, and in a lawsuit that was twenty years in the courts and cost each company many hundreds of thousands of dollars. To have its business on a more profitable and independent basis, the Pennsylvania Coal Company began the building of a railroad from the terminus of its gravity road at Hawley to a connection with the Hrie at Lackawaxen, sixteen miles. This was in i860. The railroad was opened December, 1863, and was leased by the Krie, and became part of that system under the name of the Hawley Branch. This connected the Penn- sylvania Coal Company's mines with its storage docks at Newburgh, via the main line of the Hrie and the Xewburgh branch. In 1884 the gravity railroad was abandoned, a locomotive railroad, the Erie and Wyoming, having been built by the Pennsylvania Coal Company between Hawley and Dunmore (Scranton), to connect with the Hrie and take the place of the gravity railroad. The first coal car on the Hawley Branch was loaded De- cember 14, 1863. Passenger cars were attached to the two coal trains that were run. James Frantz was the engineer and Charles Gorham conductor of the first train into Hawley with passenger car attached, in December, 1863. The building of the Hawley Branch of the Erie had the effect of arousing interest in the long-forgotten Jefferson Railroad scheme. March 13, 1863, the charter was revived, with an amendment authorizing the building of a branch from a point on the original survey at the Starucca Summit in Wayne County south to Carbondale Lanesboro, Pa., having been the point of junction of the railroad with the Erie fixed in the charter. Authority was given the company in 1S64 to make junction, also, with the main line elsewhere if desired. That portion of the Jefferson Railroad between Hawley and the terminus a mile below Honesdale was built in 1S67-68, and opened for business July 13, 1868. The building of that part of it from Carbondale to the Erie main line was begun April 15, 1S69, under an arrangement by which the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was to provide the funds to build it, and the Erie was to operate it after it was built. Henry A. Fonda was the contractor ("Administration of Peter 11. Watson," page 216), and he (hanged the original route of the railroad so that the intent of the projectors of the road was lost, or made difficult and improbable. This was the building of the link from Honesdale to the Summit, at the headwaters of Starucca (reek in Wayne County. The protests of the directors of the Jefferson Company were of no avail, for the contractor had the support of Thomas Dickson, President of the Canal Company, and the Canal Company was furnishing the money to build the road. The railroad was made of greater length, (rooked, and of very heavy grades by this ■ hinge. Among the other costly and delaying obstacles in. ountered was the " sink-hole" near Ararat Summit. The rails had been put down, and cars had run over that stretch of track, when one night a quarter of a mile of the track and road-bed disappeared entirely, and a great quagmire occupied the place. Into this pit 10,000 carloads of gravel — about 100,000 tons — and 500 large hemlock trees, branches and all, were thrown without having any perceptible effect toward forming a bottom upon which a new road-bed could be founded. Then four piles, each forty feet long, were driven down, one on top of the other, before solid bottom was reached, showing the depth of the unstable spot to be 160 feet. A row of piles was driven, in the manner of the test piles, on both sides of the space required for the road-bed. They were driven close together, so close that the work required nearly 8,000 of them. These prevented the escape of anything dumped into the enclosure. For four months gravel, rocks, and forest trees entire, were thrown into the pit before the all-absorbing morass was overcome. Acres of hemlock forest were levelled to supply the trees, of which 1,500 from 50 to 100 feet high, and with a spread of branches sometimes of twenty-five feet, were used. An ad- jacent gravel hill, fifty feet high and covering four acres, was levelled to obtain material for building up this remarkable road-bed, and rocks weighing many tons each were tumbled into the depths before a solid way was made across it. The railroad was completed in October, 1870, and by an arrangement made with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company and Jefferson Railroad Company the same vear, the Jefferson Railroad passed into the possession of the Erie by purchase of the stock, the F>ie to reimburse the Canal Company for its advances in building the railroad, and the Erie is now the owner of the road by sui h stock control. The Jefferson Railroad proper is legally the line from Lanes- boro, Pa., to Starucca, and that from Starucca to Carbondale is a branch, and the track from Jefferson Junction to Sus- quehanna is another branch, although the line from Susque- hanna to Carbondale is the actual Jefferson Division of the Frie. The Delaware and Hudson Railroad runs over this railroad from Lanesboro to Carbondale, that link being part of the Pennsylvania Division of that railroad. So the Jefferson Railroad, which might have been a portion of the F>ie main line to the Erie's profit and advantage, is to this day an incomplete railroad. It never even got all the way to Honesdale from Hawley, but stopped a mile or more below that place, running a spur up to the coal shutes. At the time the Erie was negotiating tor the purchase of the Jefferson Railroad, its managers entered into a contract to extend the railroad all the way to Honesdale, but as the 24 37" BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Jefferson franchises passed into their possession immediately, they regarded the contract as one made by themsi Ives with themsi I the extension never was made. During the | iv Could, early in the winter of 1872, Gould routi from Honesdale over the old on route to the Starucca Creek, and finding it entirely feasible he agreed that if the people of Wayne County would 540,000, or furnish its equivalent in right of way, he would 1 1 implete the Jefferson Railroad by building the Hones- dale link. Coe F. Young, then General Manager of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and that company's railroad sys- tem, assured Could that the condition could readily be com- ith, and it was decided to begin work on the railroad .is soon as spring opened. Before that time came, Gould was no longer in control of Erie, and the Jefferson Railroad itill a railroad with a missing link. A. Reeves Hankins was the first conductor on the Hones- dale Branch, and William Aumick the first engineer, they run- ning the passenger train. Coal trains began running over the branch in November, 1S6S. The firs ttrain over the Jefferson Railroad was a special, on which were Jay Could, Thomas Dickson, president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and other prominent railroad men. It was run October 23, 1S70, and was in charge of A. T. Palmer as conductor, now superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad at Kansas City. Early in No- vember, 1870, the first traffic train — a coal train — was run over the railroad, George DeWitt conductor and Sid Luckey engineer. It was in anticipation of the control of this new and im- portant outlet for the coal traffic that the Gould manage- ment of Erie began laying its plans to extend and widen the field of Erie's influence and power in an entirely new terri- tory. This ambition, laudable in itself, was not entirely aided toward attainment by the condition of the Erie's affairs and the methods of its procedure at that time, and led to what was known as THE ALBANY AND SUSQUEHANNA WAR. The Albany and Susquehanna Railroad was opened Janu- ary 12, 1869. It connected Binghamton with Albany, and became a link, together with the Erie and the Boston and Albany Railroad, in a chain of railroad communication be- tween New England and the West that seemed to bear prom- ise of great importance. It also held the key, through pro- jects then going forward, to the entrance of the coal traffic of the upper Lackawanna anthracite field to markets theretofore in li 1 1 issible. The Albany and Susquehanna consequently filled the eye of both the Erie management and that of those in control of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company,and nine b of future importance in railroad ownership was builded upon it. Much of the stock in the Albany and Susquehanna Company was owned by towns along the line, and in |ulv, 1869, Jay Gould, acting on the suggestion of Walter S. Church, a leading director in the company, who was opposed to the rule of James H. Ramsey, president of the company, quietly sent out agents to buy up the stock of the different towns, with the intention of getting a majority of the holding, so that lie might control the next election for directors, and thus get possession of the railroad in the interests of Erie. The movement came to the knowledge of Ramsey, who be- gan a counter-campaign to checkmate Gould. The courts were kept busy for months issuing injunctions and counter-injunc- tions, appointing receivers, etc. By September, 1869, there were seven injunction suits pending, before almost as many different judges, Judge Joseph G. Barnard being always at the beck of Gould and Fisk ; and the interests of Ramsey, or what was known as the " Albany interests," seeming to be well taken care of by Judge Rufus H. Peckham, Judge Clute, and Judge Murray. August 6th, Judge Barnard ap- pointed James Fisk, Jr., and Charles Coulter receivers of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. When they went to Al- bany to take charge of the property, they found that on the evening of August 6th Judge Peckham had appointed Robert H. Pruyn receiver. This led to further complicated litiga- tion, in which both sides were enjoined from doing anything. Fisk and Coulter took possession of the railroad at Bingham- ton, however, and Receiver Pruyn enforced his authority at the Albany end. Both sides essayed to run the railroad, which resulted in a clash at arms, during which rails were torn up and bridges destroyed. On August 1 1 th, the Bar- nard receiver appealed to Governor Hoffman to take charge of the property in the name of the State, as it was being ruined. The Governor did so, placing it in control of Colonel Banks and a force of military. This was the situa- tion when the election came on at Albany on September 7th. Scenes of violence ensued at the election, and two sets of directors were elected, one in favor of the Erie interests and the other in the interest of the Ramsey, or Albany, con- tingent. Neither board could act, and the Attorney-General brought suit against all the parties at interest to have it de- cided which was the regular board. The case was fixed for argument before Judge E. Darwin Smith at Rochester, No- vember 29, 1869. November 23d, Judge Murray, at Delhi, Delaware County, granted an order in a suit brought by Ramsey against Gould, Fisk, and other Erie Directors, sus- pending them as Directors and officers, and appointing David Groesbeck general receiver of the Company. These proceedings were subsequently set aside, and in December Judge E. Darwin Smith decided against the legality of the directors elected in the Erie interest. The situation now was such as to bring about a fierce renewal of the contest for ultimate possession of the railroad, but before either side had gained any victory, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- pany, which previously had a hand in the fight only by implication as a supporter of Erie, leased the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, February 24, 1870. The lawsuits between Ramsey and the Erie managers were in the courts, however, nearly two years longer before this long and bitter battle of the Could regime came to an end. THE STORY OF ERIE o/ THE "NEWBURGH SHORT CUT." The Newburgh and New York Railroad was projected in 1861, and surveys were made by William Sneeden, at that time superintendent of the Northern Railroad of New fersey. The expense of the survey was paid by Newburghers and the Erie. Nothing was done until 1864, when Robert H. Berdell came in as President of the Erie. John Houston, an Erie civil engineer, was directed to make a permanent location of the route. Nothing further was done until 1866, when the project was revived. An attempt was made to bond New- burgh and other places in aid of the road, but failed. Then Homer Ramsdell took the matter up. He was a Director in the Erie, and through his influence that Company took hold of the New York and Newburgh road. In 1868 it was put under contract by the Erie to Peter Ward of Newburgh and Valentine levy of Hudson City, N. J. Ground was broken, April 10, 1S6S. The road was completed, and turned over to the Erie, August 23, 1869. It cost $550,000, and brought Newburgh within sixty-two miles of New York. The opening of this Newburgh Short Cut was made the occasion of a celebration the like of which had not been seen since the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk. Saturday, August 14, 1869, the citizens of Newburgh extended invita- tions to the officers and Directors of Erie to be their guests on the opening of the railroad. An excursion train left Newburgh at 9.45, in charge of Conductor Thomas Wright and Engineer Henry Gaylord. There was firing of cannon at every station. The excursion train from New York was met at the junction. On this train were James Eisk, Jr., Comptroller of Erie ; the Directors, the Secretary and Treasurer; Hugh Riddle, General Superin- tendent ; A. P. Berthoud, Superintendent of the Eastern Division; James H. Rutter, General Freight Agent; Gov. John T. Hoffman, A. Oakey Hall, Mayor of New York, Mayor Peddie of Newark, Hon. Charles H. Winfield of Jersey City, and many other distinguished guests. The train was gaily decorated. Edward Kent was the en- gineer, and Chauncey Hale the conductor. A procession nearly a mile long paraded the streets of Newburgh, where there were hours of speech-making. 1'isk made a famous speech in response to the address of welcome. Three hearty cheers and a " tiger" were given for him and Jay Could, and the band played "Hail to the Chief," at the conclusion of the speech. A great banquet was given at Moore's ( >pera House, for which the citizens of Newburgh had subscribed mo a plate. The railroad was but sixteen miles long, but it was an event, and those "ere the times of Gould and l'isk. Till'. WAR i>I Till: GAUGES. When the 1 !rie was completed to Dunkirk in 1851 there was no railroad connection farther west. The Cleveland, Ashtabula, and Painesville Railroad was being extended e ward, with the intention of connecting with the Erie or the New York Central Railroad by means of local roads across the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, known as the Triangle, and bordering on Lake Erie, the distance ac ross that portion of Pennsylvania, between the New York and the Ohio lines, being fifty miles. The borough of Erie (now city) 01 1 u] the vantage point in that corner of the State on Lake Erie. A railroad known as the Erie and Northeast Railroad had been chartered, April 22, 1842, to be built from Northeast, a Pennsylvania village near the New York line, to Erie, about twenty miles. Nothing was done toward building the rail- road until 1849, when, events seeming to indicate that the New York and Erie Railroad was certain to reach Lake Erie, the Erie and Northeast Company saw the importance of its railroad as a link in a chain of rail communication between the East and West and began work upon it. The railroad was completed January 19, 1852, the New York and Erie Rail- road having then been open between New York and Dunkirk the better part of a year. In 1848 Pennsylvania capitalists obtained a charter from their State Legislature for the Erie and Ohio Railroad Company, to build a railroad from Erie to the Ohio line. This would have assured the complel oi a line across the Triangle, but, unfortunately, the indi- viduals interested in the project were dilatory in taking advantage of their charter, and in 1849 it was repealed in the interest of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, which was then building to connect Philadelphia and Pittsburg, and which was determined to harass the New York trunk lines in ob- taining thoroughfare through Pennsylvania. In 1844 the Pennsylvania Legislature had chartered the Franklin Canal Company, with authority to repair the Franklin Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, and the privilege 1 1 constructing a railroad on the towpath north to Erie and south to Pittsburg, or on a route the company deemed most advantageous. Construing this concession somewhat liber- ally, the Canal Company located a railroad between Erie and the Ohio State line, which would complete a connection by rail with the Erie and Northeast Railroad, and give a direct line to the New York lines to Cleveland. Under the New York railroad law of 1849, a company en- titled the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company was organized to build a railroad from Buffalo westward along Eake Erie to the State line, the purpose being to make a connection with the Erie and Northeast Railroad, and thus control, with that railroad and the proposed Ohio 1 onnei tion, the traffic to and fro between the East and West and the railroad then terminating at Buffalo, which was destined soon to become part of the present New \ ork Central system. The original intent of the Erie and Northeast Railroad Company was to make the gauge of its railroad six feet, and. in fact, it had an understanding with the New York and I Railroad Company to that effect, being also under the im- pression that the Buffalo and State Line Railroad w of that gauge. The influences that subsequently combined the five local New York railroads between Albany and Buffalo into the one New York Central were then at work, and it was evident the Central was to be of the four-foot-eight-and- it - BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES a-half -gauge, and also that the Buffalo and State Line Rail- road was in existence in the interests of the Central, for tin- same gauge was adopted by the State Line Company. The New York and Erie, as well as the Central, knew the importance of a connection that would give it thoroughfare that corner of Pennsylvania, and under the New York General Railroad Law of 1850 the Dunkirk and State Line Railroad was organized to build a railroad from the Dunkirk terminus of the Erie to the Pennsylvania line, with a gauge of six feet, to meet the Erie and Northeast connection there with the same gauge. This, of course, was in the interest of the Erie, and would give it a line toward the West without breaking bulk. This aroused the Buffalo and State Line Railroad Company, or, rather, the interests in the Central that controlled it, and they so harassed the Erie in its Dun- kirk and State Line project that the Erie was weak enough, early in 1S51, to consent to a compromise with the Central, instead of insisting on having its independent connecting line, the building of which it abandoned. The Buffalo and Mate Line Railroad was originally laid out to go via Fredo- nia, three miles from Dunkirk. By the compromise with the Erie the route was changed, and the railroad was built via Dunkirk, to give the Erie connection with it, and a neutral gauge, known as the Ohio gauge, was adopted by the local railroad, the Erie and Northeast Railroad agreeing to lay the same gauge, the width of which was four feet ten inches. Then the Erie subscribed §250,000 to the stock of the Buffalo and State Line Railroad, to aid in its construction, and placed itself ever after at the mercy of its great rival, which never hesitated to assert its supremacy in that connecting line whenever Erie interests might be damaged by so doing. The Buffalo and State Line is now part of the Central's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern system. The four-foot-ten gauge necessitated a breaking of freight bulk and changing of cars by passengers by the Central at Buffalo, and by way of the Erie at Dunkirk. But the Pennsylvania Central Railroad's influence and the influence of the borough of Erie now appeared again. By the arrangement between the Buffalo and State Line and the Erie and Northeast railroads, the two New York trunk lines were to obtain a highway across Pennsylvania, which the Pennsylvania Central Railroad determined to prevent ; and the borough of Erie discovered that passengers and freight, east and west bound, would pass through that place without [ring cars or breaking bulk there, and thus disappointing citizens of Erie who had calculated on making money by such a break in the gauge. Responsive to the demands of those influences, the Pennsylvania Legislature, March rr, 185 1, passed a law establishing the legal gauge for all rail- roads west of Erie to the Ohio line at four feet ten inches, and prohibiting all railroads east from that borough from laving track except of a f our-foot-eight-and-a-half or a six-foot gauge. The Erie and Northeast Company, standing on what it claimed was its charter rights, refused to comply with the law, and laid its tracks at the neutral or Ohio gauge, but when the work of laying the track through Erie borough was attempted, the rails were torn up and the workmen dispersed by infuriated Erie people. The cry was, 'i Break gauge at Erie, or no railroad ! " The riots were fierce and bloody, and guns and pistols were the order of the day ; and orders of the Pennsylvania courts, and even the authority of the L T nited States court, were defied. During this lawless outbreak many lives were lost. The Governor of the State refused to use his authority to restore order. The Erie and Northeast Company was determined. It abandoned the route through Erie, and attempted to build its railroad around the place, but the tracks were torn up and bridges destroyed by the Erie rioters. From 1853 until 1855 the War of the Gauges was waged by the people of Erie, supported by the State government and politicians, and in defiance of the courts. Passengers and freight, during the winter, when the lake was closed, had to be transferred by wagon from a point east of Erie as near as the people of that place would permit the cars to come on that side, to a point west of the borough, where the cars from that direction were stopped, and vice versa. The hardships of this were great, especially to emigrants, who were travelling westward in great numbers. This was called " Crossing the Isthmus." The War of the Gauges forced the Erie to abandon one of its through passenger trains, and a freight and a stock train, for many months, resulting in heavy loss. In 1S55 the State of Pennsylvania, to punish the Erie and Northeast Railroad Company for its determination to aid in advancing the general transportation interests of the country in face of the opposition of the Pennsylvania Central Rail- road and of the selfish lawlessness of the people of Erie, re- pealed its charter, confiscated its railroad, and placed it in charge of State agents. This resulted in a compromise. The Erie and Northeast agreed to build its railroad into Erie and to the harbor, and to subscribe §400,000 to the stock of the Pittsburg and Erie Railroad, the Buffalo and State Line Com- pany subscribing alike amount — a condition of the blackmail- ing settlement being also that the Cleveland and Erie Rail- road should subscribe §500,000 to the stock of the Sunbury and Erie Railroad, another projected Pennsylvania line — and the gauge law was repealed. The charter rights of the Erie and Northeast Railroad and its property were restored to the Company, and the disgraceful, high-handed, and lawless War of the Gauges was over. In 1S57 the Erie and Northeast Railroad passed into the possession of the New York Central, and the Erie management soon discovered how foolish it had been in succumbing to the Central interests in the mat- ter of the Buffalo and State Line Railroad (" Administration of Homer Ramsdell," page 121). The Bergen County Railroad was incorporated in 1875. It is known as the " Short Cut " from Rutherford to Ridgwood Junction, and was virtually built by the Erie. It was added to the system in 18S0. It is about ten miles long. The Chicago and Atlantic Railroad became the property of the Erie August 31, 1887 ("Administration of John King," pages 270 to 272). Other connections of the Erie system, owned, leased, and operated, are listed on pages 286 and 2S7. THE TURNING OF ITS WHEELS. 1S41-1S98. The Story of the Time-tables— Erie's First Official Time-tables not Printed, but Made with Pen and Ink on Note Paper— Later, Printed in a Country Printing Office— Some Rare Old Time-tables in Facsimile— Development of Traffic— Henry Fitch, First General Pas- senger Agent— Beginning of Milk Transportation— Original Locomotives— The Strange Career of "The Orange"— Joe Meginnes and Other First Erie Engineers— Queer Engines— Story of the " Diamond Cars," Sleeping Cars Built for the Erie Nearly Sixty Years Ago— Worden, the First Conductor—" Poppy" Ayres and "Hank" Stewart— First Superintendents— Erie's First Tragedy of the Rail and Its Sequences — Amusing Incidents, Strange Accidents — Story of I low the Erie Brought the Telegraph into Service for the Running of Trains— Original Railroad Telegraph Operators — Notable Strikes on the Erie, and Historic Accidents — The Side-tracking of Piermont and lJunkirk — Erie Operative System and Equipment of To-day. STORY OF THE TIME-TABLES. The first official time-tables (1841) for the information and regulation of employees on the Erie were not printed. They were arranged by S. S. Post, who enjoyed the distinction of being the Company's original " Superintendent of Trans- portation." After he had drafted them they were copied on half -sheets of note paper by his clerk. As it was necessary to provide each engineer and conductor, each station agent, and the heads of operating departments with a copy, the clerk was obliged to make as many as nine copies of the first official time-table. There were a superintendent, a super- intendent of transportation, a master mechanic, two con- ductors, two engineers, and two station agents, one at Chester and one at Goshen, each to be supplied with a time-table. The body of it was written with black ink. The names of " turn-out " stations or points were indicated by being written with red ink. These were places where a train going in one direction was to turn out, or lie on a siding, until an ex- pected train, going in the opposite direction, should pass. The original turn-outs were at Monsey, the V at Ramapo, and at Turners and at Chester. Written time-tables were in use until too many copies were required to stock the employees, and then printed ones came in. The public was kept informed of the movements of trains and the changes in time by hand- bills and announcements in New York newspapers and the two Goshen newspapers — the Independent Republican and the Democrat. At the time the railroad was opened in 1841, and for years afterward, there was not a newspaper on the line between New York and Goshen, and none between Goshen and Binghamton, on the route over which the rail- road was later to proceed west from Goshen. One of the original official time-tables, made with a pen, would to-day be of priceless value as a relic of pioneer railroading, and a printed copy of one would be of scarcely less intrinsic worth as a curiosity in the history of railroad operating, but not one of either is in existence. The oldest handbills announcing changes in the running of trains on the Erie and giving information as to passenger rates and regulations, that the author has been able to find, were issued in the spring of 1S47. Older than that by two years is the freight schedule he unearthed, which was issued in June, 1S45. Thev are both reproduced in facsimile on pages 375 and 3S1. Any- thing rarer than these, in this day of relics of pioneer railroading on the Erie, it would be impossible to obtain. They will appeal with peculiar interest to traffic managers in this advanced age of transportation science, fixing indisputably on the records, as they do, the ideas of those early directors of Erie's operating departments as to the best methods and plans for conducting railroad traffic according to the lights they had, and to popularize the railroad and make business for it. The schedule of freight rates for 1S45 is peculiarly valuable, as showing the commodities of traffic that yielded the early freight earnings of the railroad. The Erie has 2,271 miles of railroad now. It had fifty-four miles when those schedules were promulgated. Even' shipper, and, it may almost be said, every passenger, was personally known to the management then — a situation now hardly possible of belief. The first official Erie printing office, after the railroad was opened to Goshen, was the Goshen Democrat office, and there the original time-tables and announcements of the Company were printed. The work was done on a hand-press, and the printer was Charles Meade, the Democrat being published by Meade & Webb. In 1X50 the Company estab- lished its own printing office in the Erie Building, foot of Duane Street, New York, and Charles Meade was called there to take charge of it. R. C. S. Hendrie, foreman of his ( ioshen office, went with him. Meade remained at the head of the printing department of the Company until the death of his brother-in-law and partner, Webb, when he returned to Goshen to take the affairs of the Democrat concern in I — 1 Yi 4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES hand. He was succeeded in the management of the Erie printing office by his old foreman, Hendrie, who conducted the establishment until it was sold, in December, [874, to Lange, Little & Co. ol New York. No better work of the kind is done to-day in any modern printing office than these early Erie printers executed, ["he report to the stockholders for ) pamphlet of 180 pages, issued from the Erie printing office, is a particularly fine sp'e< imen of press-work and supe- rior skill in difficult typographical execution, ft bears the imprint, "Press of the New York and Erie Railroad Com- pany, R. C. S. Hendrie, Printers." David D. Osmun was an employee of the original Erie printing office at Goshen, and put in type some of the very first Erie time-tables. He is still living at Chester, N. Y. fanuary t, 1841, in anticipation of a much earlier open- ing of the railroad than actually occurred, the Company began running a steamboat from the foot of Cortlandt street to the depot at Piermont. "The new enterprise," said the news- paper announcement, " commences with the steamer 'Utica,' under the command of Capt. Alexander H. Shultz, late of the steamer ' Independence,' on the Philadelphia line, than whom there is not a more capable or gentlemanly commander on our waters. It is intended, in connection with this com- pany, to open a line of travel to Albany this winter. When the arrangements are all completed, passengers will leave New York in steamboats and take the railroad at Piermont to Goshen, and thence to Albany by stages, by which route the difficult and dangerous travel through the Highlands may be avoided." The first official Erie time-table ever published was incor- porated with the announcement of the opening of the railroad G shen. The late A. S. Whiton, then a clerk in the office of the superintendent of transportation, made the copies of it that were sent to the newspapers, from the original schedule as decided upon, after long consultation at the Piermont offices by Superintendent H. C. Seymour, Superintendent of Transportation S. S. Post, and Alexander Main, who was cashier, paymaster, and auditor of the Company. The sched- ule was approved by the President and Directors, and was as follows : THE EASTERN DIVISION OF THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAIL ROAD, Will be opened for freight and passengers on Thursday, the 23d of nber, and until further notice the trains will run as follows : FROM GOSHEN A Passenger Train- Daily, except Sundays, leaving the Depot at 7 A.M., and stopping at any of the foil- 1 s where passengers may desire to be left or taken up, viz. : Chester, Monroe Village, Turners, Monroe Works, Ramapo station, Sufferns, Pascac, Blauveltville, and Piermont, arriving in the 'Oal I tica, at New York, at 12, M. A Freight Train Tri-Weekly, leaving the depot at 3 I'M., on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, stopping, if required, at Chester, Monroe Village, Seaman-ville, Turners, Works, Ramapo station, Sufferns, Pascac, (.urn- bush, Blauveltville, and Piermont, arriving at New York, by the Company's st 1 m fn jhl barges, al 10 P.M. FROM NEW YORK. A PASSENGER Train Daily, excepting Sundays, leaving the foot of Albany St.. in the steamboat Utica, Captain A. II. Shultz, at 8 A.M., and arriving in Goshen at 1 P.M. A Freight Train Tri-Weekly, leaving the foot of Cedar street, at 4 P.M., on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and arriving at Goshen at 10 l'.M. Stopping places the same as in the trains from Goshen. Passengers by the morning trains are informed that no breakfast will be furnished on the boat or on the road. They are requested to purchase tickets before taking seats in the cars, as all persons from New- York, or from any depot where tickets are sold, will be charged as way passengers, if they neglect to purchase tickets before taking their seats. For freight or passage, inquire at the Company's dock in New York, at the foot of Albany street, or at the various depots along the route. II. C. Seymour, Superintendent and Engineer East. Division, New York &> Erie Railro This was a modest announcement, and it was not entirely satisfactory to Seymour and Post. It did not seem to be comprehensive enough, so they went into earnest consulta- tion again, and produced the schedule and accompanying paragraphs of instruction to the public as shown below. It appeared one week after the opening of the railroad to Goshen : THE EASTERN DIVISION OF THE NEW 7 YORK & ERIE RAIL-ROAD Is now open for freight and passengers and until further notice the trains will run according to the following NEW ARRANGEMENT: FROM GOSHEN. A Passenger Train Daily, except Sundays, leaving the depot at 7 A.M., and stopping at any of the following places where passengers may desire to be left or taken up, viz. : Chester, Monroe Village, Turners, Monroe Works, Ramapo station, Sufferns, Pascac, Blauveltville, and Piermont, thence by the Steamboat Utica, Capt. A. H. Shultz, to New York, landing at the foot of Albany street. 'FROM NEW YORK. A Passenger Train Daily, excepting Sundays, leaving the foot of Albany St., in the steamboat Utica, Captain A. H. Shultz, at S A.M., and proceeding immediately on the arrival of the boat at Piermont, to Goshen, stopping at the above-named places. A Freight & Passenger Train, daily (Sundays excepted,) will leave GOSHEN at 3 o'c P.M., stopping at Chester, Monroe Village, Seaman-ville, Turners, Monroe Works. Ramapo station, Sufferns, Pascac, (Ireen- bush, Blauveltville ami Piermont. Thence, (on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.) by steamboat Union and barges to New- York, landing at the foot of Chambers St., and on Wednesdays and Saturdays bvthesteamboat Utica, touching at the foot of Chambers street, where all market freight will be delivered on board the barges. FROM NEW YORK. I. eaving the foot of Chambers street, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in the steamboat Union, and the foot of THE STORY OF ERIE 375 5/' BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES street on Wednesdays and Saturdays, in the steamboat L'tica. Stopping places the same as in the trains from Goshen. Passengers by the morning trains are informed that no Breakfast will be furnished in the boat or on the road. They are requested to purchase Tickets before taking seats in the cars, as all persons from New York, or from any 1 >epot when- Tickets are sold, will be charged as Way Passengers if they neglect to do so. ] For Freight or Passage, apply at the Company's Transportation office, at the corner of Liberty and West streets, near the Albany | of the Depots along the route. It is indispensably requisite that all freight intended to be forwarded the same day, should be at the I lepot at least one hour previous to the starting of the trains. Returning, leave New York — ■ First train at 7 o'clock, P. M. Second do. 5^ " A. M. Fare through (for this day only), Si. 00. Passengers by the morning train from Goshen, will have an oppor- tunity of witnessing the opening of the Croton Aqueduct and other civic festivities. £3^™ The Goshen and Mount Hope Bands will accompany the morning train from Goshen, and return in the evening train from New York. H. C. Seymour, Sit//. PASSENGER CHARGES. FIRST CLASS CARS. From Goshen to Chester, & vice versa So. 12^ • Monroe, " " 0.25 ' Turners, " " o-37i 1 Monroe Works, " O.02i ' Ramapoo, 1. 00 ' ' Suflferns, 1. 00 ' Pascac, I. 12* ' ' Blauveltville, " 1-25 ' Piermont, 1.25 " New-York, " I.50 SECOND CLASS CARS. From Goshen to Chester, cV vice versa So. IO ' " Monroe, " " 0.20 Turners, O.25 Monroe Works, ' O.50 Ramapo &vicinity" O.62 J ' " Sufferns, 0.75 Pascac, o.So ' " Blauveltville, 0.87* Piermont, 0.87J ' New- York, 1. 00 II. C. Seymour, Superintendent ami Engineer East. Division. New York &= Erie Railroad. Albany Street, New York, extended from Greenwich Street to the North River, between Thames and Carlisle (now Rector) streets. Albany Basin was the river between Albany Street and Cedar Street. Trains were run by this schedule until December 30, 1841, when the " Winter Arrangement " was made. It had been discovered that there was not business enough for a daily freight train, and it was reduced to tri-weekly trips, leaving " each termination on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at about the same time as the passenger trains." The rates of fare remained the same. The running of cheap pleasure excursions over the Erie is to-day a feature of its passenger traffic, and a profitable one. Nearly sixty years ago (1842), the first experiment in this class of special passenger business was tried on the Erie, per- haps the first experiment of the kind on any railroad. The announcement for this initial pleasure excursion was as follows : FOURTH OF JULY ! NEW' YORK & ERIE RAILROAD. Two trains of Passenger Cars will leave Goshen for New York, July 4th, starting as follows : First train, at 6 o'clock, A. M. Second do. 4$ o'clock, P. M. This first opportunity for the people along the line to have a cheap trip to and from the metropolis on a particularly interesting and memorable occasion was not taken advantage of with an enthusiasm that warranted the Company in trying any further experiments in special pleasure excursions at that period of its existence, for two cars were all that were neces- sary to carry the excursionists, including the bands. There were not more than 100 persons aboard. This pioneer Erie pleasure excursion train was in charge of Eben E. Worden, conductor. The engineer was James Newell. The locomo- tive was the "Ramapo" (No. 3). During 1842 but little change was made in the running of trains, except that the New York terminus was removed from Albany Street to the foot of Duane Street, and daily trips of the freight trains were resumed. The " Winter Arrangement," made December 12, 1S42, announced that the cars, on and after that date, would " run in connection with the steamboat 'Arrow' (Capt. A. H. Shultz), daily except Sunday." The freight train was again made tri-weekly, leaving " the foot of Duane street Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday of each week at 3 o'clock p.m.,'' and departing from Goshen " on the sime days, at 8 % a.m." From the time-table: "N.B. — A sub- stantial Ice Boat will be in readiness for use whenever the state of the river shall require it. The Western Stages con- nect with the Cars at Goshen." Before the Erie was opened to Goshen, travel between New- York City and the West, particularly for that then almost un- known land of attractive nomenclature, " the Lake Country," was by stage coaches from New York, via Hoboken, thence across the State of New Jersey to the Delaware River, a mile below Milford, Pa. The river was crossed by ferry, and at Milford the route was over the Milford and Owego Turnpike, across the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, much of the way through the wilderness, to the State of New York again, and Owego, whence other coach connections carried the traveller on toward his destination. Passengers for this line were booked at the Commercial Hotel, kept by John Patton, at the foot of Cortlandt Street, or at John Ball's, foot of Barclay Street, New York. They took the ferry to Hoboken, whence stages departed from Van Buskirk's Hotel ev^ry Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at a a.m. The opening of the railroad to Goshen made that place for the time the eastern terminus of the through coach lines, and also brought into existence a project for improving travel be- tween New York and Albany, as indicated by the following announcement : THE STORY OF ERIE 377 NEW YORK AND ALBANY STAGE LINE. ON BOTH SIDES NnKIII RIVER. Office at the Old Stand, Western Hotel, 9 Courtlandt Street. Fare $6. The line on the west side of the river is from New York to Pier- mont on Steamboat " l.'tica," from Piermont to Goshen by the railroad, and thence to Albany by stage. Passengers by this line may leave New York any morning (Sundays excepted) at 8 o'clock, and arrive in Albany next morning by 9. This is the shortest, quickest, and cheapest route to Albany. The railroad cars are large, commodious, and warmed by stoves. The line on the East side will be by steamboat daily as far as the ice will permit. E. Beai 11. $W Passengers for Newburgh and Paltz may secure passage at this office by steamboat and railroad to Turner's, 16 miles this side of Newburgh, where stages will be in readiness to convey them to the above named places. New York, Dec. 25, 1841. This project, however, did not prove to be a success. As the railroad slowly advanced westward, the stage-coach terminals at the eastern end moved with it, until the line was at last opened to Binghamton in 1.S49, when stage-coach travel from the east to the " Lake Country" became a thing of the past, and the romantic days of travel — romantic de- spite its delays, discomforts, and hardships — are now but a memory, and a living memory to but few, for the ante-railroad days were a long, long time ago. The genius of that long- forgotten time is pathetically expressed in the following poem, written more than a generation ago by the late Peter Wells, of Port Jervis, X. Y., and inspired by the passing away of the stages that was made necessary by the coming of the Erie cars : THE OLD STAGE COACH. The good times when our fathers rode In safety by the stage. Have passed before the onward march Of this progressive age ; And now no goodly coach-and-four Draws up beside the stage-house door. How rang the laugh, the jest, and joke, As ill together rode, Coached up in friendly jollity Like boys of one abode ; The weary miles seemed shorter, then, As thus we rode o'er hill and glen. Full half the pleasure of the way Was appetite and fare — This gathered from " mine host's" full board, That from the mountain air. O ! then we went life's flowery ways ! They ended with our staging days. O, that was music ! when at morn, As, winding round by yon old mill, The driver blew his sounding horn, And echo answered from the hill. Now. echoing horn nor prancing team Is heard amid this age of steam. But drawn beneath some sheltering shed The old stage-coach m \ ands ; Its curtains flapping in the wind — The ghost of ruin's waving hands ; While on the wheels the gathering rust Proclaims the mortal, " dust to dust." While in the fields their scattered bones, Or on the common turned to die ; Their " trips" all o'er — their " routes " all run — The wheelers and the leaders lie ; The driver's pride and labor got And he " like one who stands alone." In the time-table adopted April 3, 1843, tne naillc traffic was first mentioned, that item of traffic having within a few months become so important — an entirely new commodity for transportation, as it was — that it had commanded distim t attention. "An accommodation line," the new sched announced, "for Passengers, Milk, &o, will also be run daily, leaving Goshen at 6 p.m., and the foot of Duane street at 7 a.m." One regular passenger train still served to transai ' the business of the railroad. An important event in the history of the railroad occurred the last week in May, 1S43. This was the making public of the fact that the line would be opened to Middletown, eight miles beyond Goshen, the following week. This was the first official time-table between New York and Middletown : NEW YORK ANT) ERIE RAILROAD EXTENDED TO MIDDLETOWN. ( )n and after June 1st. the regular trains will run between New York, Goshen and Middletown daily (Sundays excepted) as foil For Passengers — Leave New York (from the font of Duane si at 3 '> P. M., by steamboat Arrow, (apt. A. II. Schultze, taking the cars at Piermont. and arrive at Goshen at B '• and at Middle- town at 9 o'clock P. M. Returning — Leave Middletown at 6 A. M., and arrive at New York at 11 A. M. An accommodation line for Freight and Passengers, leaves New York as above at 6 A. M., and arrives at Goshen at 12 o'i loi k, noon, and at Middletown at 1 o'clock, P. M. Returning, leave Mid- dletown at 5', 1'. M., and arrive in the city at 12. FOR Freicht — Leave New York at 6 A. M.. and arrive at Middle- town same dav. Returning, leave Middletown at 1 P. M. and arrive in New York same night. II. I". S| \ M ,1 |;. Sup't. May 2$tk, 1 - I The railroad was tiot opened to Middle-town, however, until June 7, 1843. In the time-table that went into effect August 1. 1843, it was announced that " the fare upon the passenger lines will be reduced Between New York and Middletown to $1,23 Goshen ' 1.12 Chester " 1,00 14 Mon 95 " Turners 85 " " Monroe W'k's 75 " R.ni 60 " " Mm 40 " Clarkstown ' 30 " " Blauveltville " 25 " *' Piermont " 20 " 37' METWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The business warranted the continuance of the two passen- ger trains. Thus the time-table : mger Trains will leave Middletown daily (Sundays excepted) k a. in., and at 5% o'clock p. m., and arrive in New York at II a. 111. and about 12 at night. The steamboat Arrow will leave New York daily (except Sundays) 1. in., and 3 '. p. in.— Taking the cars at Piermont, passen: al Middletown at I o'clock p. m., and 9 p. m. reight Trains will, as heretofore.be run daily (except Sun- Middletown at 1 o'clock, p. m., and no freight except - ill be taken by the Passenger train-. Barges will be taken in boat leaving N. York at 6 o'clock a. m., and from Piermont to N. Y. by the Evening Passenger boat. _ 'Stages for Milford, Honesdale. Carbondale, Binghamton and Owego, will run from the Cars on their arrival at Middletown. schedule was changed December 18, 1S43, for the ■"Winter Arrangement, 1843-4." One passenger train was taken off and the freight line made tri-weekly. The " freight cars" were advertised to leave Middletown at 10 a.m. Tues- tnd Thursdays, and at 2 p.m. on Saturdays. The pas- senger train carried the milk as theretofore, "leaving both M ddletown and foot of Duane street at 8 o'clock a.m." I luring the winter of 1844 the Company made great prep- arations for increased patronage against the opening of spring. The first time-table for that season was issued April 1st, for the " Summer Arrangement." An additional passenger train each way, daily except Sunday, was put on the road. This was the first time-table published by the Erie on which the hours of arrival of passengers at the terminals of the rail- road were announced, passengers from New York being scheduled to arrive at Middletown at 12.30 and 9.30 p.m., and those from Middletown to arrive at New York at noon and 9 p.m. (From the Time-tabled) The Company have placed on the route a new and splendid Steam- boat of the larger class, which will run without a Barge, and exclu- sively in connection with the Passenger trains, enabling residents of the country to remain in the city four hours, and return the same day. |[^~ Hours of receiving Freight in New York, from 9 o'clock a. m., to 5 p. m. only. LINKS OF STAGES connecting with the Railroad at Middletown, The 1 1 ine for Owego, via. Port Jervis, Milford, Cherry Ridge, Honesdale, Carbondale, Dundaff, Lenox, Brooklyn, Montrose and Friendsville ; leaves Middletown immediatelv upon the arrival of ■rain from New York. Returning, arrives in Middletown in time for the evening train for New York at 4 p. m. Middletown and Owego Line, via. Bloomingburgh, Wurtsboro', Alii'.- Lake, Bethel, Fosters, Cochecton, Kileyville, Mount Pleasant, Gibson, New Milford, Great Bend, Binghamton Middletown at 5 a. m. Returning, arrives at Middletown in tin evening train for New York. Pine lor Carbondale, via. Mount Hope, Otisville, Cudde- backville, Forestburgh, Narrowsburgh, and Honesdale; leaves Mid- dletown on Tuesdays, ll:i:' iturdays, at 4 a. m. Return- ing on Monday-, Wednesdays and Fridays, arrives in Middletown at 8 p. m. Middletown and Milford line, via. Ml. Hope, Port Jervis and Finchville, leaves Middletown on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fri- day-, upon the arrhal ol the morning train from New York. Return- ing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arrives in Middletown in time for the evening train for New York at 4 o'clock, p. m. The above, except the last mentioned, are regular mail lines. The business of the railroad was governed by the seasons in those pioneer days, and November 18, 1844, the Company decided that one regular passenger train each way and an accommodation train would be sufficient to do the passenger business of the road until further notice. The leaving time from New York was fixed at 8 a.m., and from Middletown at 6.30 a.m. — this until the close of navigation in the Hud- son River, when the leaving time would be 8 o'clock a.m. at both terminals. The accommodation train was run in con- nection with the freight boats, leaving New York at 3 and Middletown at 3.30 p.m., "until further notice, or the close of navigation." (From the Time-table.) For Freight — Leave New York at 3 o'clock p. m., and arrive in Middletown the next afternoon. Leave Middletown at 10 o'clock a. m., and arrive in New York the same night, except during the close of the River, when it will arrive in New York about noon or a little after, the next day. Live stock will be taken only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Satur- days. The special rates of charges advertised April 1, 1S44, will cease on the close of the River, when the full rates of toll, as published July 1, 1 S 4 3 , will be charged. HS^" Freighters will take the same days as heretofore, and have their loading ready at least half an hour before starting time. II. C. Seymour, Superintendent. It would seem that competition had all to do with the reg- ulation of the cost of railroad transportation, even in the be- ginning, for the Erie had two schedules of rates — one marked low, so that the Hudson River navigation (from which busi- ness was largely drawn when the railroad was opened between Goshen and the Hudson) would have no advantage over it, and the other based on the principle of " what the traffic will bear," after river navigation was suspended by the close of the river by ice. " Freighting " was a business peculiar to that era of railroad communication between New York and the only markets then having an outlet to the city by rail — Orange, Pike, Sussex, Rockland and Sullivan counties. " Freighters" were a class of middlemen who transacted business between the farmer, the railroad, and the New York dealer in farm produce, and his presence in the traffic was the beginning of the great com- mission business of New York to-day. The freighter re- ceived, loaded, and took to New York all kinds of goods placed in his charge. He found a market for them, sold them, and returned the proceeds to his customers, less a commission. He hired cars of the railroad company for his purpose, and was independent of any interference on the part of the Company in the loading of them. These cars were in charge of men who were dignified by the title of Captain, and, indeed, many of them had been Hudson River skippers, whose business the railroad had ruined. Their headquarters were chiefly at Chester, Goshen, New Hamp- ton, and Middletown. The first freighters to appeal to the public for business were John M. Cash & Co., of Goshen, who announced, Octo- ber S, 1 84 1, two weeks after the railroad opened, that they THE STORY OF ERIE 379 were ready to take and forward all kinds of produce to market by the New York and Krie Railroad, sell the same, collect the iiiniiey for it, and settle with the farmer less the commission, fash & Co. were quickly followed by others, l'rominent among the pioneers who laid the foundation of the Erie's freight business were : At Chester: H. Barnes & Co., Capt. Cornelius B. Wood; Tuthill & Seelv. Capt. G. L. Roe ; Feagles & Leeds, Capt. W. H. Leeds ; Yelverton & Thompson, Capt. William B. King. At Goshen: ('. W. Reevs, Capt. A. S. Trimble; Sears & Brown, Capt. Daniel E. Brown ; Jennings & Thompson, Capt. James W. Thompson. At New Hampton : Dolson, Dunning & Co., Capt. G. L. I lolson : T. B. Denton & Co., Capt. Nelson W. Hoyt. At Middle town : Stacy Beakes, Capt. D. A. Blake; Cole- man & Finch, Capt. George Coleman; S. Denton & Co., (apt. C. J. Stephenson. These freighters, or some of them, provided pasture orfeed for cattle, and storage for grain and produce, to accommo- date drovers and distant dealers who brought their live stock roods tn Erie stations for shipment. 'They also had their own freight houses, the Railroad Company simply being trans- pi hums. All this business, before the opening of the railroad tn Goshen, had its common shipping centre at Xewburgh. It was drawn from as far as the Delaware Valley on the west, and all the intermediate country, and all the region lying in Sullivan and Ulster counties within fifty miles, and a large part of Rockland County. The farmers ami produce dealers carted their goods by wagon to Xewburgh, whence it was carried to market by the Hudson River transportation lines that made Newburgh's importance as a commercial centre. The open- ing of the railroad to Goshen cut off that great source of trade from Xewburgh and Chester and Goshen ; and later, Middletown, Otisville, and Port Jervis became the points of shipment for all that great area of country. For a long time utter the railroad was put in operation between Piermont and Goshen, Xewburgh produce dealers and transportation lines nude desperate efforts to divert business from the railroad and the freighters by sending agents through the producing i ountry to buy butter, grain, pork, cattle, and whatever went to make up the sum of the freight business, at prices higher n the producers would net through the freighters and the railroad. Although this succeeded in taking a great deal of business to Xewburgh, it was to the constant financial loss of those who were engaged in the fight against the railroad, and was at last abandoned as a foolish and childish attempt to sustain antiquated methods in competition with the advent nodern and progressive ones in transportation. With the making of the " Summer Arrangement" for 1845 the additional passenger train was restored to the service. The Company was being reorganized, and great expectations were indulged that work in pushing the railroad on its way westward was soon to be resumed, it having been in suspen- sion ever since the spring of 1842. The public was informed by the time-table that " the new, commodious, and fast-sailing steamboat 'St. Nicholas,' in connection with the passenger trains, will run entirely independent of the barges and freight trains. The time of running between Middletown and Xew York will be five hours." One treight train was run daily each way. " The manifests will be closed at the time specified for leaving, at the depots above named, and all articles entered for transportation after these hours will be forwarded next day," as shippers were officially notified by Superintendent H. C. Seymour. By the " Winter Arrangement " for 1845-6 one regular pas- senger train was taken off and the accommodation train put on in connection with the freight boats, " until further notice or the close of navigation above the Highlands." Shippers were notified that no one could ship live stock except on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. April r, 1846, a time- table containing some noticeable announcements was adopted. The fare was reduced to attract travel that might go to the Hudson River boats at Newburgh. Two passenger trains and a freight train were run each way daily. (From the Time-table.') Breakfast may be had on board the steamboat by passengers leaving New York at 7 a. m. ; also, Supper and Berths on the evening trip to New York. Tickets to New York can be purchased at the several offices, and of the conductors upon the trains ; and Tickets from New York will be sold at the captain's office on the steamboat. Persons who do not procure Tickets, will be charged as way passengers, at rates not exceeding 2 1 , cents per mile. No commutation, either by the yea* or quarter; but Tickets, not transferable, will be sold at reduced rates, by the several ticket agents, in packages of \i, 24, y. Sx>i with the names of the persons to whom sold inserted therein. Up to this time there had been no General Ticket Agent in charge of that department of the Company's business, but one had now been provided, in the person of Henry Fitch. As will be seen by the above notes to the time-table, he had begun to put some system into the conduct of the passenger business, and system in that line was a new thing in railroad- ing, for as yet the freight and passenger business in railroad traffic had not been governed by any special rules apart from each other, more than to separate the earnings from each department in the accounting and book-keeping. Mr. Fitch, as the first General Passenger and Ticket Agent of the Erie, had no precedent to guide him in formulating a system out of which was to gradually grow ami develop the stupendous machinery required to conduct the passenger business of the Erie to-day, and was obliged to originate and experiment. Henry Fitch was educated at Yale College. In 1846 he was a preceptor in the Academy of Coshen. X. Y., and retired to take charge of the Erie's passenger business. He remained with the Erie until 185.^, when he resigned to 11 1 ept the position of purchasing agent of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. He subsequently became a bridge con- tractor, and made a fortune. This he increased as a broker in Wall Street. He died April 19, 1S95, aged 76 years, his death following by a few hours that of his wife. 3 8o BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES In September, 1846, Capt. "Alec" Shultz, who owned the Hudson River steamboats that ran in connection with the trains at nt, and who seems to have been a man with no lerable " pull " in Erie transportation affairs, red the idea of an excursion over the railroad, and the river and ba) to Coney Island, then a sand barren, except at its northern extremity, whi n I imous clam bakes were served. The idea meeting with the approval of Super- intendent 11. C. Seymour and his lieutenant, S. S. Post, the event was announced : TO NEW YORK BAY. The citizens of Orange County are notified that arrangements have been made for an excursion On Thursday, the 17'rn inst. The Excursion Train will leave Middletown at 6 3-4 A. M., and stop at New Hampton, Goshen, Chester, Oxford, Monroe, Turners, Monroe Works. Ramapo Station and Monsey ; and will return, stop- ping at the same places, about the usual time of the Regular Evening nger Train up. The steamer will proceed immediately down to Coney Island, passing the Dutch Fleet of War; the Quarantine; the Forti- 11 \ 1 1. « i on the Narrows, &< . After landing at Coney Island, now well fitted for the reception of visitors, and partaking of Clam Chowder, &c. , the party will return v of the new channel and obtain a fine view of Col, Steven- son's Ri i.imi si ob < alifornia Volunteers, now encamped on the shore of Governor's Island. The Boat will then run up the East River as far as HuRLGATE, passing near the Navy Yard, and in full view of the numerous Ves- sels of War, now there. The proposed trip will present to the observation of Ladies and Gentlemen some of the most interesting scenes and scenery in the world. Music will be provided on the Boat, and every effort made to render the occasion pleasant and joyous. Fare for the excursion only One Dollar. September II, 1846. Like its predecessor of July 4, 1842, this early Erie pleas- ure excursion was not a success. Only about 200 persons were attracted by the features of the occasion. This was in a great measure due to the fact that the horror of the disaster that had befallen an excursion party on the railroad only six weeks before was still fresh in the minds of every one in all the country then tributary to the Erie, and people were timid about riding on the cars, particularly on such an occasion. This disaster was the first serious accident in the history of ilroad and it had carried mourning to many families. •) This first ( loney Island excursion was a failure in more re- [«' ts than one. The most conspicuous of these was the In t that it failed to go to Coney Island. A former resident oi Goshen, who was one of the excursionists, and who lives to-daj 11 9 1 to tell about it, had such little faith in the sponsors of the affair that he declares it to be his belief that they never intended that the excursion should go to Coney Island. 'I 1 which was the "St. Nicholas," went no further down the bay than the Battery, but did take the excursionists up the East River to Hell Gate, where she turned immediately and sailed back to the Erie pier at the foot of Duane Street, and lay there from 2.30 until 4.30 p.m., when she started for Piermont. The train arrived at Coshen at 9.30 p.m., " the band," says this surviving excursionist of indignant memory, " making a last effort to play ' Home, Sweet Home' — and such music! Terrible!" (Wilmot M. Vail, Port Jervis, X. Y.) HENRY FITCH. Work on the railroad was resumed toward the beginning of 1846, and when the next time-table of the Erie appeared it announced : THE OTISVILLE EXTENSION OF THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD, will be opened to the public on Tuesday, November 3d., when the following change ok hours will be made : For Passengers : Leave New York (foot of Duane st.) at S o'clock a.m., and 4 o'clock p.m. Leave Otisville at b\ a.m., and 3,\ p.m. Fare between New York and Otisville, $1.50. For Freight : Leave New York at 5 o'clock, p.m., and arrive in Otisville in the afternoon of the next day. Leave Otisville at 11 o'clock, a.m. ; Middletown at 12 m. ; Goshen at 1 p.m. ; and Chester at \\ p.m. ; arriving in New York same night. But little change in this time-table was made during the winter, except that a " through " freight line was established between Otisville and New York, running Tuesday, Thurs- day, and Saturday, and stopping only at Middletown, Goshen, and Chester. A way freight train left Otisville at " 7.45 a.m. THE STORY OF ERIE 38i on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, arriving at Piermont the same day, and New York the next day." Freight was re- ceived on board the barges "Samuel Marsh" and "Henry Suydarn, Jr." In March, 1847, the first time-table ever published by the Erie giving schedule time for trains at all stations was issued milk trains being authorized to " take along and deliver" certain articles of merchandise at an advance in the regular rate. The question of the right of passengers to carry par- cels and bundles into the cars, which has only within the past year or two disturbed the amicable relation of suburban pa- trons with the railroads on which they travel to and from mm THE SPRING ARRANGEMENTS OF THIS LINE WILL COMMENCE ON SHAY, • APRIL 1st, when the Cars and Boats Hill run as follows : 1'or l> WW \<.l I.S: at 7 o'clock A. M and 4 o'clock P. M. 5P.M. MTDDLETC WN at 6 1-2 A. M. i 6 1-2 P. M. '6" CHESTER "71-4 " & 6 1-4 " Leave NEW- YORK P Leave OTISVTLLE at 6 A.M.: " OOSHEN '•--<••>- 7 "&■ FREIGHT: every day > >■[• Bufcji at S o'clookP. H. DLETOWT* 11*. OOSHEN 12i and CHESTER at 1 o'olook F. M. . MAY H A change will bo made in the time of leaving Otisrille for New York by the Passenger Trains. SUMMER ftRRAlVGEMENT WUI go raw opcnuoo. tod *3 aMfei separation of toe PASSENOEB and MILK Trtinj "U ta «rff«t«l Trains lor New York will then leave as follows: FOR PASSENOERS: Ou.O.:. I*." MuDfUB, M. and 1 1'. P M. - • 4 23 - - « 40 - 4 :j - 6 » " ft 18 - & » ■• 6 38 ■ ft U 06 U,v> Wort* (■ Ji • • fi OS ■■ *n *. M. a= J - - f H E—^.- Works ? I! * M W < S P SI '■'- - 6 X, * Uamri • 906* - ' '-' - 10 " - & 56 * Clrt*rtD 9 16 - * 7 06 • 3D ■ * 7 16 • PvnnoM 9 40 - • 7 26 * ■Yen tUmpioo CoablD. Oiurtul), Ckuw, FOB MILE: sniHudooriL a •» - 6 00 ■ 6 12 - E B I (, v. i, :■■ 1 OS 7 It € » ■ 6 *S » 6 56 * 70» ' 7 l» ' 7 2". AKtod? 25 • M. MrwwWoAs.7 3R A- U and 7 X P H. mff in New Y&rfc I e 10 ■ - e io Spn«| Vittrf. 6 40 " " 8 40 ' PtcrBaM, 9 10 " " 9 10 ' 30 A.M. ai,.H OOaM. ie Freight Trains and the Passenger Trains from Sow- l ark. will contioae to leave at tbe time stated above. The return Milk Trains will leave Piermont half an hoar behind the Passenger Trains, and wilt take along and deliver at the a- bove named Depots and Station*, all the Packages, Parcels and light articles of Freight, which may! be regularly marked and directed, and put in charge of tbo Agents of the Company for that purpose. Freight Ac. by this line will bo charged 25 per cent in addition to tbe regular advertised rales j r "No Freight. Box**/;? T^unkf, «zo«pt Baggage oonjletLDg of Wearing apparel, ud nob article* a* outom nsiully permit* to lOOlba tf vt^-tung m*. ,hi&^« lb.- If w*^b.t< leu law *» He. e cfcup e( i& cole wia be nude. Ver tectum, relabel to Oneb, dt_ eeqoj, ofS. S Peer, Sept Truupor- t WEBS, H. C. SEYMOUR, Superintendent.. PHnVTEBS... Democrat a Whig Oflce, OoaheD. FACSIMILE OF OLD ERIE TRAIN SCHEDULE, ONE-QUARTER SIZE OF ORIGINAL. GOSHEN, N. Y. ORIGINAL LOANED BY FRANK DRAKE, ESQ., in the form of a handbill. This is historically very valuable, and is reproduced in facsimile as above. As will be seen, by this arrangement " an entire separation of the passenger and milk trains " was effected, thus fixing the date when the milk traffic had assumed proportions demanding distinct at- tention from the Company. This time-table, also, would seem to mark the beginning of the railroad express business on the Erie, as indicated by the paragraph relating to the return their homes, the right being disputed by the companies, was very positively denied by this Company half a century and more ago, as witness the testimony to that effect by this rare and incontrovertible witness from the pioneer days of rail- roading on the Erie. The next event, the importance of which finds no demon- stration in the cold record of the time-tables, was this : 382 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES NEW YORK & ERIE RAILROAD EXTENDED I" PORT J E R V I S . WIN I IK ARRANGEMENT. Until further notice, the different trains will run once each way daily, [except Sundays] as follows : For Passengers : 1 eave New Vork, by steamboat, [Foot Duane street] at ~\ o'clock A.M. " Otisville, 7 Middletown, 7^ " Goshen, 7l " Chester, 8 stepping each way at the several intermediate passenger stations. J®" No Packages, Parcels, Trunks, (or baggage except personal, consisting of clothing, not exceeding 50 lbs.) will be taken by the jer Heat or Trains, unless by special agreement and payment made in n which case the charges will be at the discretion of the Agent, not exceeding double the published Freight rates. Applications in New Vorkmustbe made to Mr. J. F. < larkson, agent, .11 the office on the Pier at the foot of Duane St., upon which receipt articles will be received upon the steamboat and forwarded by the Passenger train. The Company will be responsible for no article 1 sent by the 1'assenger Boat or Trains, unless it be receipted foi b) an agent duly authorized ; except personal baggage which is put in charge of the Baggage Masters. For Freight : New Vork, at 3 o'clock P.M., per Barges Samuel Marsh, Henry Suydam, Jr., and Dunkirk. Leave Port Jervis at 7 o'clock A.M., Otisville at 8, Middletown at gl, Goshen at io$, and Chester at 11. \\ VCCOMMODATION & MILK TRAIN will run in connection with the steamboat which tows the Freight Barges, leaving New Vork at 3 o'clock P.M. and ordinarily arriving at Piermontin time for the train to start from 6 to 7 o'clock for Port [ervis and all the intermediate stations. Leave Port Jervis at il P.M., Otisville at 2, Middletown at 2|, Goshen at 3, Chester at 3!, Turners at 4, Monsey at 5 o'clock, and arrive at Piermont at 6 o'clock P. M ; thence leaving for New Vork by a comfortable steamboat, as is the milk is put on board and the barge is in readiness. Good Berths will be provided on board at 25 cents, and Meals at 37^ cents each. N B. — Persons having articles lost, damaged or unnecessarily de- are requested to communicate the fact in writing immediately, in S, S. Post, Superintendent of Transportation office at Piermont, lii 1 1 her information, enquire of the several Depot Agents, the Supt. Transportation, or the undersigned. II. C. Seymour, Superintendent. PIERMONT, January 1, 1S48. Port Jervis was the terminus of the Railroad from January, until January, 1849, when the line was opened to Bing- hamton. The only change made in the running of trains during that time was the putting of a passenger train on the line between Port Jervis and Piermont, January 8, 1848, and a second one Man h 1, 1848. One left Port Jervis at 6 a.m. and the other at 3 p.m., and New York at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. The milk train was discontinued in March, 1848, the milk being transported, "until further notice," by the passenger trains, morning and evening. 'lite milk trains were put back May 1st foil wing, one leaving I'ort Jervis in the morning and the other in the evening. A coming event of great importance to the Erie was foreshadowed in the fall of 1848 by this announcement in the local newspapers : RAIL-ROAD NOTICE. THE PATERSON ,Y RAMAPO RAIL-ROAD being finished, the cars will commence running regularly on Wednes- day, the 1st of November, leaving New Vork by the Jersey City Ferry Boats, foot of Cortlandt street, at S o'clock A.M. and 5 o'clock P.M., and Suffern's Depot (on the Erie Rail-Road, ) on the arrival of the cars which leave Port Jervis at 6 A.M. and 3 P.M. The Accommodation Train will leave Suffern's Depot at 7 A.M., and Cortlandt st. Ferry, New Vork, \ before 3 P.M. The Train to and from Paterson. Leave Paterson at 8J A.M., \\\ A.M. and 3 P.M. Leave New Vork at 9! A.M., 12A P.M. and 4P.M. Z3P Passengers are requested to be at the Ferry five minutes previ- ous to the hours of starting. October 30, 1S4S. Not that such an event was unexpected, for the Ramapo and Paterson Railroad had been gradually pushing its way from Paterson, N. J., up through the Paramus Valley toward the Ramapo Valley for three years or more, and it was well known that there was nothing to warrant the expense of such an undertaking except that its northern terminus would be not far from the Erie's track at Suffem, and that, as at its southern terminus the track of the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad began and ran directly to a point on the North River opposite New York City, this would bring travellers over the Erie an hour nearer the city than the regular Erie route via Piermont and the Hudson River boats. Naturally the projectors of the new railroad argued this would divert a large jrnrt of that travel to the Ramapo and Paterson line. To such an extent was this expectation realized that the sale of tickets to Suffern at Erie stations increased in astounding degree, and the demand for tickets to New York decreased proportionately. Although the rail- road was then in operation as far west as Port Jervis, the travel that left the Erie at Suffern, to make the rest of the journey to New York over the New Jersey line, grew to such proportions that the companies operating that line were in a short time warranted in improving their accom- modations, as the following time-table shows : RAMAPO & PATERSON, PATERSON .V HUDSON RIVER RAIL-ROAD. Express Trains Will leave the Depot at Suffern regularly on the arrival of the Passenger Trains from the West, and reach Jersey City in about one hour from the time of departure. Returning, (until further notice) will leave New York, foot of Cortlandt street, at 8 o'clock a.m. and 5 o'clock p.m. — always arriving at Suffern in time to meet the Passenger trains going west via Piermont. These trains will stop at the following places only : Ramsey's, Hohokus, Rock Road, Paterson, Aquackanonk and Bergen. E3F" Personal baggage conveyed to and from the office of the Com- THE STORY OF ERIE 583 pany, 75 Cortlandt St.. X. V., free of charge. Passengers are requested to be at the Ferry a few minutes before the hour of start- ing. December 14, 1S48. The last time-table adopted between New York and Port Jervis, while the latter place was the western terminus, was dated January 1, 1849, and it did not show that any very encouraging growth of traffic had followed the railroad's above line, leave the foot of Cortlandt street, crossing to Jersey City, one hour after the Erie Railroad boat leaves Duane St., and arrive at Suffern's in time for the Erie cars going west. Those coming East, can leave the Erie train at Suffern's Depot, and by this route arrive in X. V. at least one hour and a half sooner than by the Erie line. The Ramapo Cars leave Suffern's immediately on the arrival of the E.rie train coming East, and always arrive from New tfuiaa tf&Qtka A. 93d, 4pril, 1849. NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. •V© Train will be alloired under any circumstances to leave a station before the time specified in this Tabic, as regulated bu the Clock at the Piermont office. NA1IES OP DEPOTS, 8TATIO.N3 A.ND PiSSlXC PUCES. EASTERN TRAINS, Port Jervis to New York. freight Trains. MILK NIGHT. I [MY. TK AIN 7 10 7 04 6 40 6 14 5 53" 1 New York Pier Piermont Blauvellville Clarktowo Spring Valley Moasey : 5 4- Sufferns ' 5 12 Ramapo VV'ks S 00 Ramapo Sta'tn *4 51 Sloatshurg' j 4 43 >«4Iooroe W'rks 4 iji ..' Turners 3 33 Monroe Oxford Chester I Gosben New Hampton Howels Otisville Shin Hollow Port Jervis 2 PIssi;m;kr THAI vs. DEFOTS. WESTERN TRAINS, New York to Port Jervis. W *Y THROUGH AC DA N. PTATION9 A>D < P1SS1K PLACES. PASSENGER TRAIVS. MILK TliaoL'GU. 1122 o\ll 04 10 After'n 7-tftr 11 15 Is 00 10 00 6 40 9 56 G 3G 946 6 24 9 34 6 10 8 46 9 '-'0' 603 8 33 918'' 5 S3 8 24 y 03 5 36 8 56 : 29 8 54 5 27 8 50 5 19 59 II 33 24 14 5s 15 Leaves Morn'g 529 WHcr New *5fork Pier I 8 30 I Piermont < 8 34 j Blauveltville ; 8 49 GlarkstouQ ca a a O o Or t 1st. — No train must under any circumstances leave a station before its-time, as specified in the Viine Table. 3d.* £ -Ptssenger trains shall not wait for freight trains, but all Binghamton passenger trains goingin a direction from Piermont, will keep out of the way of those going towards Piermont ; and passenger grains will in no case proceed, where another passenger train Having the right to the road is due, until a message has been ^e- from 'he conductor of that passenger train. 3d. — A Binghamton passenger train going towards Piermont, will wait ten minutes at a station fvhere another passenger train should pass, if the expected train has not arrived ; it may then proceed, using all necessary precautions. It will also proceed cautiously] when running in the time of a delayed freight train, until that train has been met. ; j . 4ih. — A passenger train not entitled to the road, will not proceed towards a station where a pass&igef train havin^he precedence is expected to be, unless it shaif be able to arrive five minutes before the time of leaving of the latter train. 5th. — Freight trains will to all cases wait for passenger trains, and for milk trains, and be kept entirely out of their way, never leaving a station on the time of a passenceroi milk train, unless on positive information received from it. The rate bi speed is twelve miles per hour for freight trains, and enginemen of freight train* are not at liberty to make up for lelays liy increasing the speed beyond this rate. A freight train whtchjis up to time, will wait twenty minutes at the proper passing place for another freight train which nrny be delayed. It will then proceed at a walk keeping a man ahead *ith a proper signal, and using every precaution until it meets the other train or n ■ounil A freight train which is behind timeonrill move at a walk, a^i keep a man ahead with a red flag, or red lantern, as the case may be, until it passes the coming weight train. This does not apply to passen^tr trains, a freight iraidPhever being on the road in the time of a passenger train, wiles* fi A li >Dlk trains will in all cases wait lor passenger trains — -but wilftake precedence of freight trains. The rules for freight trains milk trains — unless tyien otherwise specified. -i Glh. — I train, or a freight train, the conductor shall immediately send messengers to the -stations on either side of him. to notify the waj he shall forward a written message with the least practicable delay t*. the approacliJog passenger train, — he shall also station men with red flags, oq red lantei distance on either side oi the spot — he shall also communicate with the freight train detained by the accident, and every way agent or other officer on ihe road w ill promptly assist the conductor in lorwarding the necessary information. The way qfcents at the stations on either side of the accident, shall make i; their business in notify all approaching tfains. , 7ili — ,\ red flag by day. and a red lantern by night, when shown or swung on the track, are Signals of danger, on seeing which the engineman will stop the trim All signals violently given arc alio to be considered signals o\' danger, and in cases of uncertainly, a man must always be sent forwards. * ] glh —Every engineman in approaching a road or switch, should move at a moderate speed, andj-see that the way is clear before he reaches it. If the switch bq i to be right, lie should stop till heis I I Oih — Enginemen will not start the train till they shall be diiectd 'by the conductor, nor until the bell is rung, and they will run the train as nearly to' theif i arriving at the stations too soon, nor too late lor the business usually done therti i 10th. — The ei held responsil le that theii^engmcs are neat and in good working oiler before they start, that their* spark arresters and wire-nef» dition, ill it they have a sufficiency^! \vaodVnl watoi in the tender, and that rheycue otherwise thoroughly provided for the work which they hav« I . eman will not only attend to evw v}sigiisi| and tojris instructions, but he willpe vigilant, and cautious while on the road, not trusting entirely to signals for safety. . ^ *■ " ■ J b } 1 1 th — ll u shall be found impracticable from- any irgprseeq Qgnse ft r a freight train in passing from one station to another, to reach the station to which it « proceeding in season, and another train Is expected, ibeji tl^j^Qiihieyn^ The* coining tram is a passenger train, will cause his train to be backed, keeping a man ahead, I turn "Ut. and (here wait the passing ol the ir^injferJWi'fto the road. If this cunool he Hone, or if the expected train^is a freight train, he will be careful la man very far ahead w iih a flag L>\ day, or a laut,ern byffiglH, to give notice of his approach, hrt"3 the engineman of the train -shall not proceed if these precau- tions are not strictly obsen < I c*f ; :^|^ {• *~. I2A j— T he en gines .of gr av el lp[ns. when jcayin:^afr'en^T% house o r principal station for the.'^vvork. or when returning to'lhe same, shall always take the time ' of or'eol the regular' trains, unless"Tne~s*ui e^^iile^ffHi«ii#Wl*l l ll(eW-iH|!Mi 1 # , fti^i jjuVd-A 1 4h w-Scr^kSaWSS*' "-aiJ.- >■-> ^iw4n- a^ ^f f -^ u yty'^ **> or from it, a f^a. WJ& using the greatest precaution. The engines ol wood trains shall lollow the same rule wherever practicable — they shall never be on the road within twenty minutes W the time ol any of the regular trains. 13th. — Red flags or red lanterns shall always be placed at a safe distance on either side of the ground where gravel trains are at work, and a man shall remain will, them wheneverit is advisable for safety. The engineman of the gravel train shall, as well as the conductor, and the foreman in charge of the repairs, be held re- sponsible for the strict observance of this rule, and of every additional precaution which particular circumstances may make necessary to the safety of the road. ~ 14th. — Trains in arriving at a turn-out, where a meeting with another tram is intended, will enter upon the nearest end of the turn-out, under all circumstances-^ never passing ahead with the view of backing in upon it. Freight trains when meeting passenger trams will take the turn-out if practicable. In other cases trains will keep to the right. 15ih. — If freight trains are at any time obliged to keep the main track in passing passenger trains, a man with a flag by day or lantern by night, will be always sent in the direction of the approaching train, to give suitable warning for it to approach carefully, and the conductor of the freight train will see that the switches are right for the passage of the passenger train. 16th, — A freight train must not leave a station immediately preceding a station where a passenger tram is expected to pass, unless it shall be able to arrive at the latter station by its prescribed rale of running, (which is twelve miles per hour) ten minutes before the time for the passenger train to leave. 17th. — When a regular train is divided into two or more distinct trains, a red red flag by day and a red lantern by night, will be exhibited in front of the engines of all the trains except the last 18th, — Red lanterns must be exhibited at night in the rear of all'night trains and of all the day trams that may occupy the road after sunset. No excuse will bo d lor any neglect in exhibiting this signal. 19th — In running one train behind another, each engineman must so run as to keep the train ahead of him out of sight — and in approaching a station, particular ; will be used so to slacken the speed as to avoid the possibility of running into the leading train. No excuse as to being dece'ved about the distance will be re- ceived for a neglect of this rule. In case of obstruction, to the leading train, a man shall immediately be sent behind to stop the following train 20th. — Every engineman is authorized tu require the conductor and brakemen of his train to be at their posts, and every engineman will be held responsible who proceeds with his train, t the instructions detailed here, are neglected or violated. No brakeman will be allowed to leave his post, or to be in a car when the train is running, upon any consideration whatever. 21st. — Bach conductor or assistant conductor of a freight train will be held responsible for the correct performance of duly of the brakemen of his train. He will require the doors of freight cars always to be closed and locked ; and keep the brakemen at their posts. "Whenever delay occurs at a station from freight being im- properly stowed, he is required to report the circumstances on the same day. 22d. — All engines on approaching a station, will pass the switch cautiously ; and in all cases slop at the station — unless otherwise instructed. Way agents are ex- pressly required to report all violations of this rule. 23d. — All persons in any way in charge of repairs on the road, are required to procure 'copies of the Time Table, and of the " Instructions." 24th. — Enginemen will allow no person to. ride upon the engine without express authority from a superintendent of the road. 25th. — Conductors of freight trams will, when passing over the maximum grades, station themselves on the rear car of the train, and see that all the brake-men arc at their post 26th- — All persons when at work upon.the track, are required to give notice of any obstruction caused by their work, by exhibiting red flags, or red lanterns, conspicuously and at a sufficient distance from the obstruction, taking care always to place them beyond a curve, so that they shall be seen upon a straight line in both directions of the road, — and all conductors, enginemen, &c, are particularly enjoined to proceed with extreme caution, when such signal is exhibited, until the obstruc- tion shall be passed — and in all cases where the obstruction is such as to prevent the passing of the train, a man shall be sent ahead by the person attending to the re- pairs, with a red fla^, or a red lantern, half an hour at least before the train shall be due, and remain with it until he has stopped the train. 27th. — Enginemen will be careful to see that the bell is rung at eighty rods before crossing a highway, and kept ringing until the road is, crossed. 28th. — The clock at the Piermont office shall be the standard time, and all conductors and enginemen before leaving Piermont, are required to compare and re- gulate their time by that clock, and the conductors of freight trams are required to see that the clocks at all the way stations conform to the standard time. 29th. — The conductors of the passenger trains are required to examine the clocks in the ticket offices at Port Jervis and Binghamton daily, and report there, whatever difference may exist in the times. 30th. — The conductors and enginemen are required to keep themselves informed, by frequent enquiry at the terminal stations, of any changes in the Time Table or Instructions , and ignorance of any such change shall not be receiyed as a reason for delays as accidents. April 2H 1849. J # p. KIRKWOOD, Sup*t. FIRST CODE OF ERIE TRAIN REGULATIONS, (PRINTED ON BACK OF TIME-TABLE SHOWN ON PAGE 383.) THE STORY OF ERIE 3^5 days of railroading, owing to the "instructions" that were printed upon it for the guidance of the engineers, con- ductors, and trainmen, which will be something to amaze the railroader of this day and generation. The code of regulations for trains thus promulgated was the beginning of a system that was but little improved until the coming of the telegraph. Binghamton was the western terminus of the Erie five months. The official announcement of the opening to Owego was as modest as all previous notices of the kind, and included the first time-table between New York and that place : NEW YORK AND ERIE RAIL ROAD. Extended to Owego. On and after the 1st June, the trains will run as follows, daily, except Sundays : — For Passengers — Through Trains will leave New York for Owego, by steamboat, from the Duane street Pier, at 1% o'clock a.m. and 5 o'clock p.m., stopping at Ramapo Station, Chester, Goshen, Middletown, Otisville, Port Jervis, and all the way stations west of the last named place ; and will leave Owego, on and after the 4th June, at 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., and Binghamton, on and after the 1st June, at 7 a.m. and S p.m., arriving in New York at 7)4 p.m. and >'. a.m., stopping at all the way stations between Owego and Port Jervis ; and, east of Port Jervis, at Otisville, Middletown, Goshen, Chester, Ramapo Station, and Spring Valley. Way Trains — For Port Jervis and all the intermediate stations, will leave New York, by steamboat "Thomas Powell," from Duane street Pier, at 7)4 a.m. and 4 p.m.; and will leave Port Jervis at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. Milk Trains — A train leaves Otisville at $)4 a.m., arriving in New York about 11. The afternoon milk is taken by the train leaving Port Jervis at 4 o'clock p.m., and arriving in New York about midnight. Freight — Freight leaves New York every night for all the regular stations on the road. A freight train will leave Owego even' morn- ing at 6 o'clock a.m.; and another will leave Port Jervis as usual every morning at S o'clock a.m. with market freight. &c. James P. Kirkwood, Sup' I. The opening of the railroad to Owego led to the estab- lishing of a passenger and freight route by way of Seneca and Cayuga Lakes and the Cayuga and Susquehanna Rail- road to Owego to connect with the Erie. A market line was established by James Sisk, of Binghamton ; William Whitney, Dresden, on Seneca Lake ; George P. Monell, Dresden : Nathaniel Ells, Owego. Capt. James Sisk had charge of the line, and had agents at all the points from Geneva, on Seneca Lake, to Hancock, in the Delaware Valley, on the Erie. It was called " Even-body's Market Line." The next momentous event in the progress of the railroad's development was the following announcement : NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD OPEN TO ELMIRA. On and after Monday, the 1st of October, the passenger train leav- ing New York at 5 p.m. will run through to Elmira, arriving the next morning. Freight for Elmira and stations between Owego and Elmira will be received at the Pier foot of Duane Street on and after the 5th of Oc- tober. James P. Kirkwood, Oct. I, 1S49. Superintendent. The first time-table through to Elmira was this : NEW YORK AM) ERIE RAILROAD. Open to Elmira. On and after the Sth October, 1S49, the trains will run as follows, Sundays excepted : — Passenger Train. — Through Trains will leave New York for Elmira, from the Company's Pier, at the foot of Duane street, at 7 o'clock a.m. and 5 o'clock p.m., stopping at all the way stations. From Elmira the through trains will leave for New York at 6 a.m. and 5J p.m., stopping also at all the way stations. Freight. — Freight leaves New York every night for all the regular stations on the road. A freight train will leave Elmira ever)- morning at 3.20 o'clock. Fare from New York to Elmira $5. The intermediate stations in proportion. Commutation Tickets at lowest rates for the stations between New York and Port Jervis can be purchased at the New York and Piermont offices. The steamboat " Erie" leaves N. Y. for Piermont every day at 3 o'clock, and returns on the arrival of the train from Elmira, arriving at New York about 8i p.m. t^S" Stage lines connect with this road at various stations, to wit : At Elmira with Jefferson and Geneva by the Seneca Lake, arriving at Geneva in time to take the express train going west to Buffalo ; with Tioga Point, Corning, &c. ; with Ithaca and Cayuga Bridge, via Cayuga Lake. At Binghamton with Chenango Forks, Green, Oxford, Norwich, &c. At Deposit with Delhi, Bainbridge, Oxford, &c. At Narrowsburgh with Ilonesdale, Carbondale, Wilksbarre, &c. At Port Jervis with Milford. At Middletown with Wurtsboro, Ellen- ville, ^c. James P. Kirkwood, Sup't. In the latter part of November, 1849, the Chemung Rail- road was finished, and November 30th the following an- nouncement was made : CHEAPEST AND QUICKEST ROUTE TO NEW YORK ! By the Railroad recently completed from Jefferson at the Head of Seneca Lake to Elmira, where it strikes the New York and Erie Rail- road. Regular running of trains will begin over this route December 5, 1S49, thus opening a new route between Geneva and New York, by connection with boats on Seneca Lake at Jefferson, and covering the distance in the short space of Seventeen Hours, at the Moderate Charge of Five Dollars ! More Expeditious and Cheaper than from Geneva to New York via Albany ! The arrangement was not completed until the middle of December, when the Erie leased the Chemung Railroad. Jefferson is now the village of Havana. December 31st the Erie was opened to Corning, with no further announcement than the official time-table, which stated : On and after December 31, 1846, the trains will run as follows, Sundays excepted : Morning Train for Elmira, Corning, and intermediate places, leaves the Pier at the foot of Duane street, at 7 o'clock a. m., arriving the same evening. EVENING Train for Elmira. Corning, Jefferson, Geneva, Rochester, Buffalo and intermediate places, leaves at 4 p. m. , arriving at Buffalo the next evening. Fare to Geneva $6,50; to Rochester $S, 15 ; to Buffalo $10,35. Passengers for Ithaca and Cayuga Lake take the cars of the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad at Owego. Passengers for Tioga and Lycoming Counties, Pa., take the cars of the Corning and Blossburg Railroad, at Corning. Passengers for New York leave Geneva at 6 a. m. and 2 p. m. 3 86 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES a. m. and 4.3° P- '"■ Leave Corning at 4,20 p m. "Leave Elmira at 9,24 a. m. and 5.44 p. m. OwegO 10,50 a. m. and 7,35 p.m. Binghamton at 11.39 a. •"• ;iml s > 2 7 '■>■ m. p. m. Narrowsburgh at 3,44 p. n 12.4; 1 i leaves New York for all the regular stations on the mad at 4 a. 111" Leaves Jefferson at 7,55 a. m. and Corning at 11 p. m. for New \ Geneva, N. Y., thus became what might be called the m terminus of the Erie. Connection was made there with local railroads for Buffalo and Rochester. The first time-table for the Newburgb Branch was pub- lished [anuary 8, 1850. A passenger train ran from New- burgh twice a day, morning and evening, connecting at Chester with trains on the main line. One freight train was run. but had no schedule time. Corning was the western terminus of the Erie until Sep- tember, 1850, and no change was made in the running or number of through trains. In that month the railroad was opened to Hornellsville, but Geneva was still the main ob- jective point, and the time-table of December 2, 1850, was headed, " New Route to Buffalo and the West." The steamer "Thomas Powell" carried the passengers from New York. For the 'West there was an express train at 7 a.m., arriving at Geneva at 10 p.m. ; a way and mail train at 7 a.m. for Elmira, stopping at every station, and "arriving at Elmira the same evening" ; a way train at 3 p.m. for Otisville ; and a night express at 4 p.m., stopping at principal stations to Binghamton, and at all stations west of Binghamton. By the 7 a.m. express train, "Passengers for Rochester, Buffalo, etc.," the time-table stated, "can lodge at Geneva, or on board the boat on Seneca Lake, where comfortable berths are provided, and take the Express Train from Albany next morning, arriving at Rochester and Buffalo at the same time as passengers via Albany, with the advantage of a night's rest." And by the 4 p.m. express they "proceed to Geneva and take the train, arriving at Buffalo the same evening." Eastward, an express train (boat on Seneca Lake) left Geneva at 4 a.m., and Hornellsville at 5.40 a.m., arriving at New York at 9.14 p.m. ; a way and mail train left Elmira at 5.50 a.m. : a night express train left Geneva at 1 p.m., and Hornellsville at 2.20 p.m., arriving at New York at 8 a.m., and a way train left Otisville at 6 a.m., arriving at New York at 11. April 14, 1851, the following announcement appeared: NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. In anticipation of the opening of the road, the Directors of the i"'v have made arrangements to tieket passengers and check baggage through to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo and other placesonthe Lake On thi arrival ol the trains at Dunkirk, the steamers " 1 hi 1 -." " Queen I :ity " or " Keystone State " of the De- troit Inu — Hi, Empin , ttoga" or " Alabama " of the Cleve- land or Toledo line, will be in readiness to convey passengers directly through to those plai 1 The steamers " Albany," " Diamond " and " Fashion " will also form a line between Dunkirk and Cleveland landing at the intermediate pons. -These steamers are all first-class vessels, are fast sailers, and have superior accommodations. When these arrangements are completed, it is intended to convey passengers from this city to Dunkirk in sixteen hours (night line eighteen hours) ; toCleveland in twenty-six or twenty-seven hours ; to Detroit in thirty- six hours ; to Cincinnati in forty hours, and to Chicago in forty-eight or fifty hours. The benefit which these arrangements will confer upon the travelling community cannot be estimated, and the Company feel confident that their efforts to accommodate the public will meet with a liberal reward. ERIE TERMINUS, DUNKIRK HARBOR, 185I. May 15, 1851, the road was open to Dunkirk, and the first through official announcement for business published in the newspapers was dated May 19th. This was it : NEW VORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. 1S51. For Dunkirk, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and other ports on Lake Michigan and St. Louis. From New York to Detroit in 35 hours, direct from Dunkirk with- out landing ; to Chicago in 50 hours ; to Milwaukee in 60 hours. Ti/tw saved is money earned. One of the following new low-pressure steamers — " Keystone State," Capt. W. P. Stone, "Niagara," Capt. A. Walker, "Queen City," Capt. T. J. Titus — leave Dunkirk- daily at 1 1 o'clock a.m., or on the arrival of the Evening Express Train from New York, in connection with the Michigan Central Railroad. By leaving New York at 6 p.m., passengers arrive at Dunkirk next morning, take one of the above steamers direct for Detroit, arriving in time for the Day Express Train over the Michigan Central Railroad and arrive in Chicago same evening, 12 hours ahead of the Albany route. Baggage checked from New York to Detroit tree of por- terage. By leaving New York same time, via Albany & Buffalo Railroad, arrive in Detroit at evening, and Chicago the next morning, with a night's ride over the Michigan Central Railroad, and 12 hours longer time. Three other lines of first-class steamers connect with the Road at Dunkirk, viz.: Sandusky Line, Toledo Line, and Walbridge's Line, running in connection with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, Sandusky and Cincinnati Railroad, Michigan Southern Railroad and Ohio and Indiana Canals at Toledo, and Michigan Cen- tral Railroad at Detroit. [See small bills of each steamboat line for time connections, fare, &c] Fare from New York to Dunkirk, $S.oo. The fare will be given in a few days from New York through to Detroit and Chicago. Through tickets can be obtained at the office of the Company. New York office, foot of Duane street. ('has. MlNOT, Superintendent. The railroad was opened for regular business Monday, May 19, 1851, and this was the first official time-table of trains from New York : THE STORY OF ERIE 387 NEW YORK AND ERIK RAILROAD. On Monday, the 19th instant, the following trains will leave New York from Duane Street Pier, till further notice : For Dunkirk — Express Trains at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mail Train, via Piermont, at 8 P.M. The Evening Express Train connects at Dunkirk with the splendid steamers Niagara, Keystone State and Queen City, one of which leaves immediately on the arrival of the train, for Detroit direct, run- ning through in about thirty-six hours from New York to Detroit, and forty-three to Chicago. The Morning Express Train connects with splendid steamboats for Cleveland direct, and with other boats for Erie, Sandusky, Toledo, &c. Passengers by this line arrive at Cleveland in about twenty-three hours from New York. Passengers from Buffalo can take either Express Train and arrive by the Morning Train at Geneva at half past 7 P.M., and at Buffalo the same night ; by the Evening Train arrive early the next morning and proceed direct to Buffalo. Way Trains for Otisville at 8.30 P.M., via Piermont, and at 6.10 P.M., via Jersey City, N. Marsh, Secretary. May 19, 1851. The first train from Dunkirk came through in seventeen hours, and brought 100 through passengers. It arrived at Jersey City at 11 p. m., Monday, May 19. The first freight train to come East over the Erie from Dunkirk left that place Monday morning, May 19th. It arrived at Piermont Tuesday evening, May 20th. It con- tained a car of live stock which was consigned to Powell, Ramsdell & Co., of Newburgh, by William Lisle. Some of the cattle were sent to New York, and were the first trans- ported over the Erie to arrive at that city. Following is the initial schedule of trains to New York : NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. New Route to New York City, via Dunkirk and the Erie Railroad, connecting with first-class Steamers on Lake Erie, the Michigan, Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati, Cleveland & I'ittsburgh, and Sandusky & Cincinnati Railroads, and Steamers on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and the Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsyl- vania Canals. Trains leave Dunkirk as follows : i^t. Morning Express Train at 6 A.M. 2d. Morning Mail Train at 9 A.M. 3d. Evening Express Train at 4 P.M. Fare from Dunkirk to New York, $3. 00. Second Class Pare will be given in a few days. The Express Freight and Cattle Train, leaves Dunkirk daily at 4 A.M., to which a Passenger Car is attached for the accommodation <>! way Passengers and Drovers. Particular attention paid to the shipment of Stock and Freight of every description. The gauge being 6 feet wide, gives this route great advantages over narrow Roads, in the transportation of stock and all other Freight. Additional Trains will be put in commission in a very short time. Freight Tariffs distributed, giving full particulars in regard to the prices of Freight Freight carefully shipped at Dunkirk, and each of the following Freight stations: Forestrille, Smith's Mills. Dayton. Cattaraugus, Little Valley, Creat Valley, Allegany, Olean, Hinsdale, Cuba, and all other Eastern Stations. C. MlNOT, Superintendent. J. Nottingham, Agent. Dunkirk, May 19, 1851. The following was an interesting event in the early history of the Erie as a through line : NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. Excursion Tickets. In order to afford the Stockholders an opportunitv to visit and examine the road, the Directors have resolved to issue Excursion Tickets to Stockholders, from the present time till July 10, 1S51, at the following low prices : From New York to Dunkirk and back - From New York to Dunkirk 5. 00 The tickets to Dunkirk and back will be good for ten days from their date, and those to Dunkirk only, three days from their date, af- fording an opportunity to stop at any of the stations on the road and resume the journey at pleasure, within the time limited. The tickets will be sold only at the office, No. 45 Wall St., New York. Nathaniel Marsh, Secretary. New York, fune 5, 1S51. The next through Erie time-table tells how completelv travel to and from the West had been revolutionized by the completion of the Erie, and was but the foreshadowing of the time of universal rail communication on the continent, the great idea of which was born of the impulses that created and carried forward to success the New York and Erie Rail- road, the first link in that now perfect chain of transconti- nental communication. On this Erie time-table the " Emi- grant Train " first finds a place among the listed trains of the road. The schedule was the " Fall Arrangement for 185 1." Three through trains were run between New York and Dun- kirk, each way, and the "suburban" traffic required t\v. > trains from, and one to, New York. Following is the sched- ule : 1. Day Express Train, at 6 am. (Sundays excepted) for Dunkirk, there connecting without delay with first class steamers for Cleveland, running in connection with the express train from Cincinnati ; and with first class steamers for Toledo and Monroe, running in connec- tion with the Michigan Southern Railroad. Dinner at Deposit, and Supper at Hornellsville. Passengers by this train take the Canan- daigua Railroad at Elmira, and arrive at Rochester and Buffalo the same evening. 2. Mail Train, at 8 am. (Sundays excepted) stopping at all the sta- tions. This train remains over night at Elmira, and goes on next morning at 7:30, arriving in Dunkirk at 4:55 pm. (Dinner at Nar- rowsburgh.) 3. Way Train, at 3 pm. (Sundays excepted) for Pieimont and Suf- fern. 4. Way Train, at 5 pm. (Sundays excepted) for Sufferns, Delaware and intermediate stations. 5. Evening Express Train, at 6 pm. for Dunkirk, and there con- necting with first class steamers for Detroit direct ; and also for Erie, Ashtabula, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo and Monroe. On Saturdays this train runs only to Elmira. (Supper at Turner's, breakfast at Hornesville.) 6. Emigrant Train at 6 pm. (Sundays excepted) for Dunkirk. Trains ts A'eif York. — I. Day Express Train leaves Dunkirk at 6 am. (Sundays excepted) arriving in N. York same evening. Passen- gers from Buffalo and Rochester take this train at (anandaigua. 1. Way train leaves Delaware at 5 am. (Sundays excepted! ping at all stations. 3. Mail train leaves Corning at 6:43 am., stopping at all si (Sundays excepted). 4. Mail train leaves Dunkirk at 10 am. (Sundays excepted). Pas- sengers by this train can stay "\er night at Corning. Elmira, Ov or Binghamton, and proceed next morning by Express or Mail train to New York. j. Accommodation train leaves Dunkirk at li pm. (Saturdavs and Sundays excepted). 6. Evening Express train leaves Dunkirk at 5 pm. and 1 daigua at ql pm., taking passengers from the Night Express train* from Buffalo and Rochester. BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Wb-A-a* Takes Effect' Monday, NofrcinBer 2£, 1801. TRAINS MOVING EAST. THIRD CLASS. WAY FRflGHT.-. '5.05 PM 4.35 u ■4.-05 "" 2.90 * 210 " 1.41 - " 12.35 pm .11.55 AM 11.20 « M)45 " 935 " 8 57 " 8.00 " 7.22 " ^0.32 « J6.10 " ^5:05 4:35 3.45 ••3.15 .2.55 u "•2.30 " •130 "' 1*30 AM CATTLE FREIGHT. 12.40 pm »f2:23 ".'■ •12.06pm '11.38 am •11.18" -. 10.58" •10.33 " MO 14" •1043 " •9.43 " 8 42 " 7.46 " P7.10 " •6.27 " 5.56 " 5.12" •4.42 " 4.20 " 3.15", '2.38 " •2.20 " •2.00 " 1.00 " 12.01 AM FIRST CLASS. ACCOM'O'N PASSENGER "Western Division. 3.03 pj 2.51 " '2-38 « &.IO " •2.00 1.41 1.25 1.10 12.57 ■ 12.42 12.10 pm 11.52 AM ^,1 1.28 " 10 57 " 10.27 " 10.16 " 10.02 " 9.44 « 9.26 " 9.07 « 8.57 •8.47 ' 815 7.45 am NIGHT EXP. PASSENGER I'M 10.15 10.04 " •9.54 « •9.35 " *9.29 9.14 •9.02 •8.53 8.45 •" •8.33 " *8.U " •7.58 " §7.42 •7. 15 •6.56 6.48 btajihs of -STATIONS ANp Passirig Places, ArHorndLsville, Dep. Almond, Alfred, Aadover, Dep. Shoemaker's C'uer, - ' Genesee, Scio, PhiHipsville, •- Belvidere, Friendship. Cuba, Hinsdale, QJean, Wunavjgw'ant, Great Valley, Budk tooth, Littlj Valley, Qfalt&r&xguSj Tth-nout, D&yton, p Cooper's Corner, - Forestville, Oep. Bj^ftkirk, Ar #F TRAINS MOVING WEST FIRST CLiS 11.1! •11.19 " 11.42 ' : 12.00 m pf Trains do not stop at those Stations indicated*^ a. ^unlesS'fiPfessarv. ir> the cases referred to in Rule""**. l-Z. tiS^S . m ?" l, *|2j : Stop 10 minutes; J[ Stop 15 minutes/, $ S£r$ 20 minutes. _.The Express Freight Train leaves the Pita; every day: fc^'jWay Freight Trains will not run on SunSt^. (except:* 'HTtey will st.. i ; on other days from each end of their Bivjaieh, HRIk •AOj«e&Et"I>ivision has previously arrived. ' BET. The Westward bound Way Freight ahdthe Cattle Fn K-y" in", H-iandajgna Express Passenger Train will iunjforydau Hop flUys. B^.The"N,i£htExD_r^ Passenger Train wifl run aAyUay w,'h * \tccoraiDiaa.tionTrain will run (coxa Elmira to Dunkirk; UM> tinj •WfC.IAYLQKi Division Ageat . rain;; Sundays at 2.25 am. rw^uhe end of their Division, when accidentally d^dayed,} WL ! i '^I=djto the fact, whether or not the .Way Freight Train o* "tbe OJ#3, should pass at Cuba. tjQ/£rerr;¥ork : and from N'aw-Yorii- to 'Elaaixa every . day csraptwig Sq^ t^^ae c»f Saturdays from Dunkirk, wnTT*in oa^ io JEtnifra BrV^^oA > , ::rtrt from Dunkirk to Elmira, every. day exceprta^ Sundays CHA'S MINOT, Snpt EARLY OFFICIAL TIME-TABLE, IN FACSIMILE. ORIGINAL OWNED BY H. E. GILPIN, ESQ., SUPERINTENDENT ALLEGANY DIVISION, HORNELLSVILLE, N. Y. (These Erie relics are very rare, and this one's value was greatly lessened by some former owner of it cutting off the official heading in •order to make it fit a frame. This time-table is historically important as showing the early beginning of the running of trains on Sunday on i rie, something which was strongly protested against.) Newburg Branch. — Trains run daily, (Sundays excepted) as fol- lows . Leaving Newburg at 6:05 and 9:45 am., and 5:15 pm. Leave r at 7:25 and 10:47 am -. and 6:35 pm. ht Trains. — Leave from pier foot of Duane street, at 6 pm., for all stations on tin- road, and for Canandaigua, Rochester, Buffalo, and all Western states. Chas. Minot, Stiff. The railroad from Canandaigua to Jefferson (Havana), at the head of Seneca Lake, had been completed, and was under lease to the Erie, making, with the Chemung Railroad from Elmira, a line of railroad by the use of which the Erie had as yet the only means . i| reai hing Buffalo or Rochester. With the coming of the Canandaigua Railroad the steamboats on Seneca Lake to Geneva ceased to be a portion of the Erie's "through line." The Chemung Railroad and the Canan- daigua line are now parts of the Northern Central Railroad, and belong to the Pennsylvania Railroad system. As a matter of historical importance, the following time- table is incorporated with this chronicle of the regular Erie first schedules, as this railroad is now part of the Erie (the Buffalo Division). BUFFALO & NEW YORK CITY RAIL-ROAD. That portion of the Buffalo .V New York City Rail-Road between Hornellsville and Portage, will be opened to the public on and after Thursday, 22d Jan., 1852. Trains wilt run daily (except Sundays) for Passengers and freight, leaving Hornellsville at 7 A. M., or after the Arrival of the N. Y. & E. R. R. Night Express Train from New York, and returning leave Portage at 4 P. M., arriving at Hornellsville in time for the night Express Train for New York. THE STORY OF ERIE 589 The standard Time for the Road will be Ten Minutes slower than the N. V. A; E. R. K. time, at the Hornellsville Station. The rates of fare will be Three Cents per Passenger per Mile. The rates of Freight to or from Stations on the N. Y. & E. R. R. east or west of Hornellsville, will be for three classes corresponding to the classification upon the New York and Erie Railroad, and as follows . 1st Class, 6 cents per Ton per Mile. 2d " 5 " " " " " 3d " 4 " " Xo charge will be made less than twenty-five cents, and no package will be estimated at less than fifty pounds. Will run in connection with the Trains from and to the following points : Dansville, Mt. Morris, Geneseo, Avon, Rochester, Castile, Perry, Gainesville, Warsaw, Wyoming. Attica, Pike, Arcade, Yorkshire, Springville, Ellicottville, Franklinville, Farmersville, Rushford, Pel- fast, Cold Creek, Mixville, &c. S. Seymour, Engineer 6* Superintendent. Hornellsville, Jan. 14, 1S52. A terminus at Buffalo was a consummation that the Erie managers had long seen to be a necessity if they might com- pete successfully for Western traffic, for there was no longer any doiibt that Dunkirk was a mistake. They built much hope on this railroad from Hornellsville to Attica as being the means by which they could get their cars into Buffalo. The beginning of operations on that road did not strengthen that hope, however, for passengers bound from New York to Buffalo and the West by the Erie and the Hornellsville and Attica route, according to the time-table of July 26, 1852, if they left New York by the Erie mail train at 8 a.m., " re- main over night at Binghamton, Owego, Elmira or Corn- ing, and reach Buffalo the next evening, in time for boats going up the Lake; or leaving New York by the 6 p.m. ex- press, reach Buffalo at the same time, and have an opportunity to spend several hours at the Falls and High Bridge at Port- age. Passengers from Buffalo leave at 8 a.m. and connect at Hornellsville either with the Erie mail train, which remains over night at either of the above places, and reach New York next evening, or with the night express, which reaches New York at 12.30 next day." The Buffalo and New York City Railroad became a vital part of the Erie property years later, but only after much tribulation, disappointment and expense to the Company. ("The Building of It," pages 360-363.) There was no increase in the number of through passenger trains on the Erie for many years after the opening of the road to Dunkirk. Until 1S54 those trains were known as the Night Express, the Day Express, the Mail Train, and the Emigrant. There were express freights and stock expresses, and local trains had been put on the different divisions as the way traffic increased. In 1S54 the through express trains began to be known as the New York Express, the Cincinnati Express, the Dunkirk Express, and when a regular division of trains began to be made at Hornellsville for the Buffalo connection, the Buffalo Express came into existence. This was in 1854. It was not until i860, after the return of Charles Minot to the general superintendency, that Erie trains began to be designated by numbers, which is their universal designation to-day, whether the train is No. 1 or No. 617. On the time-table adopted January 18, i860, the west-bound through trains became No. 1 (Dunkirk Express), No. 3 (Night Express), No. 5 (Mail). The east-bound trains were No. 2 (New York Kxpress), No. 4 (Night Express), No. 6 (Accommodation), No. 16 (Cincinnati Express). No. 15 was a Fast Freight. No. 8, now one of the fastest and most sumptuous express trains on the road, was a Stock Ex- press. Nos. 2 and 4 connected at Chester for Newburgh. The other through trains scheduled for passengers were No. 13 (Express Freight), No. 17 ^Yay Freight), No. 18 (Fast Freight), and No. 20 (Way Freight). No. 3 ran only to Elmira on Saturdays, and No. 5 remained over night there. There was no emigrant train scheduled on this time-table. In the meantime there had been no material change in the trains or the running of them, except that the local traffic required the putting on of a way passenger train between New York and Port Jervis, and it was scheduled on the time- table adopted November 19, 1858, the train that became known as the Orange County Express, and is so known to this day. Until February 6, 1856, the night express from New York and the night express from Dunkirk were run on Sundays. On that date all Sunday trains were withdrawn from the road, except that the milk and freights ran as usual. Even the Cincinnati Express, which did not start on Sunday, but had been run to its destination on that day, was stopped at Coming Saturday night and held there until Monday morn- ing, taking the place of the night express on Monday. " The effect of the halt of this through train at Corning," a news- paper account of the change said, " will be beneficial to that thriving town." No Sunday trains were run on the Erie for more than a year, and, in fact, were not entirely resumed until 1S60, after the return of Charles Minot. The first "pocket time-table" of the Erie was issued to the public June 11, 1866. It was for the Eastern (now New- York) Division and branches only. It was printed on a card 4/4 x 3^ inches in size, which folded in the middle, the east-bound schedule appearing on one side, and the west- bound on the other. There were eighteen trains scheduled west-bound, and seventeen east-bound, of which nine each way ran only to Paterson. One ran each way between Suf- fern and Jersey City, one each way between Middletown and Jersey City, and one (the milk train) to and from Otisville. Port Jervis had two local trains each way. This time-table scheduled three trains each way between Warwick and New- burgh, a connection for one of them being for Goshen. There was but one local Sunday train each way over the Di- vision. Of the Paterson trains two ran on Sunday from New- York. To New York, the train that left Port Jems week days at 6.30 a.m. ran from Paterson on Sundavs. The time- table bore the names of H. Riddle, General Superintendent, and W. R. Barr, General Passenger Agent. The schedule of trains for the New York Division, in the pocket time-table for December, 1S9S, occupies four closely printed pages 7 j4 x 4 inches in size. 39° BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The increase of trains lias been steady since the days of Gould and Fisk. There an our through express trains from New York over the Erie, seven days in the week— Da) Express (No. 1 1, Pacific Express (No. 3), Ves- tibuled Limited (Xo. 5; vestibuled in 1887), and Buffalo and Cleveland Express (No. 7). The Day Express does not run ovei the old Erie main line west of Hornellsville. There are five through express trains to New York, four of them seven days in the week— Day Express (Xo. 2), Vestibuled Limited (No. 8), New York Special (No. 10), Atlantic Ex- press (No. 1:), and Local Express (No. 14). The Day Ex- press does not run over the old Erie main line west of Hor- lle, and none of the through trains runs to or starts from Dunkirk, the legal western terminus of Erie, and only one of them (No. 3) 1 onnects for Dunkirk from the East, and only one (No. 12) has a train connection from Dunkirk, the other passenger service on the old Erie main line to and from Dunkirk and Salamanca being one local train each way daily. On what the Erie designates as its through time-table of trains, Dunkirk is not mentioned, nor does the other legal terminus of the Erie, Piermont, find a place on any schedule of the Erie to-day. There are on the Xew York Division and branches thirteen local passenger trains westward, ami ten eastward, six days a week, and five special Sunday trains. These local trains are independent of the 140 or more trains between New York and Faterson, and between Paterson and other suburban places on the old Paterson and Hudson River and Paterson and Ramapo railroads. There are three local trains each way- over the Delaware Division ; five west and seven east on the Susquehanna Division ; three west and four east on the Alle- gany (formerly Western) Division ; five each way six days a week, and one each way Sunday, on the old Erie main line between Piermont and Suffern ; and four each way over the Newburgh Branch, six days a week, and one each way Sun- days — making 100 passenger trains over the Erie line, that began through business in 1851 with three passenger trains, one live-stock train, one through freight, one way freight, and milk train each way daily except Sunday; while the Erie freight trains to-day are numbered by the score daily. On the Erie's acquired lines and branches there are nearly 300 passenger trains constantly passing to and fro, many of them every day in the week. The original official Erie time-table for May, 185 1, could easily have been printed on a single page of this history. The time-tables for the railroad and its branches to-day would till lilt\ ol these pages ! Tilt: ORIGINAL STARTING PLACE. Piermont, the original starting point of the Erie, was twenty-four miles from New York. The trip from Xew York up the Hudson Run to the cars had its inconvenien< es, bul it also had its pleasures in fine weather. On a bright sum- mer morning, with a grateful, refreshing breeze, it was a de- lightful sail. It was this trip on the river that was used for years by those opposed to the changing of the terminus to Jersey City as the argument in favor of maintaining the origi- nal arrangement. The river trip, it was urged, was so restful and healthful a diversion from the tedium of travel by rail, that its benefit to the travellers was greater than the saving of time by the New Jersey route would be ; but the travellers and the Company failed to look at it in that way. In the original days of Erie, as now, the view of Piermont from the river was very beautiful. The village made a pretty show, while the steep heights above were dotted with neat cottages amid gardens and cedar groves. To the left, the hillside sloped suddenly to a glen, up which lay the course 1 if the railroad. The great pier, one mile long, and 300 feet wide at the river extremity, where there was a spacious basin and dock for the accommodation of the Company's boats, was covered with tracks. All the space occupied by the de- pots and the freight and car-houses — in fact, by all the shore terminal facilities — was made ground, the river having been filled in over an area of ninety acres ; otherwise there would not have been room for a single track to run along the river shore. The shops were on the north side of the Company's grounds. They were large for those days, and for years were the main building and repair shops of the railroad. They employed more than 200 men in iS^r, when the railroad was opened to Dunkirk. The round-house at Piermont had stalls for thirty locomotives in 1851. The repair shops were continued at Piermont until the summer of 1S69, when the work was transferred to Jersey City, and the abandonment of Piermont by the Erie, so far as it could abandon the place, was complete. While it was the terminus of the Erie, Pier- mont was a place of much importance. The village wis divided into two parts, on the north side of the railroad be- ing the business section. The home of Eleazar Lord, Erie's first President, was there, and there he died. The great pier was a constant scene of bustle and activity, where scores of men were employed transferring, loading, and unloading freight from the cars to the boats. The pay-roll of the Com- pany at Piermont amounted to many thousands of dollars a month. The pier is now abandoned except as a storage place for coal, with here and there a man at work upon it, and the passenger trains that are run to-day over that part of the original Erie, to and from that former liveliest railroad terminus in the country, are scheduled to depart from and arrive at Sparkill, a station a mile from Piermont, and un- known when the railroad first went through. As the time when the railroad between Suffern and Piermont was the main line is now only a memory, and as locomotives and cars were an old thing in that section years before they were new fifty miles farther west, reminiscences of the pioneer Erie days along that stretch of road are inter- esting anil important. David 1'. Demarest kept the Red Tavern, at what is now Nanuet, and in 1839 began supplying the railroad with ties, and subsequently with fuel. Railroad laborers to the number THE STORY OF ERIE 39i of thirty-five boarded at the tavern, and his young wife at- tended to all the work alone, having also two young children to care for. In 1849 he was appointed agent of the Com- pany, and the station was named Clarkstown. With the com- ing of the railroad he constructed two water tanks to supply the locomotives with water. They were filled by hydraulic rams, driven by water power from the Naurashank Creek. These required his constant attention. He was station agent at Nanuet until his death in 1SS1. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph G. Demarest, the present agent (1CS98). The station is in part of the house built by D. P. Demarest in 1S49. Tickets were not sold at Nanuet until 1852, and the station and date were written on them in ink by the agent. The station was known as Clarkstown until 1S56, when it was changed to Nanuet, which is said to have been the name of an Indian chief who once lived in the vicinity. Tallman's came into life through the building of the rail- road, and was named for Tunis I. Tallman. It was known to the first Erie railroad men as the fifteen-mile turnout, it being fifteen miles from Piermont, and a long switch had been made to enable one train to " turn out " for another. When the Erie was surveyed through this locality the pres- ent station of Monsey was a wet swamp and tangled morass. The Company drained it. Eleazar Lord, while President of the Company in 1840, purchased eight and a half acres of Ian 1 there with the intention of making an important water station. A platform was built for passengers to stand on while waiting for trains, and the word Kakiat was cut on it by a contractor named Jessup, that word being the Indian name for the surrounding country. It was afterward named Monsey, in honor of an old Indian chief. In 1841, when the railroad was opened, Angus McLaughlin put up a shanty or shed where the present depot stands, for a refreshment saloon. It was patronized by railroad men and train men. Aaron Johnson bought the Lord tract in 1843, and became first station agent at Monsey. At the opening of the railroad a log pump was sunk by the Company in a brook just east of the Spring Valley station. A platform was built around it, on which two men stood and pumped water into the tank of the locomotives. Subsequently a well was dug at Monsey which was fitted with a pump so arranged that the en- gine of the train, by adjusting its driving wheels to wheels placed in the track, could pump its own water. This was succeeded by a tank which was filled by hand pumping from the well. This remained until 1855, when the tank building burned. \\ here Spring Valley now is was only a crossing at a farm road when the railroad was built. The farmers thereabout, believing that Eleazar Lord had given undue preference to Monsey because he owned land there, protested that trains should be stopped at the crossing fur their better convenience as shippers, and soon after the road was opened to Goshen they held a meeting and prepared a petition to that effect. The Companv replied that if the fanners would build a de- pot, freight trains would be stopped there, but no promise would be made to stop passenger trains. The farmers built a depot, which consisted of a board shanty on a platform 10x12 feet, which was promptly taken in possession by Henry Iseman, who started a store in it. The railroad named the station Pascac, but the name was subsequently changed, at the suggestion of Isaac Springsteel, a prominent farmer, to Spring Valley, and a board with that name on it was nailed to a cherry tree stump near the " depot." When trains began stopping there, soon afterward, Iseman was forced to move his store elsewhere. WHEN THE LOCOMOTIVE CAME. By authority of his office as constructing engineer, George E. Hoffman made the contracts for the first Erie locomo- tives and cars. He first got the estimate of Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor, of Paterson, N. J., for the building of three ERIE LOCOMOTIVE, TYPE OF 1 846 ; CAB AND PILOT ATTACHED IN 1849; SKETCH MADE AT SUSQUEHANNA IN 1 852. ORIGI- NAL LOANED BY MINISINK VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. eight-wheel locomotives, four of them driving-wheels. That firm bid 59,000 for each locomotive, and would take none of the Company's stock to apply on the payment. Hoffman then went to Philadelphia and consulted the locomotive builders of that city. William Norris was willing to make the machines for 5S,ooo apiece, and to take 53,000 of the price of each engine in Erie stock — Erie stock then being quoted at a little better than nothing. Then the Paterson builders said they would furnish the engines for SS,ooo, but the pay must be all in cash. Hoffman gave Norris the con- tract. This was May 12, 1840. The locomotives were delivered to the Company at Piermont the following Decem- ber. They were shipped by way of the Raritan Canal and Hudson River. One was called the " Eleazar Lord," one the " Piermont," and one the " Rockland," and were numbered 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The contractors had been greatly delayed in putting down the superstructure for want of facilities for transporting the timber and rails from Piermont forward, and the engines were put at that work. No. 1 weighed 32,000 392 jJKTVYEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES pounds, 22,000 pounds on the drivers ; tender, 36,500; out- side connecti.ui : 13-inch 1 , 20-inch stroke. The No. 2 was four tons heavier than No. 1, but was similar other- wise. No. 3 was a 16-ton engine, and like Xos. 1 and 2 in other respects. In the spring of 1841 two more Norris engine 1 th< road, the " Orange " and the " Ramapo." There is no record of their cost, and as to the " Orange," or No. |, there seems to be no official record at all. The "Orange" became famous in many ways on the eastern end of the railroad, from the opening in 1841 to 1846, and later on western sections of the road. Her first engineer JOSEPH W1DROW MEGINNES ("JOE"). was Joe Meginnes, and her career has no parallel among the pioneer locomotives of the Erie or any other railroad. Here are some historic incidents in that career. As a Newspaper Special. — In 1842 the regular mail route between New York and Albany was a stage-coach line through the counties of the east side of the Hudson. This was long before the day of the telegraph, and the newspapers of that time had to depend on the mails or special couriers in obtaining the news. Presidents' and governors' messages were then considered the most important items of news that a newspaper could give its readers, and in 1842 the New York Sun resolved to place before its readers the message of Governor Seward for that year in advance of any of its rival journals. The New York Herald resolved that the Sun should do no such thing, although the Sun had arranged with the New York and Erie Railroad Company to aid it in the undertaking. There was a stage line between Goshen and Albany, and it had hopes of becoming the popular one to and from the capital, in connection with the Erie. The Sun arranged to have a copy of the Governor's message delivered to it by means of the railroad and the Goshen-Albany route. The Herald believed a copy could be delivered in New York sooner by a courier over the regular stage line east of the Hudson, and arranged to have one delivered over that route. The Railroad Company was intensely interested in the result of this race, for if it proved that the distance between New York and Albany could be made quicker by way of the rail- road and the Goshen and Albany stage route, the fact would go far toward making that route the popular one, it was be- lieved, largely to the benefit of the railroad. Hence the management made every arrangement to facilitate the delivery of the Governor's message. Joe Meginnes, with his locomotive " Orange," was chosen to make the flying trip between Goshen and Piermont with the message when it should be delivered to him. The pro- prietor of the Albany and Goshen stage line had provided reliable post-riders for this occasion, and the best of horses at ten-mile relays, to carrv them to Goshen with all speed. The Hudson River line had made similar arrangements for its route. When Governor Seward's message was delivered to the Legislature at its meeting in January, 1842, a copy of it was delivered to each of the post-riders, and away they sped. Joe Meginnes had his engine all ready to start from Goshen on the word. The " Orange " stood at the old Goshen depot, puffing and snorting, as if with impatience. No post- rider came. By and by there was danger of the engine's steam getting low, and Joe ran her up and down the track, while his fireman (Daniel Sutherland, of Owego, says he was the fireman) stoked her and kept her boiler full of water. An hour passed, then the sound of the horse's hoofs was heard on the hill, and a minute later the panting horse came dashing up to the station. The message was handed over to the custody of the engineer, and he pulled out immediately for Piermont. "He pulled out so suddenly," says David D. Osmun, of Chester, N. Y., who was present on the occasion, " that the locomotive actually rose from the rails, like a rearing horse, and then came down upon them again with a ' chug.' " Joe Meginnes always declared that he would have arrived at Piermont at least a quarter of an hour sooner than he did if Master Mechanic Brandt had not been on the engine with him. Brandt was afraid to ride as fast as Joe was inclined to run, and the engineer had to obey his superior officer. . A steamboat was waiting at Piermont, all ready to com- plete the trip, and it was quickly steaming down the river. The wide awake Sun editor had put aboard this boat a force of printers, with type and tools, who were set at work imme- diately putting the message in type. By the time the steam- boat reached New York the message was ready to go to press as soon as the type could be carried to the Sun office and placed in the forms. The result of all this haste and enter- prise was that when the rider reached New York, bearing the Herald's copy of the message, the Sun had been an hour on the street with its reproduction of the document. A great deal of money was won and lost on the result of this great race. But the result of the race did not have the effect of making the Albany and Goshen connections of the Erie the popular route between New York and Albany, and the stage line was soon abandoned. Wilmot M. Vail, of Port Jervis, who, as a boy, was present THE STORY OF ERIE o9o on the occasion, says that the engine that carried the message from Goshen was the " Ramapo," and that the " Orange " followed as a tender, the " Ramapo " being run by Engineer Newell. At Sloatsburg the " Ramapo " burned out a flue and was unable to proceed further. She was put on the Y at that place, and the message was transferred to the " Orange," and Joe Meginnes took it on to Piermont. Travelling West ahead of the Railroad. — Joe Meginnes ran the "Orange" until 1S46, when the new loco- motive " Sussex," or Xo. 6, was given him. Joshua 1'. Martin came from the Lancaster and Columbia Railroad in tint year and took charge of the "Orange." He ran her between Piermont and Otisville ; and when the railroad was opened to Port Jervis, ran to and from that place until the sum ne r of 1S4S, when the "Orange" was ordered to Bing- JOSHUA P. MARTIN', OF "THE ORANGE" AND "OLD 71." hamton to help in the construction of the railroad east from that place. Martin was ordered to Binghamton also, to take charge of her there. He went by stage with his family and his firemdn, John Meginnes, Joe's brother. The " Orange " was forwarded by Hudson River from Piermont to Albany, thence by Erie Canal to the junction with the Chenango Canal, and down that canal to Binghamton. The engine was five weeks on the way. After the railroad was finished be- tween Binghamton and Port Jervis, Martin and the " Orange " nelped build it on to Hornellsville, which place that pioneer locomotive was the first to enter. The " Orange " was sold to the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad Company in 185 r, and it was the only engine belonging to that company for more than a year, doing all the work of construction between Hornellsville and Portage. Joshua P. Martin, who had charge of the " Orange " during the construction period on the Susquehanna Division, had his choice of divisions of the railroad to run on when the road was opened to Dunkirk. He chose the Delaware Division, and made his famous record with "Old 71." ("Administra- tion of Benjamin Loder," pages 98-101.) He was appointed master mechanic of the Buffalo, Coming and Xew York Railroad (now Rochester Division of the Erie), and later returned to the Erie as master mechanic and engine de- spat* her between Dunkirk and Susquehanna. When he was running on the Delaware Division, nearly fifty vears ago, Josh Martin was held up by the moon. The Delaware Division is very crooked. One night, as Josh was booming along, the moon was shining nearly at his back. A few minutes later he saw what he thought was the headlight of a locomotive on the track directly ahead of him. He shrieked for brakes and reversed his engine. The train came to a stop. Then he discovered that he had turned a sharp curve in the road and come face to face with the moon. Martin died at Jersey City, February 24, 1SS3. His son, William K., is an Erie engineer at Hornellsville. In its issue of December 3, 1S51, the Hornellsville Tribune announced that " the locomotive ' < (range ' has been placed on the Hornellsville and Attica Railroad, preparatory to the opening of the road from this place to Portageville. and has been put in fine running condition by her engineer, W. J. Hackett." The " Orange " drew the first train of passenger cars on that railroad, January 22, 1852. June 5, 1852, she was taken apart and ferried across the Genesee River at Portage, the bridge across the great chasm being unfinished, and was set up on the track on the opposite side of the river, June 7 th. the track having been laid part of the way to Warsaw. Thus the " Orange " was the first locomotive to sound a whistle in that part of the Genesee Yalley, and she hauled the iron to com- plete the track from Warsaw to Attica. More than ten years later, although in 1853 she was described as "worn out," she became the pioneer locomotive on the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad, now the Bradford Division of the Erie. Since that time the historic old engine seems to have been lost track of, the impression among old railroad men being that she was taken to Susquehanna to be broken up and sent to the scrap heap. The first Erie engineers and freight conductors had a life of much hardship in cold or stormy weather. There were no such things as cabooses, and the locomotives had no cabs. The conductors had to ride on the locomotives. There was no protection from snow, or ice, or wind, or rain. It was not uncommon to see the engineer covered with ice like a coat of mail. " Joe " Meginnes, who, according to his daughter, Mrs. Mary I!. Freeman, of Xew London, Conn., was one of five engineers who were the first to run on the Erie, was the first engineer to have a cabbed Erie engine. Joe Meginnes, whose full name was Joseph Widrow Meginnes. came to be known in after years as the " Dandy Engineer." He had more the appearance of a man of letters than that 394 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES of a locomotive engineer. He was dainty in his dress, even on his engine, and never appeared anywhere with oil or the engine on his hands or face. He was a most competent man. and his instincts were so fine that when, on a trip over the New Jersey Railroad, he saw for the first time a locomotive with a cab, he became so dissatisfied with his engine that he made a demand on the Company for a cab to it. Time passing, and no cab having been provided for Joe's engine, he called on General Superintendent H. C. Seymour and informed him that unless the cab was furnished forthwith he would leave the road. The locomotive was fitted with a cab without delay, and that was the beginning of cabbed engines on the New York and Erie Railroad. This was in [848. Engineer Meginnes always had his choice 11 omotives from new ones that came on the road. He quit the locomotive sen-ice in 1857 to take charge of the railroad dining saloons at Port Jervis and Narrowsburg. He died at Port Jervis in 1S59, aged 42. He came to the Erie from the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. In 1S46 the Company added locomotives No. 6 and No. 7 to the road. They were named the "Sussex" and the " Sullivan." It was the idea of the Coir xany to name its locomotives after the counties through .hich the railroad ran and those contiguous to it. Engines 6 and 7 were ton machines, Rogers make, with 5-foot drivers, and they were called the "giant engines" by the amazed people along the line. Next year, however, the Company put on two Baldwin locomotives, Nos. 8 and 9, and called the " New York" and the "Monroe," which were a greater curiosity. They had six 3-foot 9-inch drivers, and tall, straight smoke- stacks. After that, as the railroad progressed westward, new locomotives became frequent on the road, and of patterns that would excite much wonder in the railroad engineer of this generation. They were named for the counties until the list of counties was exhausted, when the names of towns and railroad officials were bestowed. But the locomotives early came to be known by their numbers only, and every division of the road had its favorite engine and engineers, whose memory and the memory of whose exploits will be forever green— John Brandt, Jr., Joe Meginnes, James McAlpin, Isaac Lewis, Joshua P. Martin, Onderdonk Merritt, Ben Hafner, W. C. Arnold, ( rarry Iseman, James McCann, William Schrier, Jam Charles Rooney, Henry Hawks, Henry Green, Sam Walker, William Thomas, "•am Wood, D. E. Carey, John Donohue, 1 [oratio ( '.. Brooks, VV. D. Hall, Reub Hamlet, Sam Veasey, Captain York, Luther Pitcher, James Salmon, "Old Tripp," Ed Kent, A. N. Judd, Dan Kenyon, Mel Rose, Tom Tenant, William Ingram, Sylvan Merritt, Sam Tyler, Lou Springstein, Nathaniel Taft, Gad and William Lyman, Ellis Bart, "Old Drake," John Meginnes, Charles Mygatt, John Kinsella, Ben Gardiner, Dan Shaver, Tim Murphy, Charley Coffey, Amos Beatty, Dave Henderson, Jimmy Frantz, and the hosts of other brave and good men who mounted the footboard when the Erie was still young (some of whom are still on duty), and when the locomotive was part of the man and the man part of the locomotive, seemingly with one soul, one heart, one body. The first master mechanic on the New York and Erie Rail- road was John Brandt. He was a German, and came from the Georgia Railroad. He had been the superintendent of motive power on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1836, a Pennsylvania State road, and the original portion of the present great Pennsylvania Railroad system. From 183S to 1X40 Brandt was superintendent of motive power on the Georgia Railroad, which he left to enter the service of the Erie in 1840. He was one of the pioneer locomotive engi- neers of this country. He brought with him to the Erie, or was the means of their coming, the first engineers that ran BENJAMIN HAFNER ("THE FLYING DUTCHMAN"). cn the Erie. Fred Hamel was one of the earliest of the Erie engineers. Of the engineers who came on the Erie while there was still no railroad beyond Port Jervis, only one is alive to-day, and he is still in the service of the Company — Benjamin Hafner, known the country over among railroad men as the " Flying Dutchman." He came on the Erie in 1848, having been nine years on the Baltimore and Ohio. His first loco- motive on the Erie was the " Susquehanna," a Rogers engine. There were then less than 200 men on the pay-roll of the Company, and a majority of them were freight handlers at l'iermont. lien Hafner left the Erie in 1854, and ran on the Illinois Central Railroad, but returned to the Erie in 1858. He has been buried under his locomotive five times so that it took hours to dig him out, and he never got a si ratch. Once, at Ramsey's, the train running at fifty miles an hour, he collided with a coal car. The train was behind THE STORY OF ERIE 395 time, and he had already made up [ortv minutes between Port Jen-is and that place — a run of about fifty-five miles. His engine turned upside down, and some of the cars were wrecked. Mrs. James Gordon Bennett was a passenger on the train. A brakeman was badly hurt. Mrs. Bennett took up a collection for him among the passengers, contributing liberally herself. In 1869, while Jay Gould was President of the Erie, he ordered a locomotive made at the Brooks Locomotive Works at Dunkirk, which he named the George (i. Barnard, after the famous Judge of that name. It was the handsomest locomotive ever made up to that time. It was decorated by paintings in oil, on every spot where one could be placed, by the late Jasper F. Crapsey, the artist. There were fourteen (nits of varnish on the boiler. Gould selected Ben Hafner to be the engineer of the locomotive. The first trip I \ Gould ever took behind this locomotive with Ben at the throttle he was in a special car, bound for Susquehanna, 104 miles from Port Jem's. Gould told Hafner to go pretty fast. He went so fast that before they had gone many miles over the crooked Delaware Division Gould sent his colored porter ahead to tell Ben to go slower, much to the disgust of Ben. Ben Hafner got the name of the " Flying Dutchman " in this way: One day in the summer of 187 1 No. 8 was late when he took that train at Port Jervis. He had orders to make the run to Jersey City in as short a time as he coul 1. The distance was eighty-nine miles. Hafner made the run in just two hours, including seven stops, one of which was fourteen minutes at Turner's for supper. The passengers were badly frightened at the speed of the train. When the train reached Jersey, one of the passengers passed Ben as he was leaning out of his cab, and yelled at him : "Say, I'd rather sail in the 'Flying Dutchman' than ride after you ! " From that day to this Ben Hafner has been the " Flying Dutchman" to all railroad men. In 1893 Hafner retired as an engineer after more than half a century on a locomotive, and since then has been depot master at Port Jervis. He is hale and hearty at seventy-six. When the railroad was opened to Dunkirk in 185 1, there were locomotives on the line of the makes of Norris, Rogers, Baldwin, Swinburne, the Boston Locomotive Works, Taunton Locomotive Works, the Amoskeag Co., and Ross Winans. There were two of these latter, Nos. 88 and 89, intended for freight, and were remarkable in having eight 3-foot 7-1'nch drivers. A historic Erie locomotive of the period previous to the opening to Dunkirk was the No. 90, named "The Dun- kirk." It was one of the Hinkley, or Boston, locomotives. They were mostly hook-motion, with independent cut-off. This locomotive was brought from Boston in the fall of 1S50, by Horatio G. Brooks. It was transported on a vessel to New York, and from there sent up the Hudson River to Albany, thence to Buffalo on a boat on the Erie Canal, and from Buffalo to Dunkirk on the schooner " Commodore Chauncey." The engine was landed at the Erie dock and depot at the foot of what is now Washington Avenue, Dun- kirk, November 7. 1850. It was used in the construction of the road from Dunkirk east, and after the road was open was run by Brooks on a regular passenger train on the Western Division. Brooks was the first engineer on that division. He became superintendent of it, and afterward master me- chanic of the entire line. He suggested, while holding that office, many of the improvements that began to be made during the administration of R. H. Berdell. In 1S6S, when the Erie abandoned its shops at Dunkirk, he founded the Brooks Locomotive Works, and was president of that com- pany at the time of his death, April 21, 1887. Among the pioneer engineers who came to the Erie in 185 1 was William D. Hall, who began his railroad life as fireman on the Boston an 1 Maine Railroad in 1^43, when he was twenty WILLIAM D. HALL, OF " HINKLEY, 99." years old, having served two years in the machine shop of the Boston and Providence Railroad. In less than a year he was promoted to be an engineer. He came to the Erie in Feb- ruary, 1 85 1, and ran a train between Hornellsville and Cuba. May 5, 1851, he took the special car containing the officers and Directors of the Company from Hornellsville to Dunkirk, this being the first car through from Piermont to Dunkirk. He was engineer over the Western Division of the second section of the great excursion train that celebrated the open- ing of the railroad, May 15. 1851, his engine being a Hink- ley, No. 99. He ran that engine on a regular passenger train between Hornellsville and Dunkirk until 1856, when he quit the Erie service, two weeks before the big strike. He has been running an engine on the New York Central twenty-two years, and is still in the service, at seventy-six years old, at Buffalo. He ran the first link-motion locomotive ever built, 396 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES and has run engines built by every locomotive builder in the United States. Another of the engineers who came from the Boston and Maine Railroad was Charles H. Sherman, where he had run two years as engineer. He was one of the engineers who came on the road at the solicitation of Superintendent Charles Minot, while the Western Division was being finished. Sher- man was the engineer of the locomotive that hauled the first sei tion of the great excursion train from Hornellsville to Dunkirk on the opening of the railroad, May 15, 185 1. In 1852 he became engine despatcher at Dunkirk, and remained as such seventeen years. He was afterward travelling fore- man and road inspector, and later, and until his death in 1897, foreman of the engine house at Dunkirk. . CH \RI.PS H. SHERMAN There are two engineers who came on the Erie from the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1851, still in active service on the Western Division, where they have been running nearly fifty years. They are David E. Carey and Samuel Veazey, of Hornellsville. Both are long past three-score years and ten, with clean records, and apparently as well equipped for ser- vice as they were when they began. W. A. Kimball, who ran the first train between Hornellsville and Cuba, is still living at that place, but he retired from railroad service years ago. Among the curious locomotives that came on the road in 1851 (July) were two from the Boston Locomotive Works, two single-driver engines, designed for speed — Nos. 87 and 112. They were totally different in action. The former was a mass of machinery ; hook-motion, and independent variable cut-off. The latter was a full crank, direct-acting, without rocker arm; a link-motion. With a train suitable to their capacity, they were very quick, not costly to maintain, and easy on the track. The engineers took great pride in these machines, which were put in use upon the Susquehanna Division. Luther Pitcher had charge of No. 112, and John Donohue of No. 87. In the light of the present it was folly to purchase such motive power, not to mention the purchase of the two engines nicknamed " Plank Roads," with seven- foot drivers, and cylinders 15x20, outside-connected, and 'fire-box not much larger than an ordinary cooking range. The cylinders were placed aft of the smoke arch and steam pipe, out of doors, between the dome and steam-chest. There was a running board from the back end of the foot- board entirely around to the other side. They were built by Norris, and came on the road in the winter of 1851. They were Nos. 84 and 85. With two or three coaches, on the Susquehanna Division, after getting under headway, the engi- neers would make good time with these; but it took a mile start to get them under way. They were a failure, of course. No engineer wanted to run them, and the last one in train service (No. 84), on its very last trip, was ripped to pieces by Mike Barnwell, its engineer, who, it was said, stopped his train just after passing Gulf Summit, west bound, took a wrench and loosened up set-screws and pins, and whistled off brakes, whereupon the whole of her machinery was cleaned off. The boiler and one pair of drivers are in use at the Sus- quehanna shops as stationary power — or were in such use a few years ago. May 17, 1853, the Cincinnati Express, drawn by No. 84, made the run from Susquehanna to Hornellsville, 145 miles, in 161 minutes, which beat the record up to that time. The No. 85 was used as a switching engine in the Port Jervis yard for several years, but went to the scrap heap in the '6os. From iSsr on, the Essex Company, Danforth, Cook & Co., the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Co., Seth Wilmarth (who made twenty thirty-five-ton engines for the Company in 1S54, Nos. 167 to 1S7), and the Taunton Locomotive Works, added their styles to the lot ; while later came the Grant, Brooks, and other makes to jumble the equipment, so that in 1870 there were eighty-five different patterns. Running on freight trains between Suffern and Jersey City, at the time the Erie began to run between those points, in 185 1, were two of the original type of locomotives, named the "Whistler" and " McNeal." They were hook-motion, single driver, and worked steam at full stroke, no " cut-off." The steam-chests and slide-valves were perpendicular between the cylinders. There was an extension on the forward end of the valve yoke, which came through the steam-chest and ran into a guide. The bell was on the back end of the boiler, inside the cab, and was without a " clapper," being operated by strokes of a soft hammer in the hands of the engineer. The fuel used was wood, and was cut in about eight-inch lengths. The heating surface, or fire-box, was very small, so that if the engineer had to drop down a grade and rise another, he would stop at the top of the hill, put in a good fire, spread his slide-valves so as to allow steam to pass through the cylinders and create artificial draught to ignite THE STORY OF ERIE 397 the fuel, and when sufficient steam was generated, open his "butterfly" throttle-valve, rush down the one hill and prob- ably just raise the other, accomplishing wonderful results for that day. The freight cars were four-wheeled and barn-door style, with a bar across them. The story of how Rogers engine, " No. ioo," failed to make a record for herself and her engineer, Gad Lyman, on the historical 14th and 15th of May, 185 1, when the Erie was opened to Dunkirk, is told on preceding pages (" Admin- istration of Benjamin Loder," pages 98 to 100). Gad Lyman was so much disappointed and chagrined over the failure of his favorite on that occasion that he soon afterward quit the Erie's service. The "100" was taken in charge by Gad Lyman's brother William, who ran her on the Eastern Division until April 13, 1852, when, while she was making her stop at Chester, the crown sheet blew out with frightful results. The locomotive was thrown completely over back- ward and rolled down an embankment. The fireman, Robert Irving, was in the tank at the time and was blown more than fifty feet away. He was instantly killed. Engineer Lyman was buried in the wreck. His leg was cut off by the latch of the door of the fire-box. He lived but a short time. The headlight of the locomotive was picked up more than an eighth of a mile distant. This explosion was one of the first of the kind in this country. The Rogers Locomotive Works called in all their engines of that make and strengthened their crown sheets. In March, 1858, an experiment was made on the Erie with Cumberland (soft) coal as a substitute for wood as fuel for locomotives. Although it was reported that the experiment showed a saving of forty-eight per cent, in cost of fuel, no movement was made toward adopting the substitute until December, 1S61, when Hinkley engine "99," Taunton engine " 117," and Rogers " 64 " were rebuilt to burn coal, and this was the beginning of coal-burning locomotives on the Erie for regular service. It was not until 1872, however, that coal entirely replaced wood on the road, and if an engineer of the present generation of Erie trainmen should by any circumstance happen to see one of the old wood- burners, even of the most modern type, he would wonder at it : and what would be the speech of one of the dead and gone Erie engineers who passed their days on the cabless, pilotless machines that first came on the Erie, if he might come back and see the marvellous and monster Erie engines of to-day? For several years of its later-day operations the Erie has had in use a type of remarkably large engines. The class S engines weigh 200,550 pounds each. They are used for hauling freight trains on the Susquehanna Division. At the time of the World's Fair this was the largest style of engine built. In 1 899 the Company placed on the road what are claimed to be the fastest locomotives in any service. They are of the compound passenger Wootten Atlantic type. They are used for hauling the fast mail and express trains, and for the pas- senger service over two or more divisions between New York and Chicago, and were designed by A. E. Mitchell, superin- tendent of motive power of the Erie. The railroad men claim that the trains have made over eighty-two miles an hour, with six vestibuled cars. The trains have made an average of bet- ter than sixty miles an hour. These engines were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia. The engines are not as heavy as the former modern engines, and are much neater in appearance. The cab is about half way back on the boiler, making it near the centre of the engine. The fireman remains behind on the tender, and can at all times see the engineer at his post in the cab. The total weight of these engines is 151,240 pounds. They have 76-inch drivers. The weight on the drivers is 81,320, and on the trailing wheels 30,710 pounds. The cylinders are 13x26 inches in diameter and 26-inch stroke. THE ORIGINAL CARS. According to an official statement made in 1841, George E. Hoffman ordered the first Erie cars. Pond, Higgins ^V Co., of L T tica, wanted 82,500 each for passenger cars, and Si, 500 each for freight cars, and would take 20 per cent, of the amount in stock. Davenport & Bridges, of Cambridge- port, Mass., were willing to make the passenger cars for $2,000 each, and the freight cars for $900 each, and take 25 per cent, in stock. Hoffman closed a contract with them for four passenger cars, and with Push & Lobdell for six freight cars. The passenger cars were eight-wheel cars, with bodies 36x11 feet, six feet high in the clear inside, with a capacity of thirty persons each, and they were to be made in the best and most substantial manner. The freight cars were eight-wheel cars, the wheels weighing 500 pounds each, chilled, and equal to those used in Norris locomotives. The axles weighed 300 pounds each, and were swelled axles of hammered iron. The cars weighed ten tons each, fitted with axles and everything complete. The first rolling stock received by the Company was six freight cars, on September 5, 1840, before any rail had been laid on the road. They were built by Bush & Lobdell, at a cost of S900 each. The builders took Si, 400 of the total cost of the cars in stock. These cars were twenty-five feet long, ten feet wide, and six feet high, with four wheels. On September 17, 1840, Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor, of Pater- son, contracted for eight similar cars at the same price, tak- ing Si, 800 in stock, and on September 25, 1840, contracted to build six more, and four passenger cars, two at §2,000 each, and two "for ladies," at $2,050 each. The passenger cars were to be thirty-two feet long, eleven feet wide, and six feet four inches high. On the same date Davenport & Bridges contracted to furnish two platform cars " thirty-one feet long, same width and height of the passenger cars, that carry the 'baggage crates,' at a cost of S750 each, and ten ' baggage crates ' at S75 each. This order for rolling-stock 39§ BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES 5,750, of which 53,900 was paid in stock. This, with the three I'- s, made ai expenditure for roll- ock, before a rail was laid, of ^-'.350." The Erie baggage car was flat. " Baggage crates " were closed trucks on wheels into which the baggage was placed, anil then rolled on the Hat cars. i PING CARS ON THE ERIE FIFTY-SIX YEARS \r,o. George M. Pullman nor Webster Wagner is any more en- titled to the right of being called the inventor of the sleeping car than the man in the moon is entitled to be called the in- ventor of the sewing machine. As to Pullman (being of Erie interest), his chief claim to the monopoly in the sleep- ing 1 ar patent was founded on his control as assignee of pat- ents issued to Eli Wheeler, of Elmira, September 20, 1859, which patents Rudolph Dirks, of Sumneystown, Pa., claims were his ; but even the Wheeler patents were antedated by the Charles McC. raw patents more than twenty years — De- cember 10, 1838, being the first one. Sleeping cars were in use years before Pullman or Wagner was ever heard of, and among the very earliest of railroads to have them was the Erie, which had two in 1843, although the railroad was only three hours' journey in length. These cars were two of six cars of extraordinary size, built by John Stephenson, one of the pioneer car builders of the country. The models of the cars were made by Thomas Brown, of the Stephenson works, then in Harlem. They were not intended as sleeping cars, as the term is now know^n, but to be used by passengers if they chose, for reclining and sleeping during their journey. Railroads were not long enough in those days to require much night travel. But these cars, according to the positive state- ment of John Stephenson himself, were built with the idea that they were to be slept in, and for that purpose. These pioneer sleeping cars were known by the name of " the Diamond Cars," from the fact that the sides of the frame of the cars were built trestle form, thus making the spaces for the windows diamond-shaped, so that the windows were necessarily of that shape. The frames of the seats were stationary, two seats being placed back to back, causing each pair of seats to face each other. The cushions were loose from the frames of the seats, and a rod or bar could be slid from under one seat, across the opening between two facing seats at the front or aisle-side, and fitted in a hole in the frame of the other seat. The aisle ends of the seat cushions were laid upon this bar, the other ends resting upon the truss plank at the wall side of the car, the cushions being pushed forward over the foot space, and supported as above. The back cushions were moved down to take the place of the seat cushions, thus making a platform or bed. The bar had a little lip on it, so that when in the hole in the other seat it could not get out without being raised, and the ends of the seat cushions abutted against the forward ends of the arms so they could not slip out into the aisle. There was a partition against which the back cushions rested, forming head and footboards between the beds. When the cushions were in place they made two facing seats. The passengers 00 upying the seats manipulated the bar and changed the seats into a bed at pleasure. There were two of these cars. Six seats or beds were on each side. There were no bed clothes or pillows. The cushions were black hair cloth. There was a large diamond-shaped window opposite each seat, and one in the middle between each pair of seat backs, and a small window in each door. The cars were eleven feet wide. Archippus Parish was car-builder foreman of the car shops at Piermont in 1S43, when the two diamond cars came to the road from Stephenson's car works at Harlem. Thev were delivered at Piermont from a ferry-boat. Parish had them taken off the boat and superintended the putting of the trucks under them. The cars were named " Erie " and " Ontario." The "Ontario" for a time was run on a train known as the " Thunder and Lightning Milk Train," which ran between Otisville and Piermont. Parish afterward went on the road as conductor, and ran between Piermont and Otisville from 1S46 to 1847. These curious forerunners of the luxurious sleeping cars of the present day were soon found to be too heavy for practical use on the railroad at that day, and they were placed aside, to be used only in emergencies. A necessary adjunct of the railroad for years was a wood train, which passed over the line gathering up wood as it was brought in from the woods and ranked up at convenient places, and delivering it at points where it was needed for fuel. The men in charge of the wood train made applica- tion to have one of the diamond cars, but Superintendent of Transportation S. S. Post said he could not spare either of them, as the Company was short of rolling stock, and he fre- quently had to put them on passenger trains to help out. The end of the diamond cars was that they became boarding- house cars for track laborers. In 1850 the " Erie " was on a siding at Piermont, and the " Ontario " at Suffern, and grad- ually fell to pieces and disappeared years ago. They were sleeping cars, however, and when, in 1S79, the Pullman Com- pany brought suit -against the Wagner, or New York Central, Sleeping Car Company, to recover damages for infringement on the Pullman patents, Pullman was so nonplussed at the revelations made in regard to the Erie diamond cars of 1843 that a halt was called in the proceedings, and both Pullman and Wagner wisely concluded that it would not be well to go any further in the legal test of their "rights," and agreed to a compromise, by which they both continued to share in the profits of an invention which was old long before either of the claimants had thought of making it his own. About the time of the coming of the diamond cars on the railroad, the first cars with swinging-back seats were put on. They were made by Eaton & Gilbert, of Troy, N. Y. {From tlie Goshen Independent Republican^ yune 19, 1S47.) The New York and Erie Railroad Company have been treating their patrons and themselves to some new and elegant cars. The old THE STORY OF ERIE 399 ones are pretty good, but the new ones are perfect "dazzle eyes." The seats are mahogany, trimmed with figured crimson velvet. The stiles of the body inside are also of mahogany and the panels curled maple. The windows are protected by blinds, and the cars are lighted and ventilated in the most perfect manner. Altogether, they are fine specimens of utility, taste and elegance. About the time the Erie began running its trains through to Jersey City, a man with some genius originated a chair seat for passenger coaches. The prevailing seat was the plain kind, with low back; a comfortable seat, but unless a person could have a full seat in which to recline, a night journey was anything but pleasurable. The chair referred to was reversi- ble, and much higher in the back, and provided with a head- rest very similar to those in use upon barbers' chairs. These chairs were most highly appreciated. Persons intending to take the night train would go or send to Jersey City earlv, buy a ticket, and secure a night chair, thus enjoying the greatest luxury in travelling then known. Prior to the intro- duction of this chair, " fakirs " haunted the station with a de- vice to aid the passengers to enjoy sleep. It was an upright piece of steel that would reach from the middle of the back of the head to a point below the shoulder blades. Crossing this horizontally were four other pieces of steel. When put in use, the appliance was placed between the back of the person arid the back of the seat, with the passenger's head resting on the top cross-piece and the point where it was riveted to the upright piece. Thus the head rested upon a spring, and responded to the jar or motion of the car. These contrivances sold "on sight" at Si each. In 1S51, after the Erie had arranged with the Paterson and Ramapo and the Paterson and Hudson River railroads for transfer of its passengers, mail, express, and baggage be- tween Suffern and Jersey City, D. H. Conklin was sent to Suffern as telegraph operator, and to put the instruments in the waiting room of the other railroads. The situation was too much exposed, and Superin tent lent Minot gave him per- mission to take the body of an old baggage car that stood on a siding at Chester Junction. This was ordered to Suffern, and was placed at the side of the Erie track as an office. This car had a cupola in its centre, and a colonnade or gang- way entirely around it. At the time this old car had been placed in sen-ice the railroad probably had no time-card, or if it had, the train arriving first at a given point waited a stipulated time and then proceeded, running by " sight," with a man seated in the cupola, whose duty it was to watch for the train against which they were running. The brake wheel of the car was in the cupola. It is only within very recent years that a caboose with cupola and brake wheel therein was introduced on railroads, and claimed as a new idea. COMING OF THE FIRST CONDUCTOR. Eben E. Worden was the first Erie conductor. He was a slight, delicate young man, and was noted for his polite manners. He had been a member of the firm of Thomas & Worden, who had a contract for a section of the first grading of the railroad in 1840, the cut through Piermont Hill being a part of their work. The Railroad Company being in finan- cial straits, the firm lost money. According to the reminis- cences of YV. H. Stewart, it was understood that one John S. Williamson, who had influential friends in the Companv. was to be made conductor as soon as the road was opened. Williamson lived at New York. In consequence of Worden having been unfortunate in his dealings with the Company, Superintendent H. C. Seymour appointed him to be the conductor on the opening of the railroad to Goshen. He came from Cayuga County. He had been a contractor on the Erie Canal, and had a large claim against the State, which was disallowed. He then took the contract on the Erie, in 1840. He remained with the Erie two years as conductor, when broken health compelled him to resign. He died of consumption in the fall of 1844, and was buried at Sennott, Cayuga County. He married a Miss Smith, of Goshen, but left no family. (The author made diligent effort to obtain a portrait and biographical data of this first Erie conductor for reproduction here, but was unable to obtain either, much to his regret.) The appointment of Worden as conductor created a great deal of feeling among the friends of Williamson, and they not being disposed to let the matter pass without an effort to secure him the conductorship, in spite of the fact that Wor- den had it, Williamson was offered the place of Receiver of Freight on the New York dock, as a compromise. He ac- cepted the offer, but with the understanding that when the Company employed another conductor he should be the man. Capt. A. H. Shultz, or Capt. "Aleck " Shultz, as he was more generally known, had command of the steamboat that ran between Piermont and New York, in connection with the railroad. A man named Evans was ticket clerk on the boat. This man evidently had influence with Captain Shultz, and Captain Shultz must have been influential at railroad head- quarters, judging from what happened. Evans had a relative by marriage named Henry Ayres, who was working for the Harlem Railroad Company. The Erie had to have a freight conductor, and Evans put in a word for Ayres to Captain Shultz, and Captain Shultz talked it up at the Erie offices, and Ayres was chosen as conductor to take charge of the freight train on the road between Goshen and Piermont, thus becoming the second conductor on the Erie. This appoint- ment caused another disturbance, and the friends of William- son tried to have Ayres' appointment reconsidered, but with- out success. This Conductor Ayres became part of the history of the Erie, for he was more than thirty years the dean of the fra- ternity of Erie conductors, and, as "Poppy" Ayres, was known the country over for years after he ceased to be a railroad man. Henry Ayres was a native of Boston. In 1S20 he was in the United States Army, and was under General Eustis when that officer took possession of St. Augustine, Fla., July 4th of that year. In the spring of 1S37 he began work as a conductor on the Harlem Railroad, running from 4oo BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES New York to Morrisania, and in September, 1841, com- menced running on the Krie. He continued as conductor until May, [869, «hen he left the road, and became propri- etor of the Central House at Owego, to which place he had removed in [848. He was subsequently for a time United States Mail Agent on the Erie Railway, and was afterward in the service of the Company at Elmira. When he left the road he was retired on half pay, which continued until his death. Captain Amis, whose title of Captain was given to him by his friends many years ago, was one of the most genial of men, and his fund of good humor was inexhaustible. He was known affectionately everywhere as " Poppy " Ayres. He 1 i\ large man, weighing about 300 pounds. He had to squeeze his way through the car doors sidewise. In winter he wore a fur-trimmed overcoat and coon-skin cap. He died at Owego, October 5, 1880, aged eighty years, leaving a wife, and a son and daughter by a former marriage. The history of the Erie is rich in reminiscences of Captain Ayres, of which these are samples : assuming a theatrical and mysterious manner, and passed on, leaving the old lady gazing at the rope in open-eyed wonder- ment. The telegraph had not, as yet, been put in operation, but a line was in course of construction through that country, and the talk of the people was of that as much as it was of the railroad, which had itself only just come among them. Conductor Ayres knew that if the old lady had left her um- brella on the steamboat he would find it in the baggage-car, for it was the rule for the stewards of the boat to go through the saloons after passengers had left them at Piermont, and if any articles had been left there by absent-minded travellers they were taken on board the train and placed in the baggage- car, that they might be restored to their owners. So Poppy Ayres went into the baggage-car, found the umbrella, and, An Umbrella that Came by Telegraph. — In the summer of 1849, a worthy old lady living at Lordville, in the Delaware Valley, resolved to make a trip to New York, where she had relatives, and see the great sights of Gotham. She had been out of sight of her native place but once in all her life, and that was when she went one time " down the river" on a raft with her husband. For her New York trip she had boxes and bundles a-many. Among these be- longings was an ancient umbrella, a family relic. It is pre- sumed that she enjoyed her visit, but she had much tribulation on her return trip. In coming up the Hudson River on the steamboat, she became so nervous from fear that the cars would leave Piermont without her that she forgot all about her much-prized umbrella, and left it on the boat. She did not miss it until the train had reached Cochecton, which was well on toward her own stopping-place. "Poppy" Ayres was the conductor. In passing through the cars after the train left Cochecton, he saw the old lady swaying back and forth in her seat, wringing her hands and making a great ado. " What's the matter, mother? " the kindly conductor im- mediately asked her. " Are you sick? " "No. Not sick!" sobbed the old lady. " But I've left my umbrell' (sob) aboard the steamboat ! That umbrelP (sob) has been in our family fer more'n forty year (sob), and now it's gone ! Oh, oh, oh ! That's worse than (sob) bein' sick ! l!oo-o-o-o, woo-o-0-0 ! " " Oh, mother, mother ! " said Poppy, consolingly, patting the old lady on the baik. " Don't cry ! We'll get your um- brella for you. We'll send for it on the telegraph. It'll be here in a minute or two." The old lady cheered up instantly. She dried her tears, but 1 ould not disguise the surprise the conductor's assurance gave her. Ayres reached up, took hold of the bell-rope — then only a recent adjunct, and one that " Poppy" had himself introduced, as is told elsewhere. He wriggled the rope, CAPT. HENRY AYRES ("POPPY"), AT 75. taking it under his arm, started back through the train. When he came to the car where the old lady was, he took it to her and exclaimed, as if in great triumph : "There, mother ! I told you we could get your umbrella by telegraph ! And here it is ! " The owner of the umbrella was speechless with joy for a time over the recovery of the prized relic. She looked at it, anil then gazed at the smiling conductor. At last she ex- claimed : " For the land sakes alive ! Who'd ever 'a' thunk it? I've heern o' letters and papers bein' sent by telegrapht, but who'd 'a' thunk they could send umbrell's? " And in the exuberance of her joy she rose quickly to her feet, threw her arms around Poppy Ayres' s neck, and hugged and kissed him repeatedly before he could release himself, much to the delight and amusement of the other occupants of the car. THE STORY OF ERIE 401 He Sued " Poppy " Ayres.- — One day, in the summer of 1856, a fussy old gentleman, named John Beebe, bought a ticket at Xewburgh for Addison, Steuben County, X. V. When the train he was on reached Deposit, which was far less than half the way on his journey, Mr. Beebe was tired, and he got off the train and remained over night at that place. Xext morning he resumed his journey on the emigrant train. This train was not pleasing to Beebe, but he stuck to it until it got as far as Great Bend, Pa. At that station he deserted the emigrant train and waited for the day express. The day express was a " swell " train at that day, and its conductor was " Poppy " Ayres. He passed through his train after leav- ing Great Bend, and came to traveller Beebe, who handed up his ticket. The conductor glanced at it and handed it back to the passenger. " Ticket ain't good ! " said " Poppy " Ayres. "Isn't good?" exclaimed Mr. Beebe, flaring up. " I'd like to know why it isn't good." " Been punched once for this division," replied Poppy. " I don't care if it's been punched for this division, or that division, or the other division," retorted the excited passen- ger. " I paid for it, and I'm going to ride on it." •• You'll have to pay your fare on this train," said the con- ductor, quietly. " I'll bet you I won't ! " declared Mr. Beebe, with much emphasis. " You'll take this ticket or nothing." "Poppy" Ayres would not take the ticket, and Mr. Beebe would not pay his fare, so the train was stopped and the stub- bom passenger was put off. That did not cool him down a particle, however. He brought suit in Broome County, not against the Company, but against Conductor Ayres, to recover damages for being put off the train. Judge Balcom, who was afterward called to act in far more serious but much less creditable Erie litigation, heard the case, and directed a ver- dict for the plaintiff. The jury gave him a judgment for $250 against " Poppy " Ayres. As the conductor had simply carried out the orders of his superiors in ejecting Beebe from the train, it is to be presumed that the Company made good the judg- ment against him. He never would say whether such was the fact or not. At any rate, the case was not appealed. It may be that this was because the Company had then pending an appeal in the case of Ransom against the Xew York and Erie Railroad Company, the lower courts having awarded the plaintiff, who had been injured by a train at Chemung, a judgment of Si5,ooo. If the Company was awaiting the result of that case before trying its chances in any other ap- peals it acted wisely, for a few weeks after the Ayres verdict the Ransom judgment was affirmed. Ransom had been hurt July 4, 1853. Interest and costs increased the original amount to $20,000. INVENTION OF THE BELL-ROPE. Captain Ayres was the inventor of the present bell-rope system on railroads. The history of the first use of the bell- rope, as related by himself, is as follows : When he com- 26 menced running on the Erie the locomotive had no cab for the engineer. There was no way to go over the cars, nor for the engineer to communicate with the conductor when the train was in motion. In those days, instead of the conductor running the train, as at present, the engineer had entire charge, and the conductor was a mere collector of fares and tickets. Previous to about this time railroads had been used chiefly for transporting freight, and there was no occasion for communication between the engineer and the conductor. Captain Ayres' engineer was a man named Hamel, a German, and the original Erie engineer. In the spring of 1S42, Cap- tain Ayres rigged a strong cord to run from his car to the engine. At the end of the cord at the locomotive he tied a stick of wood. The cord extended thence up over the frame- work and back over the train. He told the engineer that when he wanted to signal him he would pull the cord, which would jerk the stick up and down. Hamel did not like this interference with his powers as master of the train, and as soon as the cars started he cut the cord and threw away the stick. This was repeated. Finally, one day, as they were about to start from Piermont, Captain Ayres, as he attached a stick to the cord, told Hamel that if the wood was missing from the cord when they reached Turner's they would fight, and thus decide who was to run the train. At Turner's the stick was missing. Captain Ayres removed his coat, and in- formed Hamel that he was about to make good his words. Instead of coming down to meet him, the engineer climbed to the other side of his locomotive. Captain Ayres followed and seized him, whereupon Hamel showed the white feather, and said if he was not whipped he would not remove the stick again. He was thereupon released. This settled the question of running the train, and from that day to the pres- ent the conductor, instead of the engineer, has had entire charge of running the train. The gong was afterward substi- tuted for the stick of wood, and the bell-rope went into gen- eral use on the few railroads that had then been constructed. There are other versions as to the manner and time of Cap- tain Ayres' introduction of the bell-rope, but this one is his own, and therefore authentic. William H. Stewart, one of the pioneer conductors of the Erie, ran the first through train between Piermont and Dun- kirk, and the first train ever run on telegraphic orders (which was in the fall of 1851), and was employed on the Hudson River boat that carried the first freight to Xew York that was ever run over the Erie after the road was opened to Goshen, September 23, 1841. Stewart was the fourth conductor to be employed, being preceded by Eben E. Worden, Henry Ayres, and Henry Watson. Mr. Stewart was in time promoted to first-class conductor, and followed the road as it advanced to all its various ter- mini between Piermont and Dunkirk. He was conductor until 1S54, with the exception of a few months in 1848, when he was station agent at Port Jervis, his health having failed. He took the late Captain Lytle's place as station agent here, and Lytle took his place as conductor. In 1854 he resigned 402 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ductor to take the contractfor delivering the train bag- gage from Jersey City to the Company's depot at the Eool oi Duane Street, New York, the Company then having no ferry of its own. He also had the contract for delivering the mails at Cortlandt Street. He was obliged to give the contracts up to a friend of the Assistant President of the Company in [858. Mr. Stewart then retired from railroad life. He died at Waverly, V V., December 18, 1897, aged eighty-six. Hiring a Conductor. — In the early days of railroading on the Erie, practical joking was a favorite pastime with many of the well-known employees. None, perhaps, enjoyed a wider reputation in that line than W. H. Stewart, better known as " Hank." While he was agent at Port Jervis, one ■ W. H. STEWART ("HANK"), AT S3. day a tall, lean, lantern-jawed, spindle-shanked native of the " Wilds of Sullivan " went to that place to get a job on the railroad. He called on Stewart at the ticket office. " Kin I git a job runnin' on this here railroad ? " asked the unsophisticated applicant. " Why, yes. I think it's more than likely," replied Stew- art, sizing up the calibre of his man at a glance. "We're killing off two or three men every day, and are running short of hands. You can have a chance. What kind of a job would you prefer? " " Oh, conductor ! " said the Sullivan County man. " That's the job that I'm lookin' fer ! " •' All right," said Stewart. " There will be a train due here in an hour or so, and if it hasn't any < onductor aboard, I can give you a job right away." The applicant's delighted smile was so open that he almost showed his palate. " But," continued Stewart, with great gravity, "you'll need a little practice before you take the job. We want a man who can walk as erect as a trained soldier, and has a voice that he can shout out the stations with, so it will be heard all through the train." "Them's easy ! " exclaimed the grinning backwoodsman. "Just come out on the platform, and we'll see," said Stewart. " I'll give you a few lessons before the train ar- rives." The mischievous agent took his pupil out on the platform, and gave him an illustration of the manner in which an Erie conductor should bear himself while on duty. The aspiring mountaineer copied the example, and with his thumbs in the armholes of his vest, walking as straight as a cock pigeon in a thunder shower, and calling out the names of the stations on the Eastern Division, in a voice that could have been heard fifty rods off, he strutted up and down the platform an hour or more, Stewart praising him extravagantly, and telling him what a fine conductor he would make. The exhibition soon brought half the village to the station, and a more amused crowd of appreciative folk never gathered there be- fore or since. The unsuspecting Sullivan County citizen strutted prouder and prouder, and shouted louder and louder, under the lavish words of praise from his instructor, who through it all was as serious as a preacher at a funeral. At last the expected train came steaming in. The conductor stepped off. " Port Jervis ! Fifteen minutes for refreshments ! " he shouted. " Pshaw ! " exclaimed Stewart, snapping his fingers, and turning to his pupil, who stood ready to take his job. "They've got a conductor on this train! Ain't that too bad?" Then the crowd, which had suppressed its merriment up to this time, broke loose in one great shout of laughter. The backwoods candidate for a conductorship on the Erie seemed then to get the joke through his head. He made tracks for home, satisfied, perhaps, that log-chopping was better than railroading, after all. — (Related to the author by Henry Dutcher, of Warwick, N. Y.) Giving Him a Job as a Brakeman. — At another time, while Stewart was running as conductor, Assistant Superin- tendent S. S. Post was being bothered by a man who wanted to be a brakeman. Post had become tired of the fellow's importunities. One day, as he was boring the Superintend- ent for a job, Stewart came in. Post, giving him a wink, said : " This man wants a job as brakeman. Can you do any- thing for him? " " Yes," said Stewart, " I want a head-brakeman." So when Stewart went out with his train that night, he put his man on the front of the baggage car, next to the engine. It was a foggy, drizzly night in the winter, and the position the man occupied on the train gave him the benefit of all the storm, and the ashes and cinders from the engine, so that THE STORY OF ERIE 40: when he got to Elmira it was difficult to tell whether he was a runaway slave or a Hottentot just landed. He slipped from the train at that place, and was seen no more. " He didn't even come back after his pay ! " Stewart said. FIRST CONDUCTOR KILLED ON THE ERIE. The freight train ran off the track just as it was passing on to the high trestle over the Hackensack River, five miles from Piermont, Saturday afternoon, April 6, 1843. The locomotive and two freight cars were precipitated through the trestle work about fifteen feet to the ground, instantly killing Henry W. Watson, the conductor, who was on the locomotive. The engineer and fireman escaped without a scratch, but were found unconscious, each at his post. One of the cars that fell through was loaded with pig iron and calves. Nineteen of the calves were crushed to death by the iron. There were fourteen passengers on the train when it arrived at the turn-out, some distance west of the trestle, and lay there for the evening passenger train to overtake and pass it. When the passenger train came along the passengers were transferred to it from the freight train, and many of them were thus undoubtedly saved from death. Conductor Watson was one of the civil engineers who made the final location for the Eastern Division of the railroad and had been retained in the Company's employ, " such was his probity and correct business habits, a compliment which our citizens will bear us witness too many of his associates did not deserve," pointedly remarked a Goshen newspaper in its account of the accident. He was the first Erie con- ductor (or employee) to be killed on the railroad. James Lytle came on the Erie as conductor in April, 1S43, succeeding Henry W. Watson. He was from Washington County, X. V. David P. DeWitt, a nephew of Superin- tendent Sevmour, was running Conductor Worden's pas- senger train at that time, Worden being ill with consumption. DeWitt was a civil engineer. When Worden died DeWitt was (ailed to the field and Lytle was placed in charge of the train. Lytle ran the train until the opening of the railroad to Port Jervis in January, 1S4S, when he was made agent at that place, W. H. Stewart taking the passenger train. In April. 1848, Stewart became ill, and Lytle took the train again, Stewart becoming agent at Port Jervis. When the railroad was opened to Bingham ton in 1S49 Lytle, Sol Bowles, and Captain Ayres ran trains through. It was a hard, cold winter ; the snow was deep, and the fuel was green wood, hard to bum. Lytle asked Superintendent Seymour to give him his old train back. Seymour told him to " run that train or nothing." Lytle quit the road, and was in business in Middletown until his death in 1884. Conductors following these pioneers (not in chronological order) were Albert Stone, Isaac Wood, Hank Masterson (who was the first baggage-master), Charley Green, Phineas Thompson, David DeWitt, Tom Houston, Jerome Dennis, Tom Hill, H. C. Chapin, John Sayr, David Doremus, Sam Crouch, John Buckhout, Charles Salmon, Solomon Bowles, Henry Smith, Ryerson H. Stewart, Charles Robinson, Ned Chamberlain, William C. Clark, Ellis Haring, Ed Haring, Dave Killinger (who afterwards kept the railroad dining saloon at Hornellsville), Ruel H. Chamberlain, Harvev Lamb, Al Larwill, Scott Harris, Lew Stanley, Frank Spring, C. C. Quick (" Lum"), Sam Walley, Jim Westervelt, R. R. Carr, " Hi " Hurty, Mark Ball, Jim Martin, Coe Little, Abe Wandell, Pat Jeffries, Dave McWilliams, W. C. Wan Wormer, Joe Northrup, A. D. Thompson ("Tone"), George Wooley, I. A. Post, Gabe Writer, A. S. Cobb, Maj. Lee, Dana Crum, and many others of the old school, few of whom are living. David Doremus has been constantly in the service since 1S57, and is the dean of the fraternity of Erie conductors, being the longest in actual service. He runs trains Xos. 5 and 8 between Jersey City and Binghamton. Harvey Lamb runs the milk train on the Delaware Division. Ellis Haring is in the service of the Belt Railroad of Chicago. Henry Smith is running a livery stable at Wellsboro, Pa. " Charley " Salmon has retired, and is living at his ease. Scott Harris is a prosperous boot and shoe dealer at Owego. Uncle loe Northrup, who ran the milk train on the Eastern Division more than thirty years, is enjoying life, at 80, in retirement at Otisville, hale and hearty. W. C. Van Wormer is Erie yard-master at Port Jervis. Few of others of the old-time conductors survive. NOTES OF PIONEER RAILROADING. {From Reminiscences of IV. If. Stewart.} There were no ticket agents at first east of Chester, and the conductor was provided with tickets for each station on the road, a square tin box to carry them in, and a bag containing ten dollars in small coin or bills. This was carried in the box and was the conductor's capital for the day. It was to make change with when passengers offered money for their tickets larger than the amount charged. The tin box and its contents were delivered at one end of the run to the general ticket agent at Piermont, who was Henry Fitch. The account was balanced with the con- ductor, and the box returned to him with ten dollars in the bag again for the return trip. All tickets for New York were collected on the boats. The Erie freight dock at New York was originally at the foot of Albany Street, but the increase in business was so steady that new and better quarters were soon obtained at the foot of Duane Street. Joseph Hoxie, better known as " Singing Joe " and " Fighting Joe " Hoxie, was freight agent on the dock. There was at first no shelter of any kind there for freight, and consequently butter, cheese, grain, leather, etc., were all dumped in a pile together on the dock, to be sat upon, spat upon, and otherwise befouled by steve- dores and longshoremen until consignees could manage to dig their goods out of the mass and take them away. But Joe Hoxie kept them in good humor by his never-failing repertory of songs and his endless jolly stories. 404 BHTWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES There was at first no system of doing business at all. No one in authority seemed to have any idea of railroading. Samuel S. Brown was general freight agent at New York. W. 11. Stewart was running on a freight boat between Corn- wall and New York prior to the opening of the railroad between Goshen and Piermont. Daniel Tobias was the captain of the boat. The opening of the railroad destroyed his business, as it did that of many other freighters from Newburgh, and he hired his boat to the railroad company to cany its freight from Piermont to the New York dock, and Stewart and the other hands remained at work on it. When winter set in and shipments fell off, there was no money the employees. Freight Agent Brown discharged Stewart and the other men on the boat, but they went to New York, and Joe Hoxie hired them over again. After a while the Company issued scrip, with which it paid its men and for supplies. A bushel basket of it at the time was not worth, intrinsically, the price of a month's board, but there were men who bought it on speculation at twenty-five cents on the dollar. A large buyer of the scrip was Augustus S. Whiton, the first superintendent of the Eastern Division. He took all he could get, and the result proved that he had judged wisely. The time came when the scrip was redeemed at its face value by the Company, and Whiton made a snug little fortune. It was the custom for some years after the railroad was opened to have boys pass through the cars with cans of water and tin dippers to satisfy the thirst of passengers. These were called "water boys," and a water boy on the railroad was the envy of all juveniles along the line. Like the whale- oil lamps and tallow candles that threw their dim light through the cars at night, the water boys are long-forgotten adjuncts of railroad travel. William Skelly, better known as Billy Skellv, was the first newsboy on the railroad. He was a protege of Captain Alec Shultz, a bright boy ten or twelve years old. He was very active and very popular with the patrons of the road. If a train was delayed, he always passed through the cars informing the passengers what the trouble was, how long it was likely to last, etc. He was the pioneer of the railroad news business, and as he grew up increased his facilities until he had a monopoly of the business between New York and Port Jervis, supplying such dealers as there were then at his own prices. Skelly made a snug fortune in the business, and his enterprise led to the establishing of the Union News Company, the present great railroad news agency of this country. The pioneer railroad newsdealer was not as successful in keeping money as he was in making it, and he died penniless. As early as 1843 Asa Faulkner, a brakeman, sold newspapers on Erie trains. Riding on a railroad was a new thing, and it was a long time before people learned that by paying fare from Pier- mont to Monsey, say, they would have no difficulty in riding all the way to Goshen without the conductor discovering the fact that they had paid fare only a small part of the distance. A well-to-do and prominent farmer, who lived not far from Goshen, once sought to evade conductor W. H. Stewart on the train by going into the closet when the conductor came through. Mr. Stewart discovered the trick. The station where the man was to get off was Goshen. Before the train arrived at that place the conductor stationed a brakeman at the closet door with instructions to hold it fast and not let the man out. The instructions were obeyed, and the eco- nomical farmer was carried on to Middletown. Then Stewart collected fare from him and let him out. He was obliged to remain all night at Middletown, and pay his fare back to Goshen next day, so that his attempt to " beat " the railroad company cost him dear. The afternoon trains from Middletown, which began run- ning in 1843, carried the milk shipments. No provision was made for Sunday nights, and soon the order came from Superintendent Seymour that the freight conductors must run the milk trains Sunday nights. These were Stewart and I.ytle, and they made the run on alternating Sunday nights. All went smoothly until the latter part of the summer, when one night Stewart's train ran over a pony that was on the track at the Ramapo crossing. The night was dark, and the engineer did not see the pony until he was upon it. The highway crossed the track diagonally, and was planked. The engine was the " Rockland," and the-engineer VV. C. Arnold. The locomotive left the rails and ran fifty yards along the wagon road. In those days the train crews carried their own wrecking tools, consisting of a jack, block and tackle, etc. ; but if a train was four hours late they would make up their minds at the Piermont headquarters that something more was wrong with it than the train men could handle, and a wreck- ing crew would be sent out to look it up and give it a lift. This night, however, no wrecking crew came from Piermont to help this train out of its difficulty, but at davbreak next morn- ing, when Stewart and his gang, by hard work all night, had succeeded in getting the engine back on the track, the wreck- ing crew came in sight. About two weeks after this mishap, the same train, with the same crew, struck a horse and wagon that the driver was attempting to drive across the track ahead of the locomo- tive, at Ward's pond, near Ward's station, one mile north of Sloatsburg. The result was the throwing of the engine, two milk cars, and the passenger car off the track into the pond. The water was very deep, and the locomotive was submerged all except the smokestack. One milk car was out of sight, under water, and the forward end of the other was deep in the pond. The passenger car was at the edge of the pond. There being no possibility of the train crew extricating the engine and cars from the pond, Conductor Stewart walked on to Sloatsburg, one mile, where he hired Sloat's son to drive him to Monsey, a station twelve miles further east. There he got a handcar and the " road gang," and started for Pier- mont. There was no frog at switches in these days, and the change was made by a moving bar. The switch east of THE STORY OF ERIE 405 Blauveltville was open, and as the hand-car came speedily along, it was thrown from the track. Conductor Stewart was hurled with such force against the bar on the hand-car that two of his ribs were broken, and he was tumbled down the embankment several feet. They got the car back on the track, however, and went on to Piermont, where they got the wrecking crew and returned with it to the scene of the most extraordinary wreck that had ever occurred on any railroad. They arrived there between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. A man named Thomas had a trip-hammer mill nearby, which got its power from Ward's pond. The mill had been idle for a long time, and Superintendent Seymour, who had come with the wrecking train, requested Thomas to draw the water off the pond, so the men might get at the sunken locomotive and cars, and get them out and back on the track. Thomas started up his mill, and said he would not draw the water off unless the railroad Company paid him 56oo for doing it. After a long parley a compromise price for his granting the company's request was agreed upon. The water was drawn off the dam, and the train was got back on the rails about dark, or nearly twenty-four hours after the accident occurred. No one was injured by the smash-up, singularly enough, but two carloads of Orange County milk never got any further toward their destination than Ward's pond. The Railroad Company had always been exceedingly ac- commodating to Thomas, stopping at Ward's to take him on and let him off, and taking on and leaving freight for him there. After this experience with him, though, he got no more favors from the Company. He was obliged to go to Sloatsburg, a mile east of Ward's, to get aboard trains, and to ship all his freight from, and receive it at, that station. So he lost a great deal more than he made out of his act of selfishness. The first general superintendent, Hezekiah C. Seymour, came from Oneida County, and got the name on the road of the " Oneida Chief." In 1849 a successor to Superintendent Seymour was to be appointed, as he intended to quit the service. S. S. Post was superintendent of transportation. He was in the line of promotion to the general superintend- ency, and as he was very popular with the employees, they were delighted with the prospect of having him as their superintendent. James P. Kirkwood was also mentioned in connection with the place. W. H. Stewart ran what was called the night line, and, in expectation of hearing the news somewhere along the line that Post had been elected superintendent, he had a big transparency, inscribed " S. S. Post, General Superintendent," all ready to light and display on his train. The news came, however, that Kirkwood was the choice of the Directors, and there was great disappoint- ment among the " boys." This was in April, 1849. It is highly probable, though, that S. S. Post's long connection with the Railroad Company, and his popularity, would have secured him the place; if he had not shown an inclination to answer, in a non-committal way, queries put to him by the Directors, and a disposition to respond to them by asking questions himself. Superintendent Kirkwood became known among the railroad men as the " Silent Man," from a pecu- liarity of his disposition. His office was at 56 Wall Street, New York. Audience with him was easily obtained, and as the caller entered, the superintendent would look up at him a moment. If the caller did not at once go on to mention the business that had brought him there, Kirkwood would turn his eyes back to his work without a word. Then the visitor might stand or sit there all the rest of the day without the Superintendent paying any more attention to him, or H. C. SEYMOUR. until the visitor broke the silence himself by speaking and making known his errand. For a long time after the railroad was built, all switching at the ends of divisions and elsewhere was done with horses. John Bailey was the first station agent at Goshen. He was the father-in-law of A. C. Morton, who was the civil engineer of the road for Orange County. The depot at Goshen was built over the track, or rather the track ran into the depot. When the train came in, the business of the railroad was over for that day. The train and locomotive were locked in the depot, and the agent kept the kev until it was time to begin business on the road again next morning, when he would unlock the depot and let the trainmen go in and " fire up." The bell that hung above the platform was rung fifteen minutes before the train was to start. Capt. A. H. Shultz, the pioneer Erie steamboat Captain, was born at Rhinebeck. Before there were railroads in Cen- tral and Western New York, he ran stages between Roches- ter and Buffalo. Later he ran a steamboat between Amboy, N. J., and New York. He began in the Erie service January 406 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES : i, having been harbor master under Coven betore the railroad was in operation, and i ontinued until i | i. He was Alderman from the Fifth Ward of New York. He was afterward in the Government service for mam He died at Philadelphia, April 30. 1867. The winter of 1843 was one °* tlle narn following the railroad about twenty-five rods back from the stream, the cause of the accident was discovered. A short distance from the track lay the half of one of the car wheels. The wheel from which this part was broken was one on the last milk car. As the car thus crippled had kept the track for some distance, the broken wheel was not noticed. Just before the car reached the bridge, though, it left the rail, and began to strike and splinter the timbers. As it went over the bridge it tore that structure almost bare of its timbers, but the passenger car just behind it got over the gap in some way, with the exception of its hind tnick, which was torn loose on the opposite bank and remained there. The second passenger car also leaped the gap, but its front end struck a little below the surface of the bank and directly against the mass of wreck left by the car proceeding it. The " diamond car" was driven by the impetus of the rear cars violently upon the stalled car, and went crashing halfway through it. As the "diamond car" rushed upon the car ahead of it, the roof of the latter, instead of breaking up, forced its way through the encroaching car, and in a sound state protruded some twelve feet into it, passing over the heads of those sit- ting most forward, but striking with great violence those who s it near the termination of its course. Several of the pas- gers were here badly hurt. One of these, Mrs. Charles Conkling, had the evening before been married at Otisville, and was in company with her husband on her bridal trip. The sweeping roof of the second car struck her in the neck and breast, and inflicted such a frightful wound that she was carried from the wreck, it was believed, to quickly die. That she did not die instantly is to this day a cause of wonder to all who remember or have heard the story of her dreadful injuries. She lingered for weeks on the boundary of death, but at last recovered sufficiently to get about, although terri- bly scarred. She never fully recovered from the shock of the disaster, however, and died from its effects a year or so later. Dr. Boyd, of Monroe, was soon at the scene of the 1 trophe, and doctors from Chester hastened to the spot on receiving intelligence of the casualty. The rear end of the train, which had sustained no injury, was transformed into a hospital. As soon as possible a hand- car was provided, covered with cushions from a passenger car, and on it the dead and badly wounded were removed to Stickney's Hotel at Monroe. The accident happened at 8 o'clock. When the messenger on horseback reached Middle- town and told the dreadful news, which he had also scattered as he rode, church bells were tolled and all the countryside was wrapped in gloom. A locomotive being at Middletown, a relief train was quickly made up, and, bearing physicians and groups of anxious and grief-stricken friends of the dis- aster's victims, sped toward the scene of the disaster as train had never sped over the road before. The locomotive sounded its whistle dolefully all along the line. The train arrived at Seamansville at noon. Two hours later it returned, bearing the dead, and all the wounded that could safely be removed, to the homes which they had left but a short time before, happy and buoyant with expectations for the day, to meet but mutilation and death. The steamboat that was to have carried the joyous party from Piermont down the Hudson to their destination was despatched instead to New York with the news of the awful fate that had befallen them. President Loder, accompanied by four New York surgeons he had hastily summoned, re- turned to Piermont on the boat, and hastened thence to the wreck by special train. He arrived on the scene soon after the relief train from Middletown got there. On Saturdav he despatched a special car to bear the terribly wounded Mrs. Conkling to her home at Middletown. Charles Monnell, one of the injured, died on that day, ami his body was taken to Middletown on a special car. President Loder visited per- sonally the homes of all the wounded, to learn what he could do or have done to alleviate their sufferings. Another one of the passengers among the seriously injured was Miss Julia Wisner, daughter of Daniel Wisner, of Mid- dletown. Her breast bone was so broken and crushed that its removal was necessary. Miss Wisner never recovered from the effects of her injury. She died a few years later. Her funeral was the largest ever held in Orange County, the procession being two miles in length. Following is the list of killed and badly wounded in this first serious accident on the Erie Railroad : Killed — Ira S. Crane, aged 19, son of Dr. J. S. Crane, Goshen; George Stevens, aged 17, New York City; Charles Monnell, son of Joseph Monnell, hotel-keeper, Middletown. Wounded — Mrs. Charles Conkling. very badly lacerated on her neck and breast : Mr. and Mrs. Penny ; George Harding. son of Charles Harding — Otisville. Miss Julia A. Wisner, daughter of Daniel Wisner ; Miss Louisa Sweet, daughter of Halsteail Sweet; Nathaniel Cooley : Jesse Van Fleet; Miss Sarah Watkins, one of the principals of the Seminary : David Holley, one arm broken, the other dislocated ; Mrs. T. C. Royce — Middletown. Gilbert W. Oliver, very badly cut in the leg; Miss Miller, daughter of George Miller — Blooming- burgh. Howard Thompson, milk agent at Monroe. Miss Stevens, sister of young Stevens who was killed : M. New- man : Mr. Bursell ; Mr. Strand; Walter S. Corwin — New York City. Edgar Monnell, son of Charles Monnell : Natha- niel Webb — Goshen. John Hawkins, Hamptonburgh. Others were injured more or less seriously. No aa ident that had occurred upon any railroad up to that time in this country created so wide-spread a sensation as this one caused. It became the subject of public com- ment not only in this country, but abroad. It was the first 412 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES i ident of its kind, and revealed new possibilities of danger to life and linih that lay in wait for travellers by rail. It showed, also, the necessity of providing safeguards against the occurrence of similar disasters ; not that the managers of the Erie had not had abundant previous evidence of the defects in the equipment of the road, and the insufficiency of its construction. That it should have required an awful sacrifice of life and the maiming and mutilating of two score of persons to spur the management to a correction of those faults presented a subject for much indignant and bitter comment by the press of the country, although the people to whom the results of the disaster came directly home with crushing force put it on record, at a public meeting held at Middletown three days after the accident, that they exoner- ated the railroad company from all blame. The chairman of this meeting was Capt. Israel Wickham, who, with his little boy, was among those who had to be dug out of the ruins of the second car, and whose escape with scarcely a scratch was one of the miraculous ones of the catastrophe. This railroad accident led to the prompt abandoning of the use of the Winans spoke car wheel, not on the New York and Erie Railroad alone, but on every railroad where cars were equipped with such wheels, and to the adopting of solid wheels. It led to the replacing of four-wheeled by eight-wheeled cars on the Erie. From it grew the system of testing car wheels at intervals during a train's trip by tapping them with a hammer to detect by the sound a defective wheel, a system that soon became, and is yet, universal on railroads the world over. It led to the imme- diate beginning of the work of filling in and strengthening the trestles of the division of the Erie then in operation, and to the ordering that particular care be observed in building similar work on the sections then under construction. At- tention was at once especially given to the long and high trestle wall which carried the railroad over the Hackensack River, and its deep valley near Nanuet. This was a slight- looking elevation of timber nearly seventy feet high, and its apparent insecurity had been the source of much loss to the Company in traffic, as a large portion of the travelling public was afraid to risk passing over the lofty structure. This feeling was intensified by the falling of a freight train through the trestle in 1843, ar >d the killing of a conductor. The fill- ing in of this great gap required over 340,000 cubic yards of earth, and the building of a stone arch or culvert, 140 feet long and thirty-foot span, for the passage of the river through the embankment. This was at that time one of the most expensive pieces of work the Company had encountered. It was completed in May, 1847. The a< < ident at Seamansville, aside from the death and suf- fering it caused, was a costly mishap for the Company; for, notwithstanding the public declaration that the community did not hold it blameworthy, the Company soon found itself defendant in a host of suits brought to recover heavy dam- ages, the settlement of which, together with the other costs of tin ai 1 ident, compelled an outlay of more than $100,000. Mrs. I'ronk, widow of James A. 1'ronk, Esq., of Middle- town, was one of the young ladies on that historic train. C. W. 1 Hmmick, now of Washington, D. C, was also a pas- senger. ORIGIN OF REDUCED RATES TO PREACHERS. The Rev. Dr. Robert McCartee was pastor of the Presby- terian church at Goshen, N. Y., from 1840 to 1S49. After the completion of the Erie Railway to Goshen, Dr. McCartee became a frequent passenger, going to the city every week, and sometimes twice a week. One of his trips was in the spring immediately after a heavy rain, and when the frost was coming out of the ground. The combined action of the rain and frost, in connection with a newly constructed road, resulted in covering the track in some of the deep cuts with a heavy deposit of dirt and stones, which seriously interfered with the passage of the trains. The train was delayed some hours, much to the discomfort and annoyance of the passen- gers. There was great murmuring and complaint among them, and at length a paper was drawn up and signed by several, in which the company and its officials were severely censured for the condition of things. The good Doctor did not fall in with the current of feeling that had set in, but took a sensible view of the situation — that it was one of those things that could not have been pre- vented, and for which the Company was not responsible. He concluded, therefore, to endeavor to stay the tide. He kept quiet and waited until the proper time. This soon came when he was asked to sign the paper. He replied that he would do so if they would change the phraseology and in- sert a preamble that he would suggest, somewhat as follows : " Whereas, The recent rain has fallen at a time ill suited to our pleasure and convenience and without any consultation with us ; and, " Whereas, Jack Frost, who has been imprisoned in the ground for some months, has become tired of his bondage and has determined to break loose, and his head may already be seen coming out ; there- fore, " Resolved, Thus and so." The effect was that the whole thing was turned into ridi- cule ; the leaders in the indignation movement abandoned their effort, the paper was destroyed, and many of those who had signed it joined in a hearty laugh over the affair, and were glad that it terminated as it did. The train was in charge of Captain Ayres. He had a vein of humor himself, and enjoyed the affair immensely. Ever afterward he refused to take any fare from the Doctor when on the train, because of the good service which he had ren- dered to him and the Company. The custom at that time was very largely for passengers to pay their fare to the con- ductor instead of purchasing a ticket at the ticket office. Dr. McCartee, however, was not content to be regarded as the exclusive recipient among the clergy of a favor of this kind, and after a while suggested it would be a good thing to extend it to all the ministers, which was eventually done. At first for a short time the Company issued tickets to ministers THE STORY OF ERIE 4i3 free of all charge, but soon after the half-rate fare was adopted. This was the origin of the reduced fare to minis- ters so far as the Erie is concerned, and dates back to 1843. The author's authority for the Dr. McCartee incident is the Rev. Dr. S. G. Mills of Port Jervis, who had it from Dr. McCartee's lips many years ago. "I was coming home for the winter vacation of 1S42, while I was in the seminary," says Dr. Mills, relating another incident of early Erie travel. " I came up from New York on the boat. There was a cold storm. Rain and sleet froze as fast as it fell, so that the rails were coated with ice. That was the time when they used wood for the engines, and it was difficult to make steam. We started out from Piermont about twelve o'clock noon, and were from that until nine o'clock at night getting eight miles out from Piermont and back again, where we remained until one o'clock the next day, when we started again, and were until nine o'clock at night getting to Goshen. Captain Avers was conductor." FIRST AID IN ACCIDENTS FIFTY YEARS AGO. In February, 1849, after the railroad had been opened to Bingham ton, two passenger trains came into collision near Narrowsburg, X. V. Both locomotives were disabled. It was necessary to have other locomotives before the trains could be moved. The work was of course simple, and there was as yet no telegraph. There was no locomotive nearer than Port Jervis, thirty-five miles away. W. H. Sidell, who had charge of affairs on that part of the railroad, at once had a horse saddled, and summoning his chief and only clerk and general assistant, Charles J. Sackett, despatched him to Port Jervis over the mountains of Sullivan County, N. Y., with orders for the immediate forwarding of two locomotives to the scene of the accident. Six hours later the loco- motives arrived, and the trains were enabled fo resume their trips. At another time the engine of a freight train was disabled between Narrowsburg and Cochecton. This blocked the track and it became necessary that the train should be got back to Narrowsburg and placed on the switch in order that the passenger train, which would be due in the course of three hours, might pass. A man was sent back to Narrowsburg on foot through the snow, to have all the teams he could procure sent to the scene of the blockade. The teams hauled the train back in sections, and the passenger train was detained only an hour. BEFORE THE TICKET PUNCH. In the early days of the passenger business on the Erie the cost of passenger tickets was no inconsiderable item, hence heavy card tickets from and to the various stations were used. The signature of the general ticket agent was at- tached, and they were taken up by the conductor, returned to the general ticket office, and sent out to agents for resale so long as they remained undefaced. After a time an important discovery, seriously affecting the revenue of the Erie, was made. A resident of Andover, ' on the Western Division, will be used as an illustration. He purchased a ticket to New York. The conductors run by divisions. The passenger's ticket was examined and honored by the conductor between Andover and Hornellsville, Hor- nellsville and Susquehanna, Susquehanna and Port Jervis. At the latter station the passenger pocketed his through ticket and purchased a ticket from Port Jervis to New York, which was taken up by the conductor on the Eastern Divi- sion. Returning, the passenger bought his card ticket from New York to Andover. At Hornellsville he bought a ticket from that station to Andover and retained his through ticket. After the foregoing description, it will be clear that thereafter that person could travel between Andover and New York as often as he might desire, paying fare only between Port Jervis and New York, east bound, and between Hornellsville and Andover, west bound. This fraud on the Company was in existence a long time before it was discovered. Then a system of cancelling the tickets by divisions by the conductors was adopted. At first they were simply marked with a pencil. This was not a success, and the emergency led to the making and introduc- tion of the ticket punch. THE FATAL FIRST IRON BRIDGE. Iron railroad bridges, although a modern thing in railroad construction as regards their universal use, were introduced as an experiment on the New York and Erie Railroad as early as 1849. Three bridges of that material were built in that year, the largest one being the one across Westcolang Creek and its deep ravine, a short distance east of Mast Hope, Pa., on the Delaware Division. Those bridges were all removed and replaced with wooden bridges in the summer of 1850, because of a bad accident that happened to a train while crossing the Westcolang bridge, July 31st of that year. The train was a live stock and freight train of seventeen cars, besides the engine and tender. At the time the train approached the bridge it was going at an ordinary rate, but the engine had but just got fairly off the solid track when the engineer heard a loud cracking sound, and felt something giving away. He put on all the steam possible, and suc- ceeded in getting the engine, which was a very powerful one, upon the other side, but just as he had cleared the bridge it went down with a crash, carrying the tender with it. The cars following tumbled into the abyss, one after another, until fifteen of them, with their contents, were piled up in the gap. The engineer and his fireman saved themselves by jumping off on either side of the engine. The brakeman, Adam Tice, and J. L. Clapp of Ohio, a drover's helper, aged 19, went down with the cars. George Randall, the drover, was pre- cipitated over the embankment with the car he was in. Two other men, who were on the sixteenth car, discovered that 4U BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES NEW VORK AND £ltIE LlAILltOAD. New YoKK i j8fe««c. c^>. 185^ PASS tluvK*wer ^ fy*^ting sg^\ ^^ / he Company shall not bo E B (I M Vc K I I %9p- ¥>. ■■■ £j . &M * f . fc i J la ' , in afl cn^e.-', ec//eW ;. U»« t_ (Obverse.) iable, under any circum- stances, whether of negli- | gvncti by their Agi . for .tor injury to , the person, or for auj injury * ' uf the Passenger using the Ticket President I o -" — m _• -S3 „3 5?'C .~ a -'£■--? z. 1 - _oi bp O Si S J3 .Sfe - c w.a o - « O « 3 M™ o" > So g ■_ 5 .; -. g^2 3 o ^> «• © ' rt SJ-.-eS c => _ ._ ^ fa £? £* ~K: '~ -- ~ ~ a ■' U' ScS'fe.S — ■ i2 "^ o a — p c ■- <:"© — : (Reverse, i A MORAN FREE PASS— 1859. NORTHRUP COLLECTION. THE STORY OF ERIE 4i5 something was wrong in time to save themselves by jump- ing. The scene just after the accident had occurred was piteous in the extreme. A hundred head of cattle were writhing in torture, and making the whole mass active by their throes, in the vain endeavor to extricate themselves, some with their horns broken off, and some held fast by means of the ruin piled upon them. Their cries were heart-rending. Some of the poor creatures, mad with pain, their eyes starting from their sockets, seemed bent on wreaking vengeance on what- ever object was nearest to them. Others, subdued by their sufferings, moaned piteously, and gazed about as if imploring release. The imprisoned sheep that were alive simply bleated plain- tively, while a few of their companions that had happened to escape and clamber from the wreck went quietly to nibbling grass by the roadside, indifferent to the misery of their fel- lows. The swine that were part of the writhing, moaning mass were belligerent, after their kind, and those beneath the ruins fought with each other as long as there was life left in them, while the more lucky ones that escaped made for the woods as if flying from some impending danger. As soon as the momentary panic had subsided, the men who had escaped injury set to work to relieve their companions. It was soon ascertained that the drover Randall and the brakeman Tice were near each other, both alive, and by no means despair- ing. Soon Randall's voice was heard. He was discovered buried among the fragments of the cars, and directly beneath a large ox, which was still alive, and at times greatly dis- tressed the helpless drover by kicking him on the breast. Randall was perfectly sensible, and gave directions as to how he could best be removed. He thought he could endure the weight of the ox until it could be taken away piecemeal. The ox was therefore shot, but in its dying struggles kicked Randall so violently in the breast as to deprive him of life. Immediately before his death he spoke much of his life, stat- ing that he had a wife and four children. The same ox lay partly across Tice, the brakeman, who died before he could be extricated from his frightful situation. There was no telegraph in use along the railroad yet, al- though a line was being put up. A man was sent on horse- back to Lackawaxen, four miles east of the scene of the accident, to inform John M. Williamson, the Company's agent at that point. Williamson despatched a messenger to Port Jervis, down the tow-path of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, twenty-three miles, to carry the news to Division Superintendent Power. The Superintendent at once started for the scene of the accident with a relief train. Agent Williamson hastened to Mast Hope. Clapp, the other drover, had been found and taken from the wreck in the meantime, alive, but terribly mutilated. By the time Superintendent Power arrived, Agent Williamson had ordered the wounded cattle, sheep, and hogs shot. All the dead beasts were buried in a vast trench, but the task was a long and tedious one ; so long, in fact, that, the weather being intensely hot, the car- casses began to putrefy before the work was done, adding new unpleasantness to the already accumulated horrors. Coe Little was the conductor of the train, and Nat. Hatch engineer. BRINGING THE TELEGRAPH INTO USE FOR RAIL- ROADING. The Erie, through Charles Minot, and through his succes- sor, D. C. McCallum, attracted the eyes of the whole country to the value of the telegraph as a vital agent in the manage- ment of railroads, the running of trains, and the safety of passengers. What was known as the New York and Erie Telegraph Line was begun in August, 1847. It was not a work of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, as its title might imply. Ezra Cornell was the projector of the line, and while he was constructing it through the southern New York counties, taking the wagon roads for his route, Charles Minot was watching him. Minot early saw the value of the telegraph to railroads, and how it might be employed to direct the movement of trains at every point along the road. He induced the Railroad Company to construct a line of tele- graph poles and wires along the margin of the railroad, with- out reference to patents, and without determining the machinery to be employed. It was constructed by the rail- road workmen. Mr. Cornell supplied insulators and also Morse machinery for the offices to be opened. The insulators were of brimstone, enclosed in iron pots, and of but small value. On the completion of the Erie telegraph line, Super- intendent Minot offered to purchase for the Erie the Morse patent on fair terms. Mr. Smith, one of the owners of the patent, refused to sell. He invited the New York and Erie Railroad Company to become stockholders in the Telegraph Company, and thus acquire the right to use the Morse in- struments. By this time, however, the Cornell line had so shown its unreliable character that Mr. Minot declined the invitation. He wrote, also, very placidly to Mr. Smith that his notion was that, after its completion, "our Company would make arrangements with the New York and Erie Tele- graph Company to work it for us." .After a short struggle against circumstances the wire of the Cornell line was, in 1S52 and 1853, transferred from the poles along the turn- pikes to those of the Railroad Company, and by gradual processes the line became massed with and faded into the property of that Company. In 1852 the title of the company was changed to The New York and Western Union Tele- graph. In 1S51 the New York and Erie Railroad Company, hay- ing constructed its telegraph line, placed it under two super- intendents. L. G. Tillotson was intrusted with the section between Owego and New York, and Charles L. Chapin with the section from Owego to Dunkirk. In 1852 Tillotson was made sole superintendent. Luther G. Tillotson was but nineteen years old when he became superintendent of the Erie Telegraph. He was bom in Ithaca, N. Y., March 1, 1834. His father was a friend of Ezra Cornell, and became a telegraph constructor. At the age of fifteen Luther began 416 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES to learn telegraphy under his father, and in less than a yi was an expert for that day. He entered the service of the Erie in 1S51. In 1S62 he began dealing in railway and tel- egraph supplies, and in 1865 established the house of J,. G. Tillotson & Co., in New York, and remained at its head until eath, January 31, 1885. He was an authority on tel- ih and telegraph construction. William J. Holmes, who had been in the service of the Erie Telegraph Department since 1856 (as operator at Mast Hope) until 1S59, was in that year appointed division opera- tor of the Delaware Division, with jurisdiction over all the on thai division. In 1862 he was transferred to head- quarters in New York, and on the retirement of Mr. Tillotson lu- was made general superintendent, which place he still He is also district superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company. The route of the original Cornell line was along the public roads from New York through Harlem, White Plains, Sing Sing, Peekskill, Newburgh, Goshen, Middletown, Honesdale, Montrose, Binghamton, Ithaca, Danville, Nunda, and Pike to Fredonia. The first telegraph instrument of the Cornell line on the line along the Erie was put up in the bar-room of a hotel at Goshen, N. V. (now the Occidental), and its wonderful trans- mission and receipt of messages amazed the people. This was in 1849. Cornell subsequently made an arrangement with Lebeus Vail, who had a bookstore, book-bindery, and printing establishment on the opposite side of the street, to have the telegraph office in a corner of his store. Vail had three sons with him in the store, Hector J., Nathaniel, and Wilmot M. Hector and Nathaniel soon learned to operate the instrument, and Hector became the first regular operator. The line worked badly. The first telegraph station west of Goshen was Port Jervis. Hec. Vail went to Port Jervis early in 185T, to take charge of the office there, and his brother Nat. was put in charge of the Goshen office. At that time the Railroad Company's telegraph line came into the same offices. The railroad men soon learned that they could find out where the "mail train" or any other train was by asking at Vail's, so they could go on their way if it was late, and save time. But they did it without any authority. They were simply " wildcatting " without orders, on the strength of what the telegraph said. It was nearly a year after that before the Company began to appreciate the advantage of the telegraph, and led to Charles Minot's adopting it on the road. Ezra Cornell was so poor at that time that when he came to Goshen, if there was no money in the office, Vail would advance him some, so that " Old Bones," as he was irrev- erently called, might get something to eat. A few cakes, or a slice of bread and a morsel of cheese, sufficed him. Henry O'Reilly, one of the pioneers of telegraphy in this country, wrote as follows, under date of July 17, 1852 : Though railway telegraphing is attempted to a very limited extent, even the partial experiment on one of the most profitable railroads in America (although that. experiment employed little of the organized system here proposed) will probably fully sustain the assertion which I hazarded when commencing the establishment of the telegraph sys- tem by individual enterprise seven years ago, that a well-arranged telegraph for railroad purposes would, each and every year, render to a railroad company sufficient benefits to counterbalance the whole cost of construction. He dwelt upon the feasibility of telegraph messages in the operating of railroads, instancing that signals could be given from any point at any time of night or day to alarm and in- form any and all stations, along the whole extent of the line, of delays, accidents, or other matter essential to safety of passengers and property. Not only every station, but every train while in motion, he declared, could be signalled and cautioned whenever necessary, by the ringing of bells by electricity, or displaying signals along the line on posts be- tween stations, to warn engineers and conductors of any difficulty or irregularity which might result in mishap. These suggestions were placed before the New Vork Legis- lature in 1853, the Legislature having, in 1852, discussed the subject of the seemingly undue prevalence of railroad ac- cidents, and propounded to the railroad companies of the State a number of questions in relation to the matter, for official answer. The Erie made no reply to any of the questions. If it had, there might have been a record of the date on which the experiment by Superintendent Charles Minot of running a train by telegraphic order was tried — which exper- iment proving successful, the system was regularly adopted by the Company, and it became, as to-day, universal on rail- roads. As it is, there is no such record. The late William H. Stewart, the Erie conductor who ran the train thus first moved under telegraphic instructions, did not remember with certainty the year or the month. He thought it was in the fall of 1852 ; but as Mr. O'Reilly, in his deliverance to the Legislature in July, 1S52, mentions the fact that railroad telegraphing was then in use " on one of the most profitable railroads in America," meaning the Erie, the first telegraphic train order must have been given before the time mentioned by Mr. Stewart, probably in the fall of 1851. At any rate, the use of the telegraph as an invaluable adjunct of railroad operation was suggested, if not advocated, by Mr. O'Reilly at least six years before it had practical demonstration on the Erie at the hands of Superintendent Minot. But years before the telegraph was used for any purpose in this country, not to mention its application to railroad operation, the Cooke and Wheatstone "magnetic telegraph " had been in use upon several English railroads, and Superin- tendent McCallum's declaration, made in 1S55, that a single track railroad with a telegraph connection was much superior to a double track railroad without such connection, was anticipated as early as 1836, when the editor of The New York Railroad Journal, referring to the Cooke and Wheat- stone telegraph, wrote in his periodical that " a single track of railroad of any length can be made as effective and as safe by means of this auxiliary as any double track can be, and this, too, at an original outlay of about the sum required to THE STORY OF ERIK 4'7 keep annually a track in repair. The advantages to railroads of this important invention can easily be understood by those familiar with railroad management, and if to these we add the profit to be derived from the transmission of intelligence, we certainly think there is ample inducement for its employ- ment upon every railroad in the United States." In September, 1S39, the Great Western Railroad Com- pany was operating a " magnetic telegraph " on the line of railroad between Paddington and Dryton, England. Infor- mation as to how- many passengers left Dryton or Paddington by each train, and similar intelligence, was what the tele- graph was utilized in communicating. A question sent would be answered in two minutes, the distance being 13^ miles. The alphabet was on a dial, and the indicator pointed out each letter under the manipulation of the operator at the other end. The London and Blackwell Railroad was opened in Sep- tember, 1840. It was three miles long, and the cars were run by stationary engines at each end of the line — possibly a pioneer cable line. Speaking of this railroad at the time, a London newspaper said : " The telegraph invention of Cooke and Wheatstone enables parties at each end to converse. The telegraph is in a neat mahogany case, and it rings a small bell to announce when a train is to be put in motion. There is one at each intermediate station to enable the servants of the railway to communicate with the engineer at the termini. If there is any impediment or casualty, news can be conveyed in the short space of three seconds." One of the first to learn telegraphing on the old Cornell line was D. H. Conklin, who was a printer's apprentice at Peekskill, X. V., in 1848. In 1850 he went to Williamsburg to work at his trade. The telegraph line the New York and Erie Railroad Company was building was completed between the end of the pier at Piermont and Goshen in the latter part of that year, but had not been put in operation. West of Goshen portions of the line were up, but there were many gaps in it to be closed before a thorough connection could be obtained. At the pier a battery had been put in, but no operator was placed there, and the battery had failed. Super- intendent Minot, at the suggestion of Ezra Cornell, sent for young Conklin to go to Piermont and see what the trouble was. The Erie general offices were then at 35 Wall Street, and one day in the latter part of December, 1850 — the day of the month is now not known — Conklin received a letter from Superintendent Minot. It stated that Conklin had been recommended to the writer in flattering terms as a skil- ful telegraph operator ; that it had been decided that the telegraph would be useful in operating a railroad, as it was • hoped that it could be utilized not only by showing the loca- tion of trains at all times but in the movement of trains ; that 1 the work of erecting the Erie line was dragging, which was exceedingly annoying to the writer, as he had been the prin- cipal in advising its adoption ; that the line from Piermont to Goshen had not been worked, and that Mr. Cornell had advised that Conklin be sent for to go up to Piermont and see =7 what the difficulty was. The letter asked Conklin to call at Superintendent Minot's office in Wall Street for an interview. The result of all this was that the young printer-operator went to Piermont. He found a main battery the like of which he had never seen before. It was known as the " Dutch Battery." Conklin had never handled any except the " Grove." After nearly two days' work, however, he got it in order. Then the whole business was blocked because the Goshen operator could not be " raised." Hector J. Vail, familiarly known as " Hec " Vail, was the operator for the Cornell line at Goshen, and the Erie wire was in the same office, as before stated. Vail was supposed to answer the latter wire in case it were called, but operator Conklin called for him all day, January 3, 185 1, and could get no response. Next day he went to Goshen on the first train to see if he could not induce " Hec " to give him and the Erie wire a show for a test. " Hec " consented to do so. Conklin returned to the Pier, called up Vail, and a thorough test of the wire proved that it was working satisfactorily. Conklin re- turned to New York and reported his success to Superintend- ent Minot, with the intention of resuming work at the case in the Williamsburg printing office. But he did not return to his case. Superintendent Minot's satisfaction over the suc- cessful working of the telegraph line was great, and he had little difficulty in impressing Conklin with possibilities that awaited him in the service of the Erie Telegraph Depart- ment. "You must return to Piermont at once," said he. " We must have your services there as operator. I can't say just at this moment what your wages w : ill be, but that will be ar- ranged to your satisfaction. You must return to the Pier ! " The young man severed his connection with the printing office, and returned to Piermont to take charge of the tele- graph office there. He remained there until the telegraph was completed and opened as far as Port Jervis, in the winter of 185 1. The division agent (W. H. Power), as the division superintendent was called in those days, advanced him money from time to time — sometimes as much as $10 — for his ex- penses. When the line was opened to Port Jervis, Superin- tendent Minot brought up the subject of Conklin's salary. " You know," said he to Conklin, " we will have to employ about ninety operators when the line is completed, and the pay-roll will be heavy, and a large addition to the operating expenses. Now you are an expert. The amount we fix for your salary will govern the salaries of the others. I hope, therefore, that you will accept S30 a month as your pay, and when the wire is all in good working order I will give you the best office on the line." The offer was accepted, with hopes for the future, and thus D. H. Conklin became the first telegraph operator to receive a salary from a railroad company. He assisted in stringing the first insulated wires under the drawbridges on the Paterson and Ramapo and Paterson and Hudson River railroads, and opened some of the Erie telegraph offices on the Susquehanna and Western divisions. In the spring of 1 85 1 he succeeded Joseph W. Guppy as operator at Susque- 4i8 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES hanna Depot, then the most important office on the line, it being known as a " repeating station." In those days passengers, baggage, and express and mail les were transferred between Piermont and the foot of Duane Street, X. V.. by steamers. The principal steamer Erie." Dave Lampman was captain of this boat ; Henry Kipp was clerk. There was also an official corre- sponding to steward or purser, in the person of " Billy " Skelly. All the freight, live stock, etc., was transferred to and from the cars and barges at Pier, and the work required a small army of men. Coming out of New York there were clerks upon the barges that worked at billing goods from Uses for the telegraph wire developed slowly. The em- ployees, being unacquainted with the telegraph, had but little confidence in it. While at the Pier, Conkling frequently urged those in authority to use the wire, and make inquiries of, and give directions to, their subordinates through that means. For a long time after communication was first made by wire, the message began with " Dear Sir," and closed with " Yours respectfully." The first benefit to the railroad derived from use of the telegraph was in handling freight. It was the custom to load the holds of the barges or boats and leave a certain large portion of the decks clear for live stock expected upon a train 'Zt&^s J> ^>tf£ ■" ^* '' j /i.M 'to to stan cgs, whether of negl ir agents or OSherSS' vy 'fotho" person7': n r'&TTnr to thE |irop>riy of the posseager .ising this u P) (1 10 10 n co a O CO CO O - N CO « * »t * !47 140 145 144 « e: o - o co « to co n co co O — CMOflOv the general offices of the Company until 1869. November 7, 1868, Gould and Fisk purchased Pike's Opera House, then recently erected, at the corner of Twenty-third Street and Eighth Avenue, New York, and the next year began fitting the building up for the Erie headquarters and leased it to the Company. " For months past," as a New- York newspaper of August 25, 1S69, declared in a descrip- tion of the new quarters, "workmen have been industriously preparing the pilace. There are two entrances to these offices, the main one being on Twenty-third Street. The public passing by on Eighth Avenue will be struck by the magnificence of these. The ceilings are high, and, as well as the walls, are admirably frescoed. "Going up the Twenty-third Street entrance, the visitor finds the staircase grand. The woodwork and the walls of marble are elaborate. Arriving upon the second floor a huge, admirably carved door swings open upon such a spectacle as was never before witnessed in any business place ; in fact. there are but few palaces wherein so rich a coupe d'ceil could be presented as that of the main offices of the Erie Railway Company. The carved woodwork, the stained and cut glass of the partitions, the gilded balustrades, the splendid gas fixtures, and, above all, the artistic frescoes upon the walls and ceilings, create astonishment and admiration at such a blending of the splendid ami practical. On this main floor are the private offices of Mr. Fisk, Comptroller : Mr. Gould, President; Mr. Otis, the Secretary of the Company. There is a large, handsome room for the Board of Directors. The Vice-President and his clerks, the Counsellor of the THE STORY OF ERIE 4^7 Company, and the General Superintendent and his clerks ■occupy rooms on the same floor. The private offices of Mr. Could, Mr. Fisk and Mr. Otis are fitted up superbly. In each are every possible requirement — telegraphic com- munication with all parts of the house — such desks as a coquette might desire for her boudoir, so ornamented and tastefully arranged are they — furniture of the most com- fortable description, and elegant mirrors, statuary, etc. The room for the Board of Directors is also comfortably and splendidly furnished. The woodwork and furniture were made by Marcotte, and are rich and costly. "On the third floor are the offices of the General Freight Agent and Ticket Agent. These rooms are elegantly arranged. " 1 )n the fourth floor is the Auditor's Department and the Engineer's Department. There are back of these public offices, on the fourth floor, the rooms for the janitors and those of the servants who reside in the building. The kitchens, store-rooms and pantries are back of these. Even up to the top of the house the rooms are airy and very large — the high ceilings all appropriately frescoed. " There are in the basement very large and complete punt- ing offices, storage rooms, telegraphic departments, steam engines, boilers for heating the house and running the ma- chinery. A most important feature of these new offices is the safe, which has cost over $30,000. It is seven stories high, each totally unconnected, and is built upon a solid foundation of granite. Rising to the very roof of the main building, this immense safe is so constructed that were the Grand Opera House to be burned to the ground, the safe would stand. It is reared within the house, but in no wise is connected with it. " Throughout the new offices are the most complete arrange- ments for the comfort of those who will occupy them. 'The managers have a dining-room, the employees have theirs, and a chef tie cuisine of acknowleged capacity will provide their daily meals. Dumb waiters will go from the kitchen to every floor. In short, nothing has been overlooked in rendering these new offices as commodious as they are magnificent. '• ( in the decorations of the rooms the highest praise can be bestowed. Garibaldi, who executed the frescoes, is well known here as an artist of rare talent. In the Academy of Music, in Booth's Theatre, in the Grand Opera House, he has given evidences of this fact, but nowhere more so than on the ceilings and walls of the new Erie offices has he proved how very artistic he can be. Mr. Fisk, who planned and has superintended the arrangement of the palatial offices in question, has certainly reason to be proud of the result, there being nowhere in this country or in Europe anything of the kind to compare with these splendid rooms." In those palatial quarters the Erie offices were housed until December, 1875, when H. J. lewett had come to the control of Erie, and he removed the offices back to the original old Erie Building in West Street. In 18S0, the quarters being too much cramped for the increase in force made necessary by the increase in railroad and railroad business, the com- pany leased five floors in the Coal and Iron Exchange Build- ing, at Church and Cortlandt Streets. The Erie general offi- ces are still in that building, although much more modestly housed than in President Jewett's time. In 1872, when Gould made his " restitution " to the Com- pany, he included the Opera House in the property turned over to the Erie, Fisk's widow having relinquished the half • interest her husband had in the property at Gould's request. The property was reconveyed to Gould in December, 1881, by the Company at a valuation of $700,000, being more than $500,000 less than the Company had allowed him for it in 1872. The consideration was a transfer to the Company of all Gould's interest in the Erie coal properties. FIRST ERIE DINING-STATIONS. The first building intended to be used for dining pur- poses along the line of the Erie was built at what is now Sterlington, about twenty miles from Piermont, before the rail- road was yet finished as far as that. It was put up by specu- lative persons connected with the Company, on the belief that after people had travelled twenty-four miles by boat and twenty miles by rail, they would be hungry, and welcome a spot where they could get something to eat. The building was a pretentious affair architecturally, but not large. But it proved that travellers did not seem to have taken on appetite enough after a trip of that distance to patronize the pioneer dining-place, and it was never used for the purpose for which it was built. The Peter 'Turner place, at Turner's Station, some miles further on, was apparently just the right distance from New York to have whetted the appetite of the patrons of the road, and their demands made of this place the first dining-station to come into existence along the railroad. For years the wants of the travelling public- were catered to so sumptuously and excellently, that Turner's became famous the country over as a dining-station, in spite of the unpretentious, homely appearance of the caravansary where the meals were served ; and all through trains, east and west, that arrived there anywhere near a suitable mealtime, stopped there for meals. Peter Turner died, and his son James suc- ceeded to the famous old dining-saloon. During Nathaniel Marsh's administration, the building of an immense dining- station at Turner's was begun by the Company, and it was completed during the administration of President Ber- dell. It was of brick. It was three stories high and 400 feet long, situated between the east and westbound tracks, fifty yards east of the old Turner's dining-saloon. The rail- road offices were also in the building, which was fitted up sumptuously as a hotel as well as a dining-saloon. The dining-room would seat 200 guests, and the lunch-counter was of proportionate capacity. There was not another such place on the line of any railroad in the country. Experi- enced hotel men at various times leased it and conducted it, but never at a profit. It was a favorite retreat of James Fisk, Jr.'s, who, with special train-loads of boon companions, chiefly of the gentler sex, was wont to entertain lavishly there in his palmy days in Erie. The place was called the 428 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Orange Hotel. After the days of Could and Fisk, the glory of the famous dining-place began to wane, and it was rapidly becoming of solitude amid splendor, when, on the night of December 26, 1S73, it was completely destroyed by fire. The building and its furnishings had cost ^350,000. For years its charred ruins disfigured the landscape there- about, and, during Jewett's time, were at last cleared away. To-day the spot is covered with railroad tracks, and not a thing remains to remind this generation of the splendor and folly that once ruled there. The second dining-saloon on the Erie was at the Port Jervis station. It was started soon after the railroad reached there. Its first proprietors were J. W. Meginnes and James Lytle. Lytle retired from the firm, and Meginnes ran it until 1S57, when he died. His widow conducted it a short time, when S. O. Dimmick took it and ran it until Port Jen-is was abandoned as a regular dining-place in 1869. Xarrowsburg became a dining-place when the railroad was opened to Binghamton. It was conducted by Major Fields, and acquired much fame by the fact that the grand excursion over the railroad, May 14, 1S51, on the occasion of the opening to Dunkirk, dined there en route, on that day. At that dinner, President Fillmore and members of his cabinet, Daniel Webster among them, and scores of other notable men of that day, sat down, and made the wayside dining-hall echo with their after-dinner eloquence. Narrows- burg became a famous Erie dining-place, and was conducted later by Commodore C. Murray and afterward by his sons, C. H. a/id H. C. Murray, for many years, when the Company abandoned Xarrowsburg as a regular dining-station. Later, Deposit became a dining-station, and Owego, Elmira, Hornellsville, Olean, and Dunkirk had large depot dining-saloons for many years after 1851. Susquehanna was made a leading and regular dining-place early in the 60s, and the Company erected the immense and costly station building there. This dining-saloon was one of the notable ones of the country for more than a quarter of a century. The Erie dining-saloon at Hornellsville also became famous, and is remembered to this day by travellers for its delicious waffles. The coming of the dining and hotel cars on the road destroyed the general usefulness of the station dining-saloons. They became unprofitable, and the greatest of them now depend chiefly on their lunch counters. EVOLUTION IN THE PASSENGER SERVICE. In May, 1852, Henry Fitch resigned as general ticket agent of the Erie. He was succeeded by George L. Dunlap. In 1S57 Mr. Dunlap retired from the railroad business and went to Chicago, where he made a fortune in real estate, and where he still lives. He was succeeded by C. B. Greenough. In 1 86 2 Mr. Greenough left the Erie, and went to Brazil, from the government of which country he had obtained liberal con- cessions for constructing street railways. He made a fortune there, but died in Rio Janeiro. Following Mr. Greenough came William R. P.arr. When he came to the Erie, Mr. Barr was and had been for several years general agent at Buffalo of the Buffalo and Erie, the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula, the Cleveland and Toledo, and the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana railways, the independent lines that were subsequently consolidated as the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. He remained at the head of the Erie passenger department until June, 1S72, when he was succeeded by John N. Abbott, who had been assistant general passenger agent since 1869. The general passenger agents were not much in evidence as factors in the management of the Company's business until the time of Barr. There had been several serious rate wars since the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk, but the general passenger agent's name never appeared to indicate that the head of that department even so much as made a suggestion. The president, the secretary, the general superintendent, or frequently some prominent director, usually figured as the one in charge of the business of fixing rates or originating methods of conducting the passenger department. The general passenger agent's name had never appeared on an official time-table until the Barr incumbency of the office. Under Barr the individuality of the passenger department was brought out so that it stood publicly in stronger contrast to the operating department, with an indi- cation that it was not subordinate to that department. It was not, however, until Mr. Barr's successor, John X. Abbott, had been appointed, that reform principles and methods of conducting the immigrant business were intro- duced and made effective in improving the revenues of the Erie Company, safeguarding the immigrants and commer- cially protecting the interests of the port of Xew York against unfair competition through other ports for this valuable traffic. This w r as accomplished by a master stroke on the part of Mr. Abbott in negotiating contracts with the leading transatlantic steamship lines, in 1S73, under which immi- grants should be carried from their old homes in Europe to their new homes in America upon as favorable fares and conditions via the port of Xew York as should exist from time to time through any other Atlantic seaport, and were consigned to and placed under the protecting care of the Erie Company in Castle Garden, where they were shielded from the wiles and solicitations of runners and sharpers, and, when ready to start for the West, instead of being loaded upon baggage wagons or compelled to find their own way to the railway station, were carried in a com- modious emigrant barge direct from Castle Garden to the Erie immigrant station and trains at Jersey City. The Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York adopted resolutions commendatory of this new, humane, and protective system after it had been successfully inaugurated. The details of these arrangements were efficiently admin- istered by Xicholas Muller, who was appointed emigrant agent of the Erie in 1873. Ih' s alliance between the Erie and the steamship lines continued until the emigrant busi- THE STORY OF ERIE 429 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES all the railroad lines was pooled in 1SS3, and the other lines may be said to have had, during all those years, onl) such of the immigrant traffic as the Krie could not carry. Emigranl \gent Mullerwas succeeded in [880 by JohnW. Romaine, who remained in office until the pooling arrangement and independent management of the busi- lut of the- 1 hargeof the passenger departments in Improvement in the local or suburban passenger traffii was under the administration of Mr. Abbott, but his efforts econded withany degreeof earnestness by any of the managements until that of John King. Since then it has been made a spei ial point of attention, and under the man- agement of 1). I. Roberts, who became general passenger agent in 1891, this branch of the Erie's passenger traffic has been brought to a degreeof importance that makes it of unvarying anil increasing profit to the Company anil benefit to the public. James Buckley belongs peculiarly to the history of the passenger department of the Erie. He has been in its sen ice more than a generation, and for twenty-five years has been its general Eastern passenger agent, with headquarters at New York. Pullman cars first came on the Erie June 1, 1872, under the I >ix administration, among them hotel dining-cars. Pre- vious to that the sleeping and drawing-room cars were of the Erie's own make. Air brakes were introduced on the Erie August 14, 1869. They were the Guthrie vacuum brakes, and were experimented with successfully on the local train known as the "Middle- town Way." This was the forerunner of the present system of safety brakes. Lighting the cars with gas was begun June 15, 1881, when an experiment with the Pintsch system was successfully made on a special train run from Jersey City to Turner's. The original Erie passenger trains consisted of never more than three cars. The regular through passengers trains on the Erie to-day (1S98) average seven cars, and seventeen cars in a train are not unusual. I IKST TRAIN-WRECKERS. During the last week in November, 1862, the track-walker on the section of railroad near Andover, N. Y.. on the m Division, found obstructions on the track, so placed ami at Mich an hour that it was evident they had been put there to wreck a passenger-train. This being reported, a watch was set. and about 9 o'clock on the night of Friday, November 20th. a few minutes before the express train, it, was due, two persons were discovered going on to the railroad, one of them carrying a log-chain. Near the tra< k was a portion of a wrecked gravel < ar, having one pair of wheels attached. The men placed this on the track over a culvert, on a curve in the road, and fastened it to the ties with this log-chain. The citizens who were on the watc h pounced upon the men and arrested them at once. They were committed to jail at Angelica. They proved tube George Palmer, a cabinet-maker, and Samuel Allen, a blacksmith. Palmer and Allen were tried and convicted on the charge of train-wrecking, February 3, 1853, before County Judge Lucien P. Wethcrbv. They were sentenced to four years in the Au- burn Penitentiary. Palmer was twenty-five years old, and Allen, twenty-one. This was the first attempt at deliberate train-wre< king on record in this country. MEMORABLE AND DISASTROUS STRIKES. 1854. D. C. McCallum, superintendent of the Susquehanna 1 livision, drafted a code of rules regulating the running of trains, which he submitted to the Directors of the Company early in 1S54. They were pleased with it, and officially adopted it as supplementary to the existing rules. Charles Minot was then the general superintendent. The McCallum rules were adopted March 6, 1854, and Minot was directed to put them in force. He did not approve of some of them. He refused to promulgate the new code, and resigned. Charles Minot had succeeded James P. Kirkwood as general superintendent May 1, 1850. He was born at Haverhill, Mass. His father was a judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Charles Minot was educated for the law, but his mind was of a more practical bent, and he learned to be an engineer on the Boston and Maine Railroad, of which railroad he subsequently became superintendent. He was one of the first to learn telegraphv, ami his knowledge of that new science stood him well in his career as superintendent of the Erie, as we have seen in the account of his adapting the telegraph to the use of the railroad. He came to the Erie from the Boston and Maine Railroad. The Erie was then in operation as far west as Elmira. Charles Minot was a large, fleshv man, verv democratic in his manner with his men, meeting them always on an ap- parent equality. He was a bluff and rude man in his speech, and hasty of temper. A peculiarity of his character was that if he summoned any of the men to his office to " blow them up," he would deliver his pent-up feelings on the first person who happened to come in, although that one was in no w..y concerned in the trouble on hand, and perhaps knew nothing about it. Minot's mind relieved, all would be serene again, and when the man he had summoned came in, he would be dismissed without a word. Superintendent Minot was continually travelling over the road. He had no special car or retainers, such as general superintendents of to-day are sumptuously equipped with. " Any car is good enough for me," Minot used to say. He frequently travelled with the pay car, to save expense. Until one day in the summer of 1853, he invariably travelled with his car ahead of the engine. He acknowledged that this was a dangerous thing to do, but he said " he could see things better." On the day in question, the car jumped the rails near Almond on the Western Division, at a high embank- ment there. With him on the car was President Homer Ramsdell and H. G. Brooks. Minot was a powerful man. He was standing on the platform as the car left the track. THE STORY OF ERIE 43' President Rainsdell and Mr. Brooks rushed for the door to escape, but they never would have got out but for Minn-, who seized the president with one hand and Brooks with the other, dragged them through the door, and jumped from the car with them just as it toppled over the bank. That was the List trip Minot ever took over the road with his car in front f the locomotive. The democratic manner of Superintendent Minot had made him objectionable to a number of the Directors long before he declined to enforce the McCallum rules, among them President Ramsdell, so although he had proved himself Trouble was not long in following. The engineers objected to the new order of things, particularly to Rule 6 of the Mc- Callum code, which declared that every engineer would be held responsible for running off a switch at a station where he stopped, whether he should run off before or af':er receiving a signal to go forward from a switchman or any other person. The engineer, under this rule, was expected to see for himself whether the switch was right or not, and take no person's authority for the same at stations where trains stopped. The engineer, however, had a right to run past stations where he did not stop at a rate he was willing to hazard on his own CHARLES MINOT AND STAFF— I864. H. B. SMITH, S. BOWLES, H. C. FISK. J. W. GUPPY, CHAS. MINOT, H. RIDDLE, H. HOBBS, H. G. BROOKS, Supt. Susy. Div. Supt. Buff. Div. SuPt. Rock Div. Asst. Gen. Supt. Gen. Supt. Supt. Del. Div. Su/t. East. DiV. Supt. West. Div. 1 1 apable railroad man, his withdrawal in favor of the strict dis iplinarian, McCallum, was agreeable to that element in the Board in more ways than one — but it was costly to the Erie. Minot went from the Erie to the Michigan Southern Railroad, as general manager, a place he held until December. 1859. Then he was recalled to the general superintendency of the Erie. He remained at the head of the operative department until December 31, 1:164, when he was succeeded by Hugh Riddle. For a time Mr. Minot held an office with the Com- pany known as consulting engineer, but he retired from that and returned to his native place, where he died. D. C. McCallum took charge as general superintendent May 1, 1854, and his new rules were at once put in force. account, the Company reserving the right to decide whether such running was reckless or not. " The road must be run safe first and fast afterward," the management declared. The engineers also protested against the alleged " posting rule " of the Company, under which notices of dismissal of engineers was at once posted with other railroad companies to the injury of the men. An abrogation of the distasteful rules was requested, June 15th, by a committee, consisting of John Donohue, William Schrier, and John C. Meginnes. Superintendent McCallum's explanation and reply not being satisfactory, the engineers struck on June 17th — the first strike in the history of t'le railroad. The .Company gave notice to all the men that all who returned to work within three days after fune 20th would 43 2 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES in the Company's employ. All others would be dismissed from the service. So few returned to work, and the Company not being in condition to maintain a struggle with its engineers, and the business of the road being at a standstill, June 24th Superintendent McCallum addressed this letter to the strikers' committee : New York and Erie Railroad, Office of General Superintendent, .\i w York, June 24, 1S54. To Joint Donahue, Il'm. Schrier, John C. Meginnes, Committee. 1 ,i\ 1 1 1 mis': I have explained Rule 6, Supplementary Instructions of May 1 51I1, as follows : The rule simply means this, that the engineer is responsible for the running off at a switch at a station where his train stops, whether he shall run off before or after receiving a signal to go forward from a switchman or any other person. But no engineer shall be discharged under such circumstances, without a full hearing of the case, or unless ii ran be clearly shown that he ran off through his own careless- ness. lerence to what I called the Posting Rules I would again say that it has not been extended except to the several divisions of this road, in all of which this Company has a financial interest, and that we have no intention of extending it further. Respectfully yours, D. C. McCallum, General Superintendent. To which the committee replied : Susquehanna Depot, June 2(11/1. D. C. McCallum. Esq., General Superintendent X. ]'. £° E.R.R.: At a meeting of the engineers of the New York and Erie Railroad, held at the United States Hotel, to hear the report of the committee, upon hearing which report and reading the letter of D. C. McCallum, it was unanimously Resolved, That the letter of D. C. McCallum. Esq., to this com- mittee, as read before our committee this day, in addition to the verbal statement of Mr. McCallum to the committee, we decide satisfai 1 hat we present to our committee our warmest thanks for the stant manner in which they have performed all the arduous duties imposed upon them. Resolved, That we make every effort to resume our work. That the committee immediately inform Mr. McCallum of our action at this meeting. John Donohue, ) Wm. Schrier, [• Committee. John C. Meginnes, ) It was an easy matter to return to work, and thus the first strike on the Erie was settled after ten days' paralysis of the business of the railroad, and a loss of many thousands of d 'II, us to the Company. The engineer over whose case the strike resulted was Ben- jamin Hafner of the Eastern Division. On the evening of June rothhe ran off a switch at Turner's. He was dismissed. After he was dismissed Hafner was sent for by Superintend- ent McCallum to talk about the incident. Hafner refused to go unless he was reinstated first. McCallum declined to reinstate him without a consultation. The matter was taken up by all the leading engineers on the Delaware and Eastern divisions, with the above result. Some of the engineers did not join in the strike, among them foe Meginnes. W. H. Power was then superintendent of the Delaware Division (division agent, it was then called), and he himself acted as engineer in efforts to run a train over that division, and succeedetl in doing so in spite of the strikers, who assembled in crowds at the Port Jen-is station, and had compelled every engineer who attempted to go out to dismount from his engine, except Joe Meginnes, who stuck to his engine through it all. He was opposed to strikes on principle. 1856. Notwithstanding the assurances Superintendent McCallum had given the engineers in settling the strike in 1854, they professed to see strong evidences that he was not keeping faith with them. During a little more than two years follow- ing the strike twenty-nine engineers had been discharged for running off switches, which convinced the engineers that Rule No. 6 was being enforced in a way that violated the understanding of 1S54. At last, one day about the middle of September, 1856, Samuel Tyler, an engineer on the Western Division, while in the Hornellsville yard with his engine, was given the "all right" signal by a switchman, and moving his locomotive in answer to this signal, found the switch wrong and backed off of it. Samuel Jillson, super- intendent of the Western Division, chanced to be there, saw the mishap, and discharged Tyler on the spot. This brought the feeling of dissatisfaction among the engineers to a climax. A meeting at which delegates from each division were present was held at Hornellsville September 19th, to dis- cuss the situation. The result of the meeting was the draft- ing of a bill of grievances, and the appointment of a com- mittee to go to New York and lay it before the Board of Directors. The members of this committee were William Schrier, John C. Meginnes, John Hall, E. F. Whalen, H. ('.. Brooks, Henry Belden, Joseph York, I. C. York, Edward Tinney, and J. F. Olmstead. They went to New York September 24th, and met six of the Directors, who asked for a week's postponement. The committee went the second time, October 1st, and were re- ceived by other Directors. Besides the obnoxious Rule 6 of the McCallum code, the engineers had a grievance in the fact that their pay while their engines were in shop under- going repairs had been stopped under the McCallum super- intendency, although they were ready for duty, and they asked that it be restored. They also asked that engineers from other railroads travelling over the Erie be allowed the same privilege as was allowed conductors of other railroads, which was free transportation when satisfactory credentials were shown to the train conductors. The engineers likewise took up the cause of their firemen, and asked that their pay be advanced to Si. 50 a day. The document setting forth the grievances of the engi- neers was discussed at a meeting of the Board of Directors, and referred to a committee consisting of Richard Lathers, THE STORY OF ERIE rJJ Don Alonzo Cushman, William E. Dodge, Cornelius Smith, and E. J. Brown. October 3d they made a voluminous report to the Board, disapproving of the petition of the engineers, and refusing their requests, " the most emphatic of which," said the re- port, " seems to be the abrogation of Rule 6, supplementary to general instructions of March 6, 1854, said demand being made by the persons upon whom it is intended to operate, which is as follows : ' Every engineer will be held account- able for running off at a switch at any station where his train stops, but will not be held responsible for running off at a switch at a station where his train does not stop.' " In giving their reasons to the Board why no concessions should be made to the men, and in defending the rule com- plained of, the committee said that under the rule " the en- gineers were instructed that switchmen were placed at stop- ping stations for their convenience only, and were not to be relied upon for the safety of the train, and that engineers would be expected, in all cases, to see that the switches w : ere right before they passed over them, and were also especially enjoined to take all the time necessary to run safe ; in other words, to ' run safe first, and fast afterwards ; ' that they should always ran into stopping places under the assumption that every switch was out of place, and a train standing on the main track In view of this state of things we beg leave to advise that you instruct our general super- intendent to immediately discharge from the company's service the ten engineers representing themselves as a com- mittee in this act of insubordination, and to fill their places with men who are willing to obey rales, and leave to the proper authority the duty of making them ; and also to cause to be discharged all employees who refuse to serve the Company under and in complete obedience to the rules as they are, filling their places in like manner." The report of the committee and the following were made public on the same day : New York and Erie Railroad, Office of General Superintendent, October 4, Wanted — One hundred and fifty Locomotive Engineers, imme- diately. Applications to be made to the several Division Superin- tendents, or at this Office. D. C. McCallum, General Superintendent. The grievance committee being promptly discharged, they telegraphed the fact to the different divisions, and most of the engineers along the line quit work. The striking en- gineers published a reply to the report of the committee of Directors. The following extract from it throws much inter- esting light on the methods of railroading on the Erie forty- five years ago : First, of rule sixth, they say this is a rule of safety, etc. Now let us say, as engineers, that this rule has not made the least particle of difference in our speed in approaching a station. We have shut off our steam at the same points, and, so far as we know, the brakemen have applied their brakes just the same as before this rule went into effect. We ask you to loo- into this matter carefully, and see if this rule faithfully executed would not involve the Company in some hard- ship, if it did not the engineers. We will take some stations where there are from six to ten switches. It is night, and in the winter. The switch lights have gone out and we cannot see the targets. The first switch is a mile or three-fourths of a mile from the station. We stop still at that switch and get off our engines if we cannot see the rail (which, of course, we cannot, if there is from six inches to a foot of snow on it), and feel to see if the rails are right. After satisfying ourselves of that fact, we jump on to our engines again and jog along to the next switch, and go through with the same performance, and so on till we get within the limits of the station. Will some practical man inform us whether we are allowed the time that this fol de rol would take up on the time-tables issued by the superintendent ? And further, if this were done, or if we were to run slow enough over all switches at all stations between Jersey City and Dunkirk to stop our trains from running off the track, providing those switches were wrong, what kind of connections should we make with the Western trains at Dunkirk? We mean, of course, all stations where our trains stop. For it would be preposterous to suppose that passengers should get injured if our trains should run off at the rate of fifty miles an hour, at stations where our trains do not stop. Therefore, there being no danger of getting hurt at fifty miles an hour, we are not held responsible. There is no road in this country where this rule coul ' be lived up to in the light Mr. McCallum holds us responsible, without ruining the business of the Company. Now we ask a fair and impartial answer to this question. Do the public really think that passengers would be likely to be injured any less by running off the track forty or fifty miles an hour at stations where our trains do not stop, than they would by running off five to twenty miles an hour at stations where our trains do stop ? This reply was signed by twenty-five of the leading en- gineers of the Western Division, eight from the Buffalo Divi- sion, and twenty-five from the Susquehanna Division. So few of the men remained at work that traffic on the railroad came to a standstill, contrary to the expectation of the Erie management. On the 6th of October, Superintendent Mc- Callum advertised that the Company would pay a bonus of $25 to every engineer who would resume work, and to en- gineers who would come new on the railroad. Very few re- sponses were received to this offer. The result was that soon the engines were in charge of all sorts of artisans — stationary engineers, firemen apprentices, and any who had the least smattering of knowledge of a locomotive. Some competent men came from other railroads to take the places of the strikers, but not many. The striking engineers and their friends harassed the Company in many ways. There was developed a number of water supplies that were so impreg- nated with grease, soap, sal soda, or other substances so en- tirely at variance with the heated surface of the fire-box and flues as to be incapable of being kept in contact therewith, and being repelled therefrom, took the form of ether ; in short, the boiler " foamed," and if the engine was in charge of an inexperienced man, the crown-sheet and flues would be rained, while if the attempt, at that period of affairs, to in- ject water into it was successful, it was an almost certain thing that the boiler would be blown into fragments. An- other peculiarity, not noticed before, was developed : a ten- dency on the part of bolts and nuts to work loose where 434 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES they "■ mosl needed to be tight and snug on the locomo- 1 his failing particularly affected the set-screws of the tries, so that an engine would rarely travel over one or two mi ! incapacitated. Almost every locomo- tive with which the Company attempted to run trains, for a inkers managed to disable in some such way, in spite of the watchfulness of those who were put in charge of the Company's interest, until "able-bodied" engines were the exception. The cost to the Erie in this damage to property was enormous. After a time, the Company persisting in its strike, although ,ts railroad was nearly paralyzed at a critical time otherwise in the Company's affairs, many of the old and best engineers went to other railroads throughout the country, where they gave the Erie a name that cost it thousands of dollars in loss of patronage. One of the prime movers in the strike was Horatio G. Brooks. He went to the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad as master mechanic, and when Charles Minot re- turned to the Erie as superintendent in 1859, Brooks came back also, and became later superintendent of the Western Division, and subsequently master mechanic of the entire toad. Most of the other old engineers returned when Minot was reappointed. It may be said that the strike never was settled, but after six months of almost constant disturbance and interruption to traffic, Superintendent McCallum re- signed. The loss to the Company in actual outlay because of this strike was nearly half a million dollars. The damage to the Company by loss in traffic was incalculable, and was one of the main causes of its bankruptcy in 1859, it never having recovered from the direct and collateral consequences of the unfortunate conflict. Daniel Craig McCallum was born at Renfrewshire, Scot- land, in 1814. His father, Peter McCallum, who was a tailor, emigrated to this country in 1822, and settled in Roch- ester, N. Y. Not liking his father's trade, he left home with his entire wardrobe tied up in a handkerchief. He walked his way to Eundy's Lane, where he apprenticed himself to learn the trade of carpenter. He became a skilful architect, designing St. Joseph's Church, Odd Fellows Hall, the Man- sion House Block, the Waverly Hotel, the House of Refuge, and other prominent buildings in Rochester. He developed a strong taste for mechanical engineering, and made rapid strides in his profession. He invented an inflexible arch truss for bridges, the use of which on various railroads brought him later an income of $75,000 a year. He entered the employ of the New York and Erie Rail- road Company in r.848, and was appointed superintendent of the Susquehanna Division in October, 1852. As stated ibove, he was made general superintendent in May, 1854. February 25, 1857, he tendered his resignation, because "a respectable number" of the Directors differed with him in re- gard to •• the discipline that had been pursued in the superin- tendence of the operations of the road." The resignation was ai - 1 pted, but the Hoard of Directors gave him a letter of re- gret at parting with him, and President Ramsdell addressed him a long personal letter, assuring him, in substance, that he was not one of the number in the management that did not approve of his discipline. Ex-Superintendent McCallum devoted himself to his pri- vate business until 1862, when, February 1st of that year, he was appointed b) Secretary Stanton military director and superintendent of the military railroads of the United States, with authority to take possession of all railroads and rolling stock that might be required for the transportation of troops, arms, military supplies, etc. He ranked as a colonel. He found only one railroad in possession of the Government — the one running from Washington to Alexandria. He speed- ily changed the state of affairs. His work in establishing the network of railroads that forwarded so materially the efforts of McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant, respectively, in the Peninsular campaign, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and other fields, belongs to the history of the Civil War, where it is amply recorded. Dur- ing his memorable work of hurrying troops forward to the rescue of Grant when he was cornered at Chancellorsville, he placed Gen. Carl Schurz under arrest for officious med- dling with his plans. McCallum saved Grant at Chancellors- ville, and was made a Brigadier-General by Stanton as a re- ward for his services on that occasion. General McCallum built 2,105 miles of new railroad and twenty-six bridges, and rebuilt 640 miles of old railroad, to meet the necessities of the Union army during the war, besides confiscating and opening to the service of the Northern generals the great net- work of old railroads without which our armies would have been powerless against the enemy. He expended $42,000,- 000 of the Government money in his work, and accounted for every cent of it. After the war, in 1865, he retired to private life, making his home at Glen Mary, at Owego, a place made famous by Nathaniel P. Willis, who lived there at one time, and where he built an elegant residence. General McCallum was a poet of no mean order, one of his poems being "The Water Mill," known everywhere as a perennially popular one, the rendering of the refrain of which, "The mill will never grind again with the water that is past," has brought fame and dollars to many an elocutionist. When the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad was building he became consulting engineer. He subsequently removed to Brooklyn, where he died, Dec ember 27, 1878. The intro- duction of iron bridges had relegated his wooden truss bridge to practical uselessness in railroad construction, and his in- come from that source had been reduced to a small amount during the later years of his life, and he left but a modest fortune to his family, which consisted of four sons and two daughters. 1857. Tuesday, December 1, 1S57, by order of President Charles Moran, a reduction of wages and salaries of employees went into effect, owing to the hard times and the critical condition of the Company's affairs. THE STORY OF ERIE 435 j •. (i E \V -YOU). tjkifcPil ■ ' " ■' '' ! - '"" KiVs> i »■? S'upt's mi% OS rill-; hi StA'F.fW ffi 'NO. ■fjci -■ Sort m v ■ -'■- sk& ^ / * • . •- r. i t "•■•' ■ K >tt%" •:& '-■■■■• ■ , ^"- :" ' ":- ' . t r,„ -^-^ v 3^ 14 I i: J.4 V I 1^ AV ^V Y . / -\^ as (^;;. j[ ClujHtU subject loiht conditions oH inc. bucl* ci litis I J ;i>-.. /7N To l»' void unless counter- signed on the buck bv J Ji ^ AlMtua H | I fEW Ito, ilBiB EHi tt> L'OBJr.H, 1859. , 'the :$4afer^ : ^-&^^A,... /ffifc.ij '*%?. &•<&> /-'"A^'M Sea'i SriSiiiii r .f;*SS E K I E II A. I E W .V Y . THIS PISS IS GOOD OXLY OX THE Eastern Division^and Newburgh Branch, \ar per day. It was reduced to 90 cents for eleven hours' work. Six hours were reckoned half a dav's work. Steady men could make from $25 to $30 a month at the old wages. President Moran was getting a salary of £25,000 a year, and it was current all along the railroad that, owing to financial straits the Company was in, he was taking no chances, but was collecting his salary, pro rata, every day. When his order to reduce wages and salaries was issued, inquiry was made by the men as to whether the presi- dent hid submitted to a reduction in his own great stipend. When it was learned that he had not, the feeling was bitter, and the laborers at the Piermont docks protested against the cut in their wages and quit work. The brakemen on that division of the railroad joined the laborers, as did the laborers along the division. Traffic came to a standstill. Up to Saturday afternoon, December 5th, 200 carloads of freight from the West had accumulated at and above Piermont. A few straggling trains only departed for the West. They had to be loaded by the agents, clerks, and other non-striking employees. Only three or four cars were sent by each train, so that they could be easily controlled by the engineer, the conductor and flagmen acting as brakemen. Hugh Riddle, superintendent, and Dispatcher Watson themselves went out on trains as brakemen to help get them through. The laborers, anil those whose interests were closely con- nected with them, such as boarding-house keepers, grocers, etc., constituted nine-tenths of the population of Piermont, and there was such a combination among them that no new force that might be sent there to take the places of the strikers could find a night's lodging or a meal. The exposed situation of the dock, built out, as it was, a mile from the shore, with its freight sheds and offices at the extreme end, and a railroad track running the entire length, put it in the power of a disorderly and evil-disposed gang to inflict almost irreparable injury on the Company. Wednesday evening, December 2d, the steamboat " Erie " was seen coming up the river, and a rumor was circulated that a new gang of laborers was on board. Immediately a fish-horn was sounded, and 300 men swarmed down upon the pier to prevent them from landing. It proved to be 300 emigrants bound West. The clerks and agent, assisted by the crew of the boat and such miscellaneous help as was at hand, transferred the baggage to the cars while the strikers stood by and jeered them. The train started on its way West, but it hid proceeded only as f:ir as the water-station, where it encountered a railroad bar spiked across the track, which threw the locomotive off and down a steep enbankment, wrecking it badly. The cars narrowly escaped a similar fate by the breaking of the coupling, and as there were 300 emi- grants on the train, many of them women and children, this narrow escape saved many lives. A force was collected by the Company along the line of the road and sent to Piermont, ostensibly to take the places of the strikers, but really for the purpose of frightening them into submission. No provision was made for their protection, and the result was that they had no sooner landed on the pier than they were attacked and driven off. Some were thrown off the pier into the river, anil would have drowned but for the aid of men in boats who were spectators. The Company called upon the sheriff of Rockland County to protect its property and disperse the strikers. He summoned the Piermont Guards, who turned out to the number of twenty- five, in citizens' dress, with bayonets fixed and supplied with ball cartridge. Friday evening, December 4th, the steamer " Esquimaux " arrived at the pier from New York with about 100 men, escorted by twenty-five Metropolitan policemen. The sight of this force ahead and the military in the rear had the effect of cowing the strikers, but to avoid a collision the police remained on board the boat all night. Saturday morning they landed and were joined by the Piermont Guards. The martial array had the desired effect. About half the men returned to work at once, and at noon nearly all of them were back. The police, however, were detained over night, and the Piermont Guards slept on their arms. The brakemen held out until Saturday night, when they gave in and went to work. The emigrants who had been taken to Piermont by the police to replace the strikers were returned to New York Sunday. One thing that had its effect in con- ciliating the strikers was the declaration that President Moran had been removed by the Directors, which the men believed. The strike cost the Company half a million dollars. 1859. March 15, 1859, the dock laborers at Piermont struck, not for an advance in wages nor against a reduction, but because they had not received any pay at all for three months. They were not the only employees that were months in arrears, but none of the others joined the strike. The Company, not caring to have a repetition of the costly experiences of 1857, and the strike being in every way justifiable, raised money enough to restore a measure of content to the men, and they resumed work after being idle only two days. But for the fact that the Company went into the hands of a receiver the following August, President Moran retiring, a strike in which the great body of employees all along the line would have joined, could not have been avoided much longer. There were then employees who had not received any pay for seven months. The receivership restored confidence and hope. No disturbance of relations occurred, and within three months all arrearages for labor, amounting to £500,000, were paid. 1869. May 10th, one brakeman of the three that made up the force of brakemen on each freight train on the Eastern Division was discharged by order from headquarters. The discharged men, and their sympathizers among the men who were not discharged, prevented the making up and get- THE STORY OF ERIE 437 ting of trains out of the Port Jems yard so effectually that operations on the division were practically suspended until May 13th, when the objectionable order was rescinded and the discharged men were reinstated. A large number of the brakemen urged the opportunity as a good one to continue the strike until wages were advanced to S2 a day from Si. 75, but it was not agreed to by the majority. The men who had urged this strike for increased wages continued to agitate the subject until they carried the day, and on May 28th the brakemen petitioned the company for an advance in pay to $2 a day. No reply having been received to the request by June 6th, the men struck. June 7th, the brakemen on the Delaware Division joined them. This soon blockaded the Port Jervis yard with freight and coal trains. Superintendent Hobbs endeavored to replace the strikers with new men, but failed. The situation threatened became so serious to the Company that June 8th the demands of the men were acceded to and work was resumed. Before the news of the settlement of the strike reached the other division, the brakemen on the Susquehanna and Western divisions telegraphed that they had struck for S2 a day, too. The Company granted the demand at once. The brakemen claimed that the management also promised not to discharge any of the men who had been engaged in the strike ; but earlv in November, however, a number of brake-' men were discharged, and the men believed it was because they had been concerned in the strike of the previous May. The action was resented, and the Eastern Division brakemen struck in a body, November 8th, demanding the reinstate- ment of the discharged men. The usual blockade of freight quickly followed. There was no detention to passenger traffic. Gould and Fisk both went to Port Jervis to look after the Company's interests, and several hundred men were taken along to replace the strikers in the Company's employ. Thev also sent a strong force of men from New York, many of them notorious " toughs," who, as special deputy sheriffs in the employ of the Erie, acted in a manner that brought about collision between them and the strikers, and the peace of the community was greatly disturbed. The unfortunate situation continued until the latter part of November, the old men being gradually replaced by new, when the strikers were forced to submit. The strike came to an end November 30th, and the result was the usual one — a great loss of wages to the men, without gaining any point, and damaging dis- turbance of the Company's business for many days. I li tober 16th, the men in the Port Jervis shops struck against the irregular manner in which they had been paid their monthly wages, and demanded that the pay-day be fixed for the 15 th of every month and their pay received on that tiny. The men in the Jersey City, Susquehanna, and Buffalo shops joined the strike. The strikers were discharged. The Company soon found that this was an unwise and costly policy, and after the shops had been idle ten days, President Gould held a conference at Port Jervis with a representative from each shop, and the demands of the men were acceded to, with a proviso that if by any cause it should happen that it was impossible for the Company to pay at the 15th, it should be allowed ten days' grace, which the men agreed to. This satisfactory ending of what threatened to be a costly strike for both employer and employee was due to the dignified and cool-headed management of the employers at Port Jervis : Gen. Thomas Holt, Stott Mills, and Walter Harvey. January 12, 1S70, the paymaster did not appear at the Jersey City shops. The men did not wait until the " days of grace" were up, but struck on the 13th. The time was un- fortunate for them, and they were compelled to return to their work, such of them as the Company would take back. 1874. During the winter the mechanics at the Susquehanna shops, more than 1 ,000 in number, had been working on three-quar- ter time. Their pay was much in arrears, and there was no fixed time for paying. February 3d the men stmck for their back pay and a regular pay-day, and the matter was quickly settled by the Company fixing the 15th of every month as pay-day in the future, and agreeing to give the men their February pay March 15 th. The men resumed work. When March 15th came, notice was posted at the shops that in con- sequence of embarrassment into which the Company had temporarily fallen in New York, it could not pay until March 25 th. With the 25 th of the month came a second notice, this one to the effect that the paymaster had begun paying elsewhere, and that those along the line who were paid first the previous month would be paid last the current month, and vice versa. A meeting of the men was called on March 26th, and the voice of the meeting was that work in the shops should be suspended. It was. The mammoth steam-gong was sounded, bells were rung, and within fifteen minutes every sound of labor was hushed, and the great buildings were de- serted. The demand made by the men was the old one of a regu- lar pay-day, and the further one that regular apprentices be employed in the shops instead of unskilled labor, as was then the case, to do the work of mechanics. They also demanded their pay up to date, anil time-and-a-half for overtime. The monthly pay roll at Susquehanna amounted to $50,000. The entire population of the place depended on the earnings of men employed in the Erie's shops, hence the sympathy for the strikers was universal. The Company refused the demands of the men, and they proceeded to compel acquiescence by practically stopping all traffic on the railroad. They took possessesion of the trains as they came into Susquehanna, dismantled the locomotives, and refused to permit any trains to go either East or West. All the Company's efforts to break the blockade were useless, and by the end of the month there were many disabled engines in the roundhouse, and 1,000 cars idle on sidings. The strikers had seized §200,000 worth of the Company's propertv, and declared that they would hold it until the company came to terms. The sheriff of Susquehanna County, 438 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES M. B. Helme, was called upon to restore the property to the Company and suppress the insurrection. He was powerless, as the populace was in entire sympathy with the strikers. The situation was such on the 28th of March that the sheriff telegraphed Governor Hartranft for troops. The men re- jei ted all the propositions made by the Company, and con- tinued to hold possession of its property and prevented the running of trains. Governor Hartranft ordered the First Regiment of State troops, Col. Hale Benson, of Philadelphia, and the Fourth Division, under command of Gen. S. D. Os- . of Wilkesbarre, to the scene of the disturbance. The Philadelphia troops, 400 men, arrived at Susquehanna on the 29th. On the 30th, General Osborne's command of 1,000 men arrived. Martial law was declared. The Company's grounds were c leared of all strikers, and no person was per- mitted to enter upon them without a pass from the com- manding officer of the troops, countersigned by Superin- tendent of Transportation 1'. P. Wright. The strikers were awed by the presence of the military, and the railroad was once more in possession of the Company. The strike was broken. The men were all paid off and discharged. Business had been suspended on the railroad five days. The Com- pany found forty of its locomotives disabled in the yard, with the missing parts in possession of the strikers. The loss to the Company by the strike was more than Si, 000, 000. This was under the Watson administration, which had declared the railroad to be so prosperous in its hands that dividends had been paid on the alleged earnings. This had aggravated the unpaid strikers the more, and turned sympa- thy more generally toward them and their cause. During the Susquehanna strike the Company was also greatly harassed by a strike of the freight handlers at New Yoik and Jersey City, which was to secure an advance in pay from seventeen and a half cents an hour to twenty cents an hour, and twenty-five cents an hour overtime. This brought freight shipments to a standstill. The Company put new men on under protection of the police, and on the 28th, the new men having begun to do the work fairly well, the strikers surrendered. The Company took back some and discharged others, retaining many of the new men. 1877. July rst the brakemen, yardmen, and trackmen's wages were reduced 10 percent. A committee representing the men was sent to headquarters with grievances, and requested ration of the wages to the former rate. President Jewett ordered the discharge of the members of the com- mittee from the Company's employ. A meeting of the employees concerned was held at Hornellsville at midnight, July icjth, and a strike was ordered. It began immediately. The men demanded $2 a day for brakemen, S2.25 for head switchmen, .m . 50 for yard brakemen, $1.40 lor section trai k- men, a restoration of the monthly passes to brakemen and pisses for switc hmen and trackmen, and free occupancy of the Company's grounds for dwellings of the men, the Com- pany having ordered that rent should be paid for land occu- pied by the shanties of the switc hmen and trackmen. From the 20th until the 25th of July all through business and all local business, except on the Delaware and Eastern divisions, was suspended on the railroad. General Superin- tendent E. S. Bowen and other officers of the Company succeeded 'in reaching Hornellsville by special train at 9 : 30 i\m of the 20th. The Hornellsville yard and shops were in entire possession of the strikers. All trains that had arrived at Hornellsville had been at once taken in charge by the men and side-tracked. The men on the Western Division joined the strike. At Hornellsville 400 strikers congregated. There were 150 at Salamanca. The strike was engineered and man- aged by a little red-headed, freckled-faced man named Bar- ney J. Donohue, who was not an employee of the Company. The strikers patrolled the Hornellsville yard, and permitted no one to work therein. All trains from Dunkirk and the West were stopped at Salamanca. The last train to arrive from the West was got through on the 21st by the strategy of Engineer Dan Chapman. Passengers for the West were sent by the Rochester Division at first, but on the 21st the men in the Corning yards prevented any other trains going that way. Then the passengers were sent from Elmira by way of the Northern Central Railroad. Sheriff Sherwood, of Steuben County, being unable to put the Company in possession of its railroad and property at Hornellsville, notified Governor Robinson, who ordered the Fifty-fourth Regiment, of Rochester, to the scene. It arrived, 400 strong, in command of Col. George E. Baker, Sunday evening, the 21st, at 6 : 30, hooted and reviled by the strikers. The Tenth Battalion, Colonel Smith, and Battery A of the Twentieth Brigade, Captain Walker, were ordered from Elmira to Hornellsville, and arrived the same evening. The militia formed and cleared the tracks, and the Hornellsville yard became virtually under martial law. Strong guards were placed about it, with orders to permit no one to enter the lines without a pass. The battery was stationed in Loder Street, commanding the Company's property. It was soon discovered, however, that a majority of the militia were in sympathy with the strikers. There being a disposition on the part of the conductors and engineers to aid in getting trains out, Barney Donohue notified them that they would do so at their peril, as the tracks had been " fixed " by the strikers, notwithstanding the presence of the military. General Brinker and Gen. J. B. Woodward, and William Wallace MacFarland, of the Erie counsel, got through from New York to Hornellsville on the 21st, arriving there at 11 o'cloi k p.m. That day an express train left New York at 1 1 a.m. Gen. I). D. Wiley, Chief of Ordnance, was a passen- ger on the train. The train was abandoned at Elmira. A special train was made up there, and General Wiley, with ammunition and supplies, succeeded in reaching Hornells- ville on it at 3 : 25 on the morning of the 22cl. An express train from the East, carrying the United States mail, but no passengers, got to Hornellsville at 9 o'clock a.m. of the ^ 1 st (Sunday). Superintendent Bowen resolved to send it on THE STORY OF ERIE 439 West under military escort. The train started at 10 o'clock. Captain Sullivan of Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Battalion, was detailed with forty men to guard the train and prevent the strikers from capturing it. A sergeant and four men were placed on the locomotive, and two guards were stationed on the platform of each car. The rest of the detachment were scattered through the cars. The guns were loaded, and the men had orders to fire on any attacking party. The train consisted of two passenger coaches, a bag- gage car and a postal car, and was in charge of Conductor Hiram Hurty and Engineer David E. Carey, whose fireman was Matt Dewey. Half a mile west of Hornellsville depot the railroad begins the ascent of a heavy grade. The strikers had covered the rails at that point, and a long way up the grade, with soft soap, and had collected in vast numbers there. There were scores of detained passengers at Hornellsville, and word was sent to them that a train was going out, but only fourteen ventured aboard the train. The train pulled out of the yard and was travelling rapidly when the engine struck the soaped rails. Then the wheels slipped, and labored up the grade very slowly. The 500 as- sembled strikers, and their women and children, yelled like demons. They poured on to the track in front of the train, and large torpedoes were placed on the rails to lift the loco- motive and still further check it. Engineer Carey spurted sand and pounded ahead. The strikers swarmed on the locomotive, clambered on the steps of the cars, and clung to the railing in spite of the guards, many of whom were pale with fright. Beyond a feeble attempt at presenting bayonets the soldiers did not resist the strikers at all, and the men, with wild shouts, pushed them aside and soon had posses- sion of the train. Setting the brakes on the passenger cars, they uncoupled them from the baggage car, and the engine, mail car, and baggage car went on. Engineer Carey stopped and backed down again, hoping to be able to recover the rest of his train, but the strikers swarmed about him and told him that if he did not proceed he would never leave that yard again. Seeing that resistance was useless, he went on. The strikers then drove the guards from the car, smashed the brake wheels with axes, ordered the passengers out of the cars, and started the cars down the grade into Hornellsville yard at a terrible rate, regardless of the consequences. I ngineer Dan Chapman was in the yard and threw open a switch in time to turn the flying cars off the main track, thus saving a disastrous smash-up at the depot. The strikers took the soldiers prisoners, and marching them back to the yard, delivered them up to their comrades with derisive hoots and jeers. An effort to send a train out over the Buffalo I >ivision under a strong guard of the Fifty-fourth Regi- ment also failed. The strikers, emboldened, captured a loco- motive at the depot, where it was being made readv to make an effort to take a train East, in charge of a posse of deputy sheriffs, and ran it to the bridge east of town, where they drew its fire, and let the water out of the boiler. Barney Donohue then issued an " order " to the vardmaster and all conductors and engineers that unless they ceased aiding in the making up of trains their lives would be the forfeit. Late Sunday afternoon (the 21st) the Seventy-fourth Regi- ment of Buffalo, 300 strong, in command of Colonel Rick- art, arrived at Hornellsville, after being held up by the strikers several hours near Hornellsville. An order was also issued to the Twenty-third Regiment, of Brooklyn, to proceed to the scene. Governor Robinson issued a proclamation declar- ing the strike a riot, warning all to desist, and calling upon all good citizens, and all authorities, civil and military, to aid in suppressing it. The authorities of Hornellsville issued a proclamation forbidding the sale of intoxicants, and warning citizens to keep aloof from the turbulent scenes. Receiver Jewett posted the offer of a reward of S500 for information that might lead to the arrest and conviction of any one tam- pering with the Company's property. Hornellsville was threatened with a reign of terror. A strong detachment of the Twenty-third Regiment left New York under Colonel Rodney C. Ward, at eleven o'clock a.m. of Monday, the 23d. No trouble was met until the train arrived at Susquehanna. From that point on the train had to fight its way. When the Twenty-third marched into Hornellsville toward evening of that day, having left the cars at the bridge east of the town, the bearing of the men at once impressed the strikers. There was no hooting. In fact, a strange silence prevailed. The Twenty- third was placed on guard in the Company's yard that night. Strikers attempted to pass through the lines, as they had been doing, unchal- lenged. The first one who attempted it was challenged by the guard. The man paid no attention to it, but kept on his way. Instantly a bullet from the sentinel's gun whistled over his head, and he quickly retreated and disappeared. From that moment a change came over the spirit of the strikers. July 23d, Matthew Bemus and Miles W. Hawley, Hornells- ville lawyers, were engaged by the strikers to endeavor to bring about a settlement. A committee, with Barney Dono- hue at its head, requested an interview with Superinten- dent Bowen. It was granted, and was held in the super- intendent's private car. There were present also Mr. Haw- lev, Mr. MacFarland, William Pitt Shearman, assistant to the receiver, Chief Engineer Chanute, and others. Donohue delivered his ultimatum, which was the original demands of the strikers. Mr. MacFarland called the attention of the committee to the fact that as the property of the Company was in custody of the courts, being under a receivership, they were in serious contempt of court, which was a violation of a strict penal statute. He counselled the men to return to their allegiance and trust to the magnanimity of the Com- pany's officials, as no concessions would be made. As Mr. MacFarland spoke as with the voice of Receiver Jewett him- self, the momentary hope of a settlement was dispelled. The strikers had had their headquarters in a hall opposite the Erie depot, but on the 23d changed to the Nichols House, in the central part of the village. While Barney Donohue was at supper that evening at the Nichols House, he was arrested by Sheriff Sherwood on a warrant sworn out 44Q BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES by Receiver Jewett, and issued by Judge Donahue of the New York Supreme Court, on a charge of contempt of court. The arrest was made so quietly that Don. 'hue was in the lock-up before more than half a dozen of the strikers knew it. 1 [e was held in default ol $2,500 bail to answer the (harm-, July 27th. At 7 o'clock \.m., July 24th, a train with two locomotives and with four picked men from the Twenty-third Regiment on each locomotive, and the rest of the command escorting it, the One Hundred and Tenth Battalion being in the coaches, uted East. It was in charge of Conductor Ryerson H. Stewart, and Engineers DeYVitt and Frisbee. The Twenty- third escorted the train four miles and returned. At Corning the strikers had thrown freight cars across both tracks, and spiked the switches. The train arrived there at 12.30, and found a train there from New York, which had fought its way through with 128 more men from the Twenty-third Regi- ment. By the aid of the soldiers the obstructions were re- moved, and both trains got away from Corning after a strug- gle of two hours with the strikers. The west-bound train had to fight its way all the way to Hornellsville, and reached there only by Major Barnes ordering a detachment of the troops, under Captain Williams, to march ahead of the train on the double quick and disperse the strikers who were tearing up the track, with order to fire if resisted. 'When the strikers were overtaken by the soldiers, and the latter halted and drew up in line, they broke and fled to the woods and did not ap- pear again. July 25th, the strike was settled on the basis of an agree- ment drawn up by Messrs. Bemus and Hawley, which was that the men should acquiesce in the 10 per cent, reduction in wages ; the discharged grievance committee to be reinstated at the option of the superintendents of the divisions where the dismissals occurred ; brakemen to go to work at the wages received previous to July 1st ; none of the employees engaged in the strike to be proceeded against or discharged unless they had destroyed property, and the case of Donohue to be left to his counsel and the Erie counsel for settlement. The terms of settlement were agreed to just before midnight, and at daylight on the 26th all military surveillance was removed. There was great rejoicing at Hornellsville over the result, for the place had been cut off from communication with the out- side world since Friday, July 19th, and business had been practically suspended during the strike. The condition of affairs on the railroad had never been so blocked and muddled as the one in which the strike left it. The direct cost to the Company was $300,000, and the loss sustained by the week's suspension of business was over Si,ooo,ooo. It was a week after the strike before operations had resumed their regular order. Barney Donohue was taken to New York to be punished. During four months Receiver Jewett, or his advisers, made an unnecessary exhibition of Erie in the proceedings that were persisted in against Donohue, always before Judge Donahue. The strike leader, who had none of the qualities of a leader, and was simply an ignorant and entirely im om- petent man whose assurance alone had made him the head of the Hornellsville strike, was lifted into undue prominent e by the proceedings, and made a martyr of in the eyes ol labor throughout the land. He was ably defended by Roger A. 1'ryor, and was accorded the dignity of being sent to Ludlow Street Jail for refusing to answer certain questions. He was subsequently released without having answered, L\ the same judge who committed him. This was on August j 2d, when he was arrested by the Sheriff of Steuben County and taken to Bath Jail. October 13th, he was indicted on a charge of conspiracy, and December 12th, five months after his arrest at Hornellsville, he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in the Steuben County Jail. If that rational proceeding had been taken at the start, his punishment would have been more severe, and deservedly so. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES OF INTEREST. Strawberry Trains. — In the early years of the Erie the region in Rockland County, X. Y., and Bergen Countv, N. J., adjacent to the eastern section of the railroad, made an important traffic for the road in the shipment of small fruits, particularly strawberries, that region then supplying largely the demands of New York City in those fruits. In 1S46 a fmit train was put on during the berry season, between Suffem and Piermont, running between these points with the milk train from Middletown. It carried 400,000 baskets oi strawberries that season. In 1S47 this train consisted of nine 8-wheel cars, and on every trip " was loaded to the top with strawberries and milk. Some trips So,ooo baskets of berries were carried." Two cars of the train were needed to carry the berry-growers, who went to New York to dispose of their berries. The business was larger yet in 184S, and was a great factor in the Erie's local traffic until Southern New Jersey and Long Island became the great berry producers. Some Memorable Snows and Floods. — Deep snows and disastrous floods were regular disturbers of traffic on the Erie during its early years, particularly on the Western Divi- sion, where the high country of Chautauqm Countv, between Little Valley and Dunkirk, seemed to constantly invite snow blockades. In the winter of 1852-3 that region had a snow- fall of four feet and a half on the level ; in 1S53 three feet and a half, and in 1855-6 six feet and a half. In 1852 the drifts on the western end of the Western Division were thirty feet high. It was not an uncommon thing for passenger trains to be snowbound a week at a time within two hours of Dunkirk. Ten locomotives and 500 men were unable to keep that portion of the track clear for trains during the second week of January, 1852, and all that time a train-load of pas- sengers lay in the drifts. On one occasion, during the winter of 1855-6, train No. 4, with five engines attached, was nine days getting over the Western Division. June 17, 1S57, the day express was four hours going from Addison to Hornellsville, because of a sudden and terrific rain which inundated that part of the railroad for twenty-five THE STORY OF ERIK 44r miles east of Hornellsville, and covered the tracks in many places two or three feet with gravel washed from the hillsides. Captain Ayres was conductor of the train, and De Bruce Goodell engineer. Captain Avers marched ahead of his train a great part of the distance, frequently for a mile or more in water up to his waist, to discover any danger that might lurk in the way. When the train reached Hornellsville the passen- gers held a meeting at the Osborne House and passed reso- lutions of thanks to the conductor, engineer, and trainmen. Hon. Benjamin Chamberlain of Randolph, X. V.. was chair- man of the meeting. The winter of 1X5 7 was particularly disastrous to the Erie on the Delaware Division. There were extraordinarily deep snows, and heavy ice in the Delaware River. February 2d the ice went out with a big flood, and carrieil away the railroad bridge east of Narrowsburg, N. V. The river froze up again, and another flood came February 18th. The railroad bridge that the previous flood had demolished was well along toward restoration, but most of the new one was carried away by the second flood. A. J. Hardenbergh, bridge foreman, was on the work next to the Pennsylvania bank when the flood came, and the timber broke up and crashed away behind him as he ran for the shore, his feet being scarcely lifted from one tim- ber before that timber would fall before the flood. His es- cape was miraculous. Pending the replacing of the railroad bridge below Narrowsburg, through traffic over the Erie was virtually suspended. Local passengers were ferried across the Delaware. Live-stock was a great item of traffic on the Erie in those days. While the bridge was gone, cattle, sheep and hogs were unloaded at Narrowsburg and driven through Wayne County, Pa., to the junction of the Honesdale and Mist Hope turnpike, sixteen miles, and thence back over that turnpike to Mast Hope, a total distance of thirty- five miles, where they were reloaded on cars in waiting at that place for them. March 17, 1S75, the great iron bridge at Sawmill Rift, the original point of entry into Pennsylvania, was carried away by the great ice block caused by t\e unprecedented jam in the Delaware River at Sim's Cliff, below Port Jervis. For weeks before the catastrophe, foreseeing the danger, Chief 1 1 igineer Chanute of the Erie had a force of men at work blasting the ice in the gorge with nitro-glycerine, for the pur- pose of weakening it, so that when the great pack from up the river came down it would force a passage through the jam and avert the danger. This was not effected, and the ice coming down from up stream was stopped at the Port Jervis gorge, and piled up thirty to fifty feet high between Port Jervis and the Sawmill Rift bridge, lifting that bridge from its foundations and bearing it away. During the replac- ing of this bridge with the present one, all through traffic of the Erie was by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad between New York and Great Bend, Pa. The great blizzard of March, 1888, blocked the Eastern Division of the Erie so that the traffic was entirely at a standstill five days. Trains were stalled at many points be- tween Jersey City and Port Jervis, all effort to extricate them being fruitless, and much hardship resulted both to passen- gers and employees. The track was covered with drifted snow that was frequently fifty feet deep. No early snow blockade in the history of the railroad was as complete as this ; for, with all the modern appliances, greater experience in railroading, and the more powerful machinery, the railroad was utterly at the mercy of the storm and its sequences for nearly a week, and it was a week longer before the demoral- ized and disorganized condition of affairs on the railroad could lie restored to its old-time system and order. The blockade was all along the line and its branches for 150 miles. At and near Chester, N. V., five trains were stalled from Monday morning until Friday night, the long, deep cut at the station being filled with snow from bottom to top, its entire length. The cut is 300 feet long and forty feet deep. The cost and loss to the company of that great obstruction to its business was Sr, 000,000. The blockade lasted from March 12th to March 17th, before one train could be moved over the Eastern Division. From early Sunday morning, October 3, 1869, until day- light the next morning, rain fell in such incessant torrents in the Delaware Valley that for miles on the Delaware Division of the Erie the track was buried from three to eight feet deep by land and rock slides from the hills. The heaviest slide was at Middaugh's Switch, six miles west of Port Tervis. Between Hankins and Callicoon 100 feet of the road-bed was washed into the Delaware River, which was a raging flood. Near Pond Eddy two sections of road-bed were washed out, leaving chasms sixty feet wide and fifty feet deep. The east abutment and one pier of the railroad bridge across the Delaware east of Narrowsburg were destroyed by the flood. The railroad was tied up until October 9. Temporary tres- tles were thrown across the big washouts, and a fern' was established across the river at the wrecked bridge east of Narrowsburg. Three hundred emigrants and hundreds of passengers were stalled at Port Jervis pending the repairs, and were fed and lodged by the Company. some dreadful disasters of the rail in erie's history. At King & Fuller's Cut. — Frank Evans of New York, a survivor of this terrible catastrophe, recalls for the author these recollections of it: " It was about the middle of fuly, in 1864," says Mr. Evans. " I was in the Union Army, ami was one of a guard of 125 soldiers who were detailed to take a lot of Confederate prisoners from Point Lookout, Ya.. to the prison camp at Elmira, X. Y., which had just been made ready to receive them. There were 10,000 prisoners in all to be transferred, and this lot was the first installment to be moved. There were about 800 of them. We came on the Pennsylvania Railroad to Jersey City, and the prisoners were transferred to the Erie train by boat. The train was made up of emigrant cars, box cars, and all sorts of odds and ends of cars, and was a long one. Two guards were stationed on the platform at each end of each car. We got started from 44- BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Jersey City about 5 o'clock in the morning. I was one of the guards stationed well hack on the train, and a lucky thing it was for me that I was so stationed. We passed through the little village of Shohola early in the afternoon, going something like twenty-five miles an hour. We had run a mile or so beyond Shohola, when the train came to a stop with a suddenness that hurled me to the ground, and instantly a crash and roar that rivalled the shock of battle rose and filled that quiet valley. This lasted but a moment. It was followed by a second or two of awful silence, and then the air was filled by most appalling shrieks and wails and cries of anguish. " As soon as I recovered from the confusion caused by the shock and the fall, I did not need to be told that our train had met with some frightful mishap. I hurried forward. On a curve in a deep cut we had met a heavily-laden coal train, travelling nearly as fast as we were. The trains had come together with that deadly crash. The two locomotives were raised high in air, face to face against each other, like giants grappling. The tender of our locomotive stood erect on one end. The engineer and fireman, poor fellows, were buried beneath the wood it carried. Perched on the reared- up end of the tender, high above the wreck, was one of our guards, sitting with his gun clutched in his hands, dead 1 The front car of our train was jammed into a space of less than six feet. The two cars behind it were almost as badly wrecked. Several cars in the rear of those were also heaped together. " In a very short time a score of people arrived from the village, and the work of removing the dead and rescuing the wounded began. There were bodies impaled on iron rods and splintered beams. Headless trunks were mangled be- tween the telescoped cars. From the wreck of the head car thirty-seven of the thirty-eight prisoners it contained wore taken out dead. The remaining prisoner was found alive and uninjured, surrounded by debris, like a nut kernel in its shell. Three of the four guards on the car were also taken out dead. The fourth one was the one who sat dead on top of the upturned tender. From the wrecked cars thirty-three of the guards were taken, twenty of whom were dead. Fifty or more of the prisoners were killed, and at least 100 or more wounded, a number of the wounded dying soon after they were removed from the wreck. The fireman of the coal train was instantly killed. His engineer escaped by jumping. The engineer of our train was caught in the awful wreck of his engine, where he was held in plain sight, with his back against the boiler, and slowly roasted to death. With his last breath he warned away all who went near to try and aid him, declaring that there was danger of the boiler exploding and killing them. Taken all in all, that wreck was a scene of horror such as few, even in the thick of battle, are ever doomed to be a witness of. And, as we heard dur- ing the day, it was all caused by a wrong order given to the engineer of the coal train by a drunken despatcher some- where up the road. If we could have got at him we would have made short shrift of him. " We were until night getting the dead and wounded out of the wreck and things in shape to proceed on our journey. A coroner held an inquest, and the dead were all buried in one great trench dug by order of the railroad officials, be- tween the railroad and the river, which was a few hundred yards distant. The bodies were put into pine boxes, each dead Union soldier having a box to himself. The dead pris- oners were buried four in a box. We did not get on our way until next morning, and left many of the wounded at Shohola, taking a number of them with us." That frightful accident occurred about 2 p.m., Friday, July 15, 1864. The cause of the accident was a drunken tele- graph operator at Lackawaxen, Pa., four miles west of the scene of the disaster. His name was Duff Kent. He had been carousing the night before, and was under the influence of liquor at his post when Conductor John Martin, of a coal train that had come in off the Hawley Branch of the Erie, eastbound, asked him if the road was clear for him to go ahead. Kent said it was, although the train that carried a flag ahead of the extra having the prisoners aboard had left the station on its way west but a short time before, and Kent had been informed that the train bearing the prisoners was on the road. This train should have left Jersey City at 4.30 a.m., Friday, July 15th, but was delayed an hour or more by the captain of the Union guard returning to the vessel on which the prisoners had been brought from City Point, to look for three of the prisoners who had escaped. When Con- ductor Martin got the word from Kent, his train started east. It consisted of fifty loaded cars. At King & Fuller's cut (so-called from the contractors who made it), a mile west of Shohola, the train was going at the rate of twelve miles an hour, and in that cut met the extra train, with its load of 833 Confederate prisoners and 150 Union guards, travelling twenty miles an hour. The cut is a long one, on a curve. Neither engineer could see the track fifty feet ahead of him. Neither knew of the other's presence there until they came face to face. The engineer of the coal train, Samuel Hoitt, had time to jump from his locomotive. He escaped with but slight injury. His fireman, Philo Prentiss, was crushed to death. The engineer of the passenger train was William Ingram, whose cool bravery in the face of a horrible death is described above by Mr. Evans. His fireman was Daniel Tuttle. Both were buried in the debris of the locomotive, the fireman being instantly killed. G. M. Boyden, a brakeman on the coal train, was also killed. An inquest was held at Shohola, by Justice Thomas J. Ridgway and a jury. It exonerated every one from any blame, although the criminal carelessness that had caused the slaughter was well known. Kent was not molested ; but on the very night following the accident, and while scores of his victims lay dead, and scores more were writhing in agony, he attended a ball at Hawley, and danced until daylight. Next day, however, he disappeared, the voice of popular indigna- tion becoming ominous, and he never was seen or heard of in that locality again. The trench in which the dead were buried was seventy-six THE STORY OF ERIE 443 feet long, eight feet wide, and six deep. The official report of the killed that were buried places the number at fifty-one Confederates and nineteen Union soldiers. The wounded, some of whom died later, numbered 123. This, at that time, was the most horrible and disastrous railroad accident on record. The common grave of its unfortunate victims was in time washed away by floods, and the bones of those it contained were carried along, year by year, until at last the ground was left tenantless of its dead. At Carr's Rock. — Wednesday morning, April 15, 1868, eastbound express train No. 12 passed Lackawaxen, on the Delaware Division, at twelve minutes past three o'clock. The train was forty minutes late. There were nine cars in the train, the three rear cars being sleeping-coaches. Jasper B. Judd was the conductor, Henry Green the engineer. The Delaware Division had then but a single track. The rails were of iron, and of poor quality. When the railroad was built through that region, a wild mountain creek joined the Delaware at the mouth of a deep valley, midway between Shohola and Pond Eddy. A high jutting rock on one side of the valley was known as Carr's Rock, and the stream was called ( 'arr's Rock Brook. The railroad was carried across the creek and its valley by filling in the latter and by the construc- tion of a culvert of heavy masonry. The embankment and culvert were fifty feet above the creek, the fall being per- pendicular at the culvert, and steep elsewhere, the Delaware River being about 100 feet from the foot of the embankment. The railroad curves sharply at this point. The engineer was running to make up lost time. He had passed an eighth of a mile beyond Carr's Rock, when he dis- covered that he had lost part of his train. The conductor, who was in the front passenger car, had made the discovery Before that, and going back through the train found that the sleeping-cars were not there. They had been thrown from the track, and hurled over the high embankment and culvert. As was learned later, or as was gathered from the evidences •on the track, a rail 250 yards or more west of the culvert had been broken by the locomotive of the train, but the broken rail had kept in place until all the cars but one ahead of the first sleeper had passed over it. When the forward wheels of that car struck it, a section of the broken rail was displaced. Failing to mount the safe rail ahead of it, the truck went off mi the ties. The rear truck remained on the rails, however, as did the following cars. The forward truck ran along on the ties 700 feet without the mishap having been discovered by the conductor or engineer. The passengers in the de- railed car were awakened by its jolting over the ties, and one pulled the bell-rope. If the track had been straight the derailed car would doubtless have followed on safely until the accident had been discovered and the train stopped, but when the wheels of the truck met the beginning of the sharp curve it failed to respond to the change in direction, and kept straight on. The coupling to the car ahead was broken. The cars behind the derailed one followed it from 'he rails to the verge of the precipitous bank and culvert. As the cars hung over the gulf, the coupling of the second and third cars broke. The first one plunged from the culvert, but was carried by its momentum to the far side of the creek, where it crashed in ruin, carrying instant death to many of its helpless occupants. The second car rolled over and over down the steep and rocky slope, its sides splitting open and its roof being torn away in the frightful descent. The third car fell bottom side up to the bottom of the steep, partiallv in the creek, and the fourth car fell near it. When the discovery that something was wrong was made by the engineer and conductor, and the train was backed to the scene of the catastrophe, the last sleeper was in flames, lighting up fitfully the awful wreck of the other cars, from which rose most appalling shrieks and groans, and making the darkness of the wild surroundings more intense. When the first shock of the horrible casualty was over, Conductor Judd and his trainmen, aided by the passengers from the cars that were not wrecked, and such of those as had escaped with their lives from the cars that had plunged from the bank and culvert, hastened to the aid of the injured and to the rescuing of the living who were held fast in the tangled debris of the wreck. The records of the sleeping-car company, as was subsequently learned, showed that berths had been sold to twenty-three persons for that trip in the car that caught fire. But two persons were saved alive from that car, and the charred remains of what were believed to be those of six others were all that were left to show what had become of the remaining twenty-one. In the first car that went into the gulf nearly every passenger was killed. The car that fell into the creek caught fire ; all the part that was out of the creek was burned. A train with physicians and other aid aboard was hurried to the scene of the dreadful catastrophe at the earliest possible moment, and the dead and injured were taken to Port Jervis. The injured were cared for tenderly at the various hotels and at private residences, by volunteer nurses, and by the five physicians of the place, and five sent from New York by the Company. The dead were laid out in the ladies' waiting- room of the depot to be identified and taken away by rela- tives or friends. The unidentified remains were buried in one grave in Laurel Grove Cemetery. The death list of this most sickening tragedy of the rail is as follows : Ephraim Hoyt and wife, Chenango Forks, N. V. ; Mary E. Cobb, Honesdale, Pa. ; Eneas Blossom, proprietor of the Erie dining-saloon at Susquehanna, Pa. : a child of D. B. Tisdell, of Ithaca, N. Y. : H. Blonvin, Urbana, N. Y. ; I. S. Dunham, Binghamton, N. Y. ; C. K. Loomis, Buffalo, N. Y. ; Elijah Knapp, Jamestown, N. Y. ; Thomas Purinton, New York ; Mrs. A. P. Snow and child, of Iowa ; Tobias Erlich, Hornellsville, N. Y. ; Philip Richter, Hoboken, N. J. ; J. Melvin, Buffalo ; A. E. Brown, Bath, N. Y. ; Ferdinand Sausse, Paris; Mrs. John Decker, of Binghamton (among those burned to death) ; F. X. Horton of Salem, Wis. ; A. L. Oliver of New* York ; four unidentified, and those supposed to have been entirely con- sumed in the rear sleeper ; a total of forty dead. 444 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES The wounded were seventy-five, some of whom never re- covered entirely from the effects of their injuries. Among the wound harles VV. Douglas, superintendent of the Delaware Division, and Charles S. Fairman, editor of the Elmira Advertiser. A. coroner's jury held an inquest at Port Jervis, N. Y., lulv 17th, and another one mad 0-i died investigation in Pike County, Pa., where the disaster occurred. This latter inquest held nobody nor anything to blame for the catas- trophe. The Port Jervis inquest found that it was due to a broken rail over which the train was being run at too great connection with this accident, the reader will find it interesting to refer to the report of General Superintendent Hugh Riddle, made to the Company some weeks before the Can's Rock horror ("Administration of John S. Eldridge," luges 156-157 1. In August, 1869, this most melancholy tragedy was brought sensationally before the public by one of those unusual move- ments peculiar to the Gould and Fisk regime. A number of the passengers injured at Carr's Rock had declined to ac- cept the terms of settlement offered by the Company, and had brought suit to recover heavy damages. Among these passengers were Stephen Sweet, of Middletown, and C. C. D\ke, of Brooklyn, both of whom had been seriously hurt in the accident. The general verdict that the disaster was due to a broken rail and the reckless speed at which the train was running had not been questioned by any one, either in or out of the Erie management. In the winter of 1S68-69, derailing of trains was so frequent that the management came to the conclusion that it was the work of train-wreck- ers, and the Company offered a reward of $2,000 for in- formation that would lead to the arrest and conviction of any one concerned in such a crime. May 28, 1S69, a half-de- mented, dissolute character, named James Bovven, informed the Erie watchman at Stairway, seven miles west of Port Jervis, that he had surprised a man tampering with the rails at a dan- gerous spot, and recognized him. The watchman went with Bowen to the spot and found a rail loosened. Bowen said the man who had tampered with the rail was James Knight, who was a well-to-do and reputable farmer living in that \ icinity. Knight was arrested, and Bowen's charge was found to be groundless, and he was himself arrested on charge of being the one who had tampered with the rail. He was 1 in jail at Milford, Pa., where, on June 2d, as was announced in the New York papers fune 23d, he made a confession, declaring that he had displaced the rail and made the charge against Knight in hope of convicting him and obtaining the $2,000 reward. The New York papers also in- timated that bowen had been guilty of wrecking the train at Carr's Rock in [868. This intimation was fiercely assailed by the local papers, until it was in turn intimated to them that this opinion was not only shared by the management, but had originated with it, whereupon the broken rail and undue speed verdict of Carr's Rock was rejected and the new theory accepted. The result was that on August iSth it was made public that James Bowen's conscience had har- assed him so that he had sent for the local Erie officials and attorney, August 17th, and said that he had something to tell them. They went to Milford, where thev bethought them that it would be well to have some one else hear what James Bowen had to say, and selected as such witnesses sue h substantial citizens as the district-attorney of Pike C( mnty, and an ex-associate judge and two ex-sheriffs. In the presence of these officers and ex-officers, Bowen confessed that he had fixed the rail that threw the train off the track with such ter- rible results at Carr's Rock, that night in April, 1S6.S. The confession, as given to the press, was an incoherent, ram- bling statement, just such a one as an irresponsible, weak- minded man like Bowen would make, but the substance of it had been suggested to him, and by making it he expei ted to be leniently dealt with by the court, although the Erie officials were particular to announce that, before they knew what Bowen had it in his mind to say, they had warned him that he would say it at his peril, and must not expect any leniency from them. This confession was published, and poor old Bowen (he was then over sixty) was denounced far and wide as " The Fiend Bowen." When he came into court to get his expected light sentence, Judge George R. Barrett sentenced him to ten years in the Eastern Penitentiary, and to pay a fine of Si 0,000. But the evidence of this "confession," introduced in the proceedings of Sweet, Dyke, and others for damages against the Erie, to show that the Carr's Rock disaster was the work of a train-wrecker and not the result of any dereliction of duty, availed nothing. The plaintiffs obtained verdicts against the Company, and collected damages, Sweet for Si 0,000 and Dyke for S2o,ooo. Bowen served out his sen- tence (with the exception of paying the fine) for a crime he never committed, and returned to Pike County, where he died in 1S95. Carr's Rock is now known as Parker's Glen, and a sparkling fountain playing in the gulf below the culvert marks the spot where that horror was, more than thirty vears ago. At Mast Hon:. — On the night of July 14, iN6q. Con- ductor Judson D. Brown's freight train, bound west on the Delaware Division, pulled upon the switch at Mast Hope, Pa., to wait for the passing of express train No. 3, which left Jer- sey City at 6 130 p.m., and was due to pass Mast Hope at a few minutes before midnight. The engineer of the freight train was James Griffin. The express train was in charge of Conductor Henry Smith. Charles Coffey was engineer. The train approached Mast Hope at its usual high rate of speed. The engineer sounded his whistle as usual. Mast Hope was not a stopping place for the express. As he wis whizzing by the station Engineer Coffey was horrified to see the locomo- tive of the freight train pulling out on the main line directly in his path. He had barely time to think before his loco- motive had plunged into the freight locomotive, and was turned completely round. The collision was frightful. How Coffey or his fireman, Perry Hoyt, escaped instant death is one of the miracles of railroad life. The coals from the fire- THE STORY OF ERIE 445 box of the locomotive set fire to the wrecked car next to it. The flames spread rapidly. The depot building caught fire from the burning cars and was destroyed. Nine persons were burned to death in the cars, among them the Rev. Benjamin B. Halleck, a Universalist minister of New York. He was unhurt by the smash-up, but was held fast under his seat, in plain sight of those who were doing all they could to rescue him. Among these was his brother-in-law, who had escaped from the car. It was impossible to save him. He coolly gave dire< tions as to the best way to extricate him, as the flames closed in about him, and he met his awful death without a murmur or a groan. The dead, besides Mr. Halleck, were an unknown family of five — father, mother, and three children, immigrants — Daniel Baer, and three other passengers, who were burned beyond recognition. The number of the injured were ten. Engineer Griffin disappeared after the disaster, and was arrested at Salamanca, N. V., July 16th. He was held by the coroner on the charge of manslaughter. He was unable to explain how or why he pulled his engine out on the main tin k ahead of the express, except on the theory that he had fallen asleep on his engine while waiting on the switch, was aroused by the whistling of the passenger train, and, while yet confused and half asleep, had started his engine un- consciously. He was tried at Milford, Pa., at the Septem- ber term of court following. He was defended by the Hon. George W. Woodward, ex-Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and other eminent counsel, and was acquitted, so greatly to the indignation of Judge George R. Barrett, the presiding judge, that he addressed the jury, after its verdii t, in scathing terms, discharged it, and declared that its mem- bers were unfit to try causes in any court. Engineer Coffey suffered so from nervous shock of the collision that it was years before he could bring himself to run an engine again. He at last conquered his aversion, and is to-day one of the most fearless, as he is one of the oldest, engineers in the Erie employ. He runs an express train on the Susquehanna Division. Engineer Griffin was but twenty-five years old when the accident occurred. His hair was very dark. Within a year his hair was almost snow white. Strange as it may seem, he was, after two or three years, taken back into the Erie's employ, and is in their employ to-day. Conductor Judson D. Brown, of the freight train, is a pas- senger conductor on the Erie. Henry Smith, conductor of the fated passenger train, is in business at \\ ellsboro, Pa. v ul ERIE RAILWAY-EMPLOYES' TRIP PASS \! "~ Valid only if used within TIIKKE DAYS from Zr <^^z&&zc< Q X\J X Snp'l Eastern ni> Gi-ir FROM THE NORTH RUP COLLECTION. UNDER THE LEGISLATIVE PROBE. LAYING ERIK BARK. Insinuations and Charges Against the Management Inquired into as Long Ago as 1S41 — Not Proven, Exoneration Follows — The Search for the Truth in the Days of Daniel Drew that Kept the New York Legislature Busy — Bribery and Corruption Charged in the Legisla- ture of 1S6S — How the Action of a Senator Who Had Helped Investigate Erie Led to an Investigation of Himself — The Committee Scores Erie, but the Legislature Changes Its Mind and Passes the Erie Bill — After the Classification Bill in 1S70, 1S71, and 1S72 — Seeking Truth About the Watson Dividend of 1S73 — Erie Secrets Come to Light — The Hepburn Investigation of 1879 Throws Light on Various Things. 1 84I. There having been for months rumors afloat that Erie affairs were being conducted after questionable methods (•■ Second Administration of Eleazar Lord," page 50), the matter was brought to the attention of the New York Legis- lature, and on February 4, 1841, was referred to the Com- mittee on Railroads, composed of Erastus D. Culver, of Washington County ; Jonathan Aiken, of Dutchess County ; William C. Pierpont, of New York ; Seth C. Hawley, of Erie, and Reuben Howe, of Montgomery County. The matters to be investigated were whether the Company had made contracts or purchases of material at larger prices than the work could have been agreed upon in consideration of the contractors subscribing to the stock ; whether the stock had had any market value during the past year ; whether any cash payment had been made in stock on gen- eral call ; whether the interest on State stocks was paid with money obtained by selling the stock ; whether the Company had sold the State stock loaned to it at less than its par value ; and whether the Company had in any way- evaded the fair intent of the law requiring it to expend a certain proportion of its own money before being entitled to the credit of the State. The Committee made its report May 8th, exonerating the 1 >tii. 1 is of the Company from the charges and insinuations that brought about the investigation. The report made 165 printed pages, and included many tables and long statements trious officers. The report was not satisfactory to the opponents of the railroad, and Assemblyman Arphaxad Ixjomis. of Herkimer County, moved that it be recommitted to the committee, with instructions to bring in a bill to pro- hibit the further issuing of stocks to the Company until the further order of the Legislature. Assemblyman Andrew G. Chatfield, of Steuben County, moved that the matter be re- ferred to a select committee for further action. The matter was finally settled May --4th, by the appointment of a select committee of three, on the following resolution offered by Mr. Chatfield : Resolved, That the report of the Standing Committee on Rail- roads upon the petitions praying for further aid to the New York and Erie Railroad Company, together with the remonstrances against the same, and the petitions for the speedy construction of the New York and Erie Railroad by the State, communicated to this House on the 22d of May instant, be referred to a Select Committee of three mem- bers, to be appointed by ballot, who shall have power to send for per- sons and papers, with instructions to inquire into the management of •-.lid Company and its officers ; to sit during the recess of the Legis- lature, at such times and places within this State as they shall deem proper, and to report to the next Legislature. The select committee of the Assemby thus appointed con- sisted of Andrew G. Chatfield, of Steuben County, chairman ; George G. Graham, of Ulster; and William B. Maclay, of New York. The first meeting of the committee was at the office of the Company in New York City, July 29, 1841, where it exam- ined the books and took the testimony of the officers and agents of the Company. September 23d, the committee met at Goshen, N. Y., where it was in session until October 1 st, the first meeting day being the day the railroad was opened between Piermont and Goshen. October 2d, the committee met at Piermont, and returned to Coshen, October 4th, where it prosecuted its investiga- tion until October 7th, when it adjourned to meet at Monti- cello, N. Y., October nth, remained there two days, and met at Bethel, Sullivan County, N. Y., October 13th. It was in session there one day, and adjourned to meet at Bingham- ton, October 18th. On the 20th it adjourned to Owego, where the investigation occupied nine days, the chief subject being the difficulty over the location of the route through Owego and the place where the depot was to be. From Owego the committee went to Elmira, where it met on the 29th, and continued in session until November 2d. It ad- journed from Elmira to Corning, where its session began November 4th and ended on the 6th, resuming at Addison, N. Y., on the Sth. From Addison the committee visited Rathbonsville on the 9th ; Hornellsville on the 10th and nth; Phillipsburg, Allegany County, the 13th; Cuba and Olean the 15th ; Randolph the 17th; Dunkirk the 19th and 20th. From Dunkirk the committee adjourned to New York, THE STORY OF ERIE 447 where it met on December 13th and remained in session until December 30th. The committee made its report to the Legislature, Jan- uary 1 8, 1842. The report was exhaustive, and occupied, with the testimony, exhibits, reports of engineers, etc., 699 pages of Vol. III. of Senate Documents for 1842. The com- mittee employed James Seymour, a prominent civil engineer, to pass over the entire route of the railroad and report on its affairs. His report made thirty printed pages. The committee's report not only exonerated the manage- ment on all the allegations, but commended it for the man- ner in which it had prosecuted the work, as follows : " The result of this investigation not only exonerates the Company, its officers, and its agents from everything like a charge of fraud or mismanagement or attempt to evade the law, but it proves, on the contrary, that they are justly entitled to the confidence which the Legislature has heretofore reposed in them. Instead of being liable to censure, the Company is entitled to approbation." 1868. While the contest between Daniel Drew and Cornelius Vanderbilt for possession of the Erie Railway (•' Administra- tion of John S. Eldridge," pages 148-160) was at its height, the Xew York Legislature took cognizance of it. A bill seeking to legalize the action of the Erie Directory in over- issuing stock was introduced in the Assembly, and it was defeated March 31st, by an overwhelming vote. Pending further action on the bill, the Senate had taken hand in Erie affairs on another line of procedure. March 5 th, Senator James F. Pierce, of the Second Dis- trict, offered the following preamble and resolution in the Senate : Whereas, Grave charges have been made in the newspapers and before the Supreme Court, in reference to the management of the Erie Railway Company, and that the general management of the said ( ompany is controlled by persons who systematically make use of their positions to depreciate and destroy the value of the stock of said Company, and that the Directors of such Company have issued a amount of the stock of such Company than such Company is entitled to issue by law, therefore >v/. That a committee of three Senators be appointed to ex- amine into the condition of such Company and into the said charges, witli power to send for persons and papers, said investigation to be ted without expense to the State. On motion of Senator Henry W. Genet, of Xew York, the following addition was made to Senator Pierce's resolution : Resolved, That said committee be directed to report the testimony taken, and the result of their deliberation, within twenty days from the adoption of this resolution. The preamble and resolutions were agreed to. March 6th, on motion of Senator Abner C. Mattoon, the number of the committee was increased from three to five, and such a committee was appointed as follows : James F. Pierce, of the Second District ; John J. Bradley, of the Seventh District ; Abner C. Mattoon, of the Twenty- first District; Orlow AY. Chapman, of the Twenty-fourth District ; Wolcott J. Humphrey, of the Thirtieth District. The committee met at 62 Broadway, Xew York, March io, 186S, and at the Delavan House, Albany, March 13th, 19th, 24th, 25th. The witnesses examined were Horatio X. Otis, Secretary of the Company; J. C. Bancroft Davis, of the Erie Directory; David Groesbeck, Daniel Drew's broker; Gen. A. S. Diven, Vice-President of the Company; Henry R. Pier- son, of the Erie Directory ; William G. Edwards, cashier of Bloodgood & Co., of Wall Street ; James M. Cross, a con- tractor of Xewark, X. J. Jay Gould, James Fisk, Jr., Homer Ramsdell, Daniel Drew, John S. Eldridge, President of the Erie : Henry Thompson, Dudley S. Gregory, John S. Hilton, William Belden, of Fisk & Belden ; Henry M. Smith, of Smith. Gould, Martin & Co., were subpoenaed as witnesses, but failed to appear, nor could they be found by the Ser- geant-at-Arms of the Senate. Copies from the minutes of the Board of Directors bearing on the matter to be investi- gated, copies of contracts with Daniel Drew, of the lease of the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad, the agreement with the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company to guarantee the bonds of that company, and of the proceedings that led up to that agreement, and the statement of President Eldridge justifying the matter that had led to the investiga- tion, were also part of the testimony. April 1st two reports were submitted to the Senate, a ma- jority report signed by Senators Pierce, Bradley, and Mattoon, and a minority report signed by Senators Chapman and Humphrey. The majority report scored the methods of Gould, Fisk, Drew, Eldridge, and the others of the existing Erie management in their manipulating of the Erie stock and its over-issue, declared that they were acting in violation of law and morals, and denounced their acts in scathing terms. "Justice demands," said the report, "that these agents should be removed, but as the courts have ample power over them, the committee have not deemed it necessary to introduce a bill for the purpose. The committee, however, believe that some legislation is necessary to prevent similar practices in future, and they accordingly ask the adoption of the following resolution : Resolved, That the frauds and abuses developed by the investiga- tion of the management of the present directors and officers of the Erie Railway Company, demand that increased penalties for such of- fences shall be imposed for the protection of stockholders and the com- munity, and that the special committee conducting such investigation be, and they hereby are, instructed to report a bill, making it a feloni- ous offence for any director or officer to fraudulently issue stock of the Company in which he holds such trust, or to convert to his own use or purposes the proceeds of stock or bonds, or to fraudulently take or carry away to another State, or with like intent to keep and retain therein, to evade legal process in this State, the moneys or effects of such Company. The minority report, which would have been the majority report but for the fact that Senator Mattoon withdrew his 448 BETWEEN 1 THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES consent from it at the eleventh hour and signed the Pierce and Bradley report, simply declared that the charges against the management had not been established, and that it had done no a< t that it had not the legal right to do. Leave was given Senator Chapman to report to the Senate the bill sub- mitted with the minority report, and the bill reported was entitled " An Act in relation to the Erie, New York Central, Hudson River, and Harlem Railway Companies." It was referred to the Committee of the Whole. The sensation that these two reports made was increased by an editorial paragraph in the New York Tribune, written by Horace Greeley himself, as follows : Senator Folger really mean to scout investigation as needless? Does he not know that quite a number of his fellow Senators have sold their votes in the Drew-Vanderbilt quarrel, some of them more than once ? Can he not lay his hand at once on the Senator who is currently reported to have sold his vote and influence first to one side for Sr5,ooo, and then to the other for §20,000, insisting that he must have $1,000 extra for his son? Is he not morally certain that more than $100,000 have been paid to influence corruptly the action of Sen- ators in the premises? There could be only one Senator to whom this charge could apply, but before he had taken any public notice of it, Senator Matthew Hale, on April . Lasher, of Oswego County : Lewis P. Dayton, of Erie County, and Alexander Frear, of New York, as the committee. Mr. Glenn asked for and was granted leave of absein e foi a week. On his return, he presented a communication to the Assembly, April 9th, in which he formally charged As- semblyman Frear, in conjunction with Mark M. Lewis, of THE STORY OF ERIE 449 Albany, with having offered him S500, on March 27th, to in- fluence his vote on the Erie bill, and asked that Mr. Frear be relieved from serving on the investigating committee. Mr. Frear offered his resignation as one of the committee, but the matter was referred to the committee itself to investi- gate, and report whether any action on it was necessary. The committee took immediate action, and April 10th re- [Kirted that " the evidence does not furnish any justification for the charges made by Mr. Glenn against Mr. Frear, ami we have unanimously come to the conclusion that the testi- mony exonerates him from this charge," and that his request to be excused from serving on the committee be denied. The report was unanimously agreed to by the Assembly, and Mr. Frear addressed the House. In the course of his remarks he said : I became satisfied, on investigating the facts, that the acts of the confederated Erie Directors — trustees as they were — constituted a high- handed fraud upon the rights of stockholders, and a violation of the common principles of honesty, which, if committed by men of humbler means and station, would have subjected them undoubtedly to punish- ment at the criminal bar ; and I stood, if I may be allowed to say, prominently among eighty-two members of this Mouse against the audacious attempt of these stock-jobbing conspirators to secure the sanction of legislative aid to such palpable frauds and atrocious viola- tions of trust. . . . It is a painful thing to recognize from the testimony that the immediate prompter of this accusation is an old man, who seems to have outlived everything but his malignity. The member from Wayne stands without any justification, except the in- firmities of mind and body. . . . Under other circumstances it might have been due to the dignity of this House that the member from Wayne should have been subjected to the judgment of his fellow member'; for an offence which nothing but his weakness palliates. As it is. I leave his ease and mine in your hands, and to the consideration of an intelligent community. Assemblyman Lawrence D. Kiernan, of New York, moved, inasmuch as the charges against Mr. Frear had not been established, and had evidently been made wantonly, that Mr. Glenn be brought before the bar of the House and publicly censured. The resolution was carried, but, on motion of Mr. Frear, all action in the matter was postponed until the final report of the investigating committee had been made. April irth Mr. Glenn tendered his resignation as Member of Assembly, and the record makes no further mention of the matter. The witnesses examined by the investigating committee were Mr. Glenn, who appeared at the morning session, but lined to answer a subpcena to attend in the afternoon. His testimony was rambling, and established nothing; Mark M. Lewis, of Albany, an optician and lobbyist ; Assemblyman Frear, who denied absolutely the charges of Mr. Glenn; Assemblyman Henry Rav, of Ontario County ; Assemblyman Luke Ranney, of Onondaga County, and Assemblyman Augustus A. Brush, of Dutchess County. April 1st Mr. Chapman, from the Senate Committee on Railroads, reported a bill entitled, " An Act in relation to the Erie, New York Central, Hudson River, and Harlem Railway Companies," which was referred to the Committee of the 2q Whole. April nth it was made the special order for Tues- day, April 14th, and to be continued the special order there- after until disposed of. This was an act legalizing the over-issue of Erie stock and the other transactions of the management that had led to the investigation. April 17th Walcott J. Humphrey, of the Thirtieth Dis- trict, reported from the Committee of the Whole in favor of the passage of the bill, and the report was agreed to, and April iSth the bill was passed on avote of 17 to 12. Among those who voted for the Erie bill was Senator Mattoon, who had deserted the minority of the Investigating Committee and signed the caustic anti-Erie report of the majority. April 21st, in the Assembly, on motion of William C. Bentley, of Otsego County, the bill went to the Committee of the Whole, and the same day it was reported favorably and passed, the negative votes being W. S. Andrews, of Kings ; James Irving, of New York ; Alembert Pond, of Saratoga County ; Alpheus Prince, of Erie County ; Robert Stewart, of Madison County. Among those voting for the Erie bill in the Assembly was Frear, who had shown such righteous indignation over the mere fact that the Erie should have come to the Legislature and asked for aid. The Hale Investigating Committee held meetings as follows : 1868. At the Capitol, Albany, April iSth, 20th, 22d, 23d, 29th, 30th ; May 28th, 29th, 30th ; June 2d, 9th, 12th, when it adjourned subject to call of chairman. The next meetings were December 15th, 16th, 17th, 22d, at Albany. 1S69. At Congress Hall, Albany, January 4th, 25th; February 16th, 22d. The following were the principal witnesses examined by the committee : John B. Dutcher, Abram Van Yechten (lobbyist), Hugh J. Hastings, Jay Gould, Cornelius Yanderbilt, Jr., Charles C. Clark (Treasurer of the Hudson River Railroad Company), Thomas G. Alvord, Dyer D. S. Brown (editor of the Roches- ter Democrat), Horace Greeley, Thomas C. Fields (ex-Sena- tor), Senator Abner C. Mattoon, Ashbel N. Cole, Julien T. Williams, M.D. (ex- Assemblyman), Senator O. W. Chapman, John Wan Yalkenburg (lobbyist), Senator Abiah W. Palmer, John Flavel Mines (newspaper correspondent), Louis F. Payne (lobbyist and harbor-master). May 5 th, Senator Edwards resigned from the Hale Investi- gating Committee, and Senator Asher P. Nichols, of the Twenty-first District, was appointed in his place. In the course of the investigation it was brought out that during the interesting legislation on the Erie bill there had been in the employ of the Erie, Hamilton Harris, Lyman Tremain, and Peter Cagger, of Albany, and John Ganson, of Buffalo, as counsel, and Hugh J. Hastings, Julien T. Williams, Dyer D. S. Brown, as lobby agents. The Yander- bilt lobbyists were Abram Van Yechten, John B. Dutcher, ami John Van Yalkenburg. George Bliss, Jr., acted as coun- sel in opposition to the bill. Gen. A. S. Diven, Yice-Presi- 45" BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES dent of the Erie, had general charge of legislation in the interest of 1 lav Could in his testimony said that the Company had about fifty lawyers employed during the procuring of the legislation or, the Erie bill, and that between $25,000 and $50,000 had been used by the Company at Albany. He had told all persons who had come to him and said the) could influence votes that the bill must be passed on its merits, and that if it did not pass he would go home without it. Louis F. Payne was introduced to him, he said, by a letter from I. C. Bancroft Davis, who recommended him, and, on s representation of what he had clone for the Erie in the legislation of the past winter, and what he could do still. Gould gave him 55,000. One thing that Payne declared h< could do was to influence the vote of Senator Abiah W. Palmer, of Dutchess County (in Payne's district), a disposi- tion of himself which Senator Palmer, under oath, declared Payne could not make, and, indeed, would not have dared to attempt. The day after Gould had paid Payne the $5,000 he received a letter from headquarters at Xew York, telling him that they " had sent up this man, who represented that he could do great things," and the letter said at the bottom, " Pay him nothing. He has been compensated." Then Gould learned that Erie Director Henry Thompson had already paid Payne $5,000,. "and," said he, " I saw I had been swindled. He told me he was making $25,000 or $30,000 a year, and being up here had injured him to that amount. He wanted more than that ($5,000), but I told him $5,000 was more than I could earn in a year." After Gould discovered that he had duplicated Payne's pay, he said he met him at the Delavan House and told Payne that he (Payne) had obtained the money unfairly, and demanded that he return the $5,000. " He (Payne) said he would be damned if he would." Payne in his testimony declared that the amount was for his personal services, and that he had been sent for by Director Thompson of the Erie, and solicited to go to Albany to assist in the passage of the Erie bill, but he refused to do so until he was paid for his past services. Thompson paid the amount. Payne said he was unable to say to the committee of just what service he was to be to the Company. February 16, 1869, Thomas Murphy, ex-Senator, and subsequent!) < '<>lle< tor of the Port of New York under Presi- dent Grant, in telling what he knew about Erie affairs as regarded legislation, swore that one evening, at a meeting at the Union League Club in Xew York, the object of which was to raise money to aid the Republican party in the campaign of it was stated that the Erie Railway Company had contributed $100,000 to the Democratic party. Senator Murphy was deputed by the Republican State Committee to call on Gould and see if he would not help that party, too. William Leiden, James Fisk's partner, accompanied him. He fust saw Fisk. He told Fisk the Republican party had saved the Erie in 1868, and asked for Si 00,000. Fisk said he must see Could, who soon came in. Could informed Senator Murphy that Vanderbilt had told him that he (Van- derbilt) had not aided either party, and that he (Gould) intended to pursue the same policy. Murphy insisted, and then Gould said he had already given something to the Republican party — $20,000 to Governor Fenton, through Hamilton Harris. Subsequently Director Henry Thompson told Senator Murphy that he was present when the S2o,ooo> in two checks of $10,000 each, was paid to Harris, who said that the Erie bill would be signed within two or three hours from that time ; and it was. This implication that Governor Fenton had been bribed to sign the Erie bill was another sensation in the affair. Jay Gould, on February 2 2d, appeared voluntarily before the committee and denied all of Murphy's story about the pay- ment of $20,000 to Harris for Covernor F>nton. James Fisk, Jr., corroborated him, and Hamilton Harris swore that he never received $20,000 or any other amount from Jay Gould for Covernor Fenton. That settled the Fenton inci- dent. Erie Director Henry Thompson told the committee, February 16th, that Luther Caldwell, of Elmira, who was con- nected with the press of the State, represented that he could render great service to the Erie legislation thereby, and Thompson gave him over $60,000 to be used in such service for the Erie bill. Subsequentlv Thompson gave Jay Gould an order on Caldwell to repav the money to him at Albany. In regard to this, Gould testified that Thompson had given him a sealed envelope addressed to Caldwell, without stating what it contained. Gould left it at the Delavan House for Caldwell, and never heard any more about it. This was the or ler for the money Thompson had given Caldwell, and that was the last the money was ever heard of by the Erie man- agers, except that it was refunded to Thompson from the Erie treasury, thus doubling the cost cf the transaction to the Company. After the defeat of the Erie bill in the Assembly, March 31, 1868, Gould said the Company had concluded to abandon legislation, but Senator Mattoon came to Jersey City with the report signed by Senators Chapman and Humphrey, and his statement was that it was to be the majority report, and that it would be no more than an a< t of justice to the committee that some representative of the Erie should go to Albany and explain away the popular prejudice against the Company ami the bill it asked for. " That was one thing that induced me to come up," said Could. " It was Saturday before the report was made. I got the report printed for him. He said I ought to come up. 1 came up. I met him .... two or three times. He seemed to be friendly to us. I was perfectly astounded when I heard he had signed the other report. He explained to me that he had not read the other report at the time he saw me, and reading that report had changed his mind." ("Administration of John S. Eldridge," pages 152-155.) Senator Mattoon denied all the charges against him. He denied Gould's story of the report, and said he had never had a copy of it in his possession. He went to Jersey City at the request of Daniel Drew simply to give the Erie THE STORY OF ERIE 451 people advice on the best way to carry their bill, he being in favor of it. He was in favor of the Erie because they had perfected a freight arrangement by which a great reduction in the carrying of flour from Oswego via that railroad had been effected which was beneficial to his constituents. General Diven's testimony was that Mattoon came to the office of the Erie Railway Company with a letter of introduc- tion to Auditor Hilton, and was introduced to Directors Gould, Drew, and Thompson, and President Eldridge. Mattoon said the object of moving for the investigation was mercenary, and that he intended to prevent its success. Senator Chapman said that he and Humphreys were at Senator Pierce's room at the Delavan, and he read the sub- stance of the report he had drawn. They said they could not subscribe to all it protested, and they subsequently drew up a report embodying their views. This they submitted to Senator Mattoon, and he approved of it, and agreed to sign it, but he afterward signed the report drawn by Senator Pierce, thus making that one the majority report. Iiiniel Drew testified before the Investigating Committee that he had no knowledge of any money being paid out of the treasury of that Company for the purpose of pro- curing legislation ; but he testified that Mr. Eldridge, the President of the road, drew out $500,000 before the session of the Legislature, ostensibly for purposes of litigation, which was charged on the books of the Company to Presi- dent Eldridge individually, and which had not been ac- counted for when he (Drew) retired from the office of treas- urer of the Company in July, r868, and that no money other than that had been drawn out of the treasury to pay the expenses of the Company at Albany. The committee, in its report made to the Senate March 10, 1869, did not seem to agree with Mr. Drew on that sub- ject. "It is evident," the report declared, "that large amounts of money were actually paid for various purposes. Mr. Gould paid $5,000 to Louis A. Payne, and $2,000 to some person (he thinks his name was William King) for Mr. I ). D. S. Brown, of Rochester, and something more than $25,000, and he thinks less than $50,000, not including payment by draft, to counsel and agents. Mr. Thompson paid $5,000 to Payne, and upwards of $60,000 to Luther Caldwell, which was refunded to him by the Erie Railway Company. It is clear, therefore, that large sums of money did come from the treasury of the Erie Railway Company, which were expended for some purpose in Albany for which no vouchers seem to have been filed in the office of the Company. The objects of the expenditure cannot be learned from the books of the Company. The testimony of Mr. Drew shows where these funds may have come from. Whether the creation of so large a fund as that intrusted to Mr. Eldridge in this instance, the expenditure of which is left entirely to the discretion of a single individual, and for which no vouchers or accounts are required, is usual with railroad companies, your committee are not informed. Mr. Eldridge being a citizen of and in another State, his attend- ance before your committee could not be compelled. He was invited by letter to appear and testify, but the invitation was not responded to. " The testimony leaves no doubt in the minds of your committee that large sums of money were, in fact, furnished with the intent that they should be used for the purposes of influencing legislation unlawfully. In the only cases in which your committee have been able to obtain any direct evidence, the moneys so furnished were not, in fact, used for the purpose intended, but went to enrich members of the lobby. Mr. Caldwell himself, after several unsuccessful efforts to procure his attendance, appeared before your com- mittee on the day preceding the commencement of the present session of the Senate. In reply to a question whether he received any money from any officer of the Erie Railway Company to be used in securing the passage of the bill, he answered in the negative. A question whether he re- ceived money from such source for any purpose, he declined to answer ' till he had time for reflection.' The question whether he knew of money being paid by any person interested for or against the bill, to any one for the pur- pose of securing the vote of any Senator, and whether he received money from any party interested in opposing the bill — he said he could decide whether he would answer these questions by the next morning, and the committee adjourned to the next morning to give him the desired opportunity for ' reflection.' Your committee were in attendance the next day at the appointed hour and place, but Mr. Caldwell did not appear, nor has he since been before them, and on in- quiry your committee have been informed that he is spend- ing the season in some of the Southern States. The conviction is forced upon the minds of your committee that some persons interested, both for and against the bill, were furnishing money from some source with the intent and for the purpose of corruptly and unlawfully influencing leg- islation." The committee went no deeper into an opinion on the sub- ject than that, and no one was censured nor was any charge reported as legally sustained. The scandals had simply come as delectable morsels for the newspapers to serve to their readers, and as texts for more or less platitudinous editorial comment. 1870 — 187 1 — 1872. The time of the New York Legislature was largely taken up in these years by the discussion and consideration of meas- ures set afoot by the opposition to the Gould management for the purpose of repealing the Classification Act of 1S69, as it was impossible to get Erie out of the hands of that man- agement by any regular process so long as that law was in force. ("Administration of Jay Gould," pages 174, 176.) The petitioners for the repeal were defeated in rSyo and 1S7 1, so completely had the Erie management the control of the Legislature in hand. Whether the repeal would have been effected in 1872, if it had not been that the dethrone- ment of Jay Gould was accomplished while action on the 1- BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES measure was pending in the Legislature that year, is a ques- tion. ("Administration of Jay Gould," pages 182-200.) li was before the committee having the matter in charge in 1872 that Thomas C. Shearman, oi Erie counsel, made his explanation of how the cost of the old New York and Krie Railroad, the affairs of which had been closed out by the mization in 1861, and which cost had been reported 1 years at $38,964,728, was advanced to $86,626,350 in 1870. According to Mr. Shearman, the addition of the $47,661,622 was due to the fact that the blanks furnished by the State to railroad companies for making out their annual reports to the State Engineer had no room on them for the auditor to charge the expenses that increase repre- sented, and so he had no recourse but to charge it to the New York and Erie Railroad Company ! " To which," said Mr. Shearman, "it was probably as appropriate, to say the least, as it would be under any other specific item of the account." "The auditor of the Company," remarked Mr. Shearman, " of his own motion, selected as the most reason- able item for this purpose the charge entitled, 'New York and Erie Railroad Company ' ! " And so the New York and Erie Railroad Company stands of record as having expended nearly $40,000,000 more money than it did expend in building and equipping its rail- road, simply because the auditor of the Erie Railroad Com- pany had no room on the report blank to indicate what that amount of expenditure really did represent, and there is no record at all of what was actually done with that vast sum of money, or the amount it actually represented in cash. To this day that false charge to the old Erie construction ac- count figures in the Company's reports. The Classification Act was repealed March 14, 1872. 1873- Rumors, which the newspapers of the day had given prom- inence to and claimed stability for, that a dividend on Erie stock was to be declared, and that it could not be an honest one ("Administration of Peter H.Watson," pages 219-221), called the attention of the Legislature to Erie affairs again. At the session of 1873, February 17th, in the Assembly, Isaac II. Babcock, of Niagara County, offered the following: WHEREAS, It is well known that a large majority of the stock now outstanding against the Krie Railroad Company was, by a corrupt collusion of its officers, fraudulently issued, and that there never was . ent. on the par value of such stock paid into the treasury nor expended by it on its property for the public welfare, owing to such corrupt action of its officers ; and, W HEREAS, The original purchasers of said stock did not pay more than the above-named amount for the same, thereby implicating them- selves with those who perpetrated the fraud ; and, Win 11 AS, It has been made public that the Board of Directors of that I ompany have declared a dividend on the entire amount of stock outstanding against it, which dividend is limited only in consequence of the earnings of its road, and not in consideration of the manner in which such stock was issued ; and, Win i;i . , The practical effect of allowing dividends to be paid on such stock would be to recognize and encourage fraud, to paralyze the industries of an innocent people living tributary to the line of the road that Company represents, by imposing additional burdens on them for its use ; to levy unjust and oppressive burdens on the commerce of the city of New York, on whose commercial supremacy the welfare of the Stale so largely depends ; to increase the cost of living by increasing the cost of transporting the necessaries of life between producers and consumers; and, finally, to enrich adventurers, gamblers, and specu- lators, as against good morals, the welfare of the people, and public policy ; therefore, Resolved (if the Senate concur), That the Attorney-General of this State be and is hereby authorized and required to commence proceed- ings against the officers and directors of the Erie Railway Company, restraining them from paying said dividend or any other dividends on the fraudulently issued stock of said Company, such proceedings to be brought immediately in any court of competent jurisdiction ; and in case the decision of such court shall be in favor of the payment of such dividend, then such case to be brought immediately thereafter before the Court of Appeals for its adjudication and decision. Resolved, That the proceedings instituted under these resolutions shall take precedence over all other cases on the calendar of the court or courts wherein such proceedings are held. Resolved, That the Attorney-General be and is hereby authorized to employ such additional counsel as he may deem necessary in prosecut- ing the duties hereby imposed. March 10th, on Mr. Babcock's motion, the following was substituted for his resolution authorizing action by the Attor- ney-General : And, whereas, It has been currently reported and charged in the public prints and elsewhere, that a large and improper expenditure of money was made by the foreign stockholders and officers of the Erie Railway Company in the transfer of the management of that Com- pany, in the year 1872, and that by corrupt contract for the negotia- tion of its bonds the agents of said foreign stockholders have since been indirectly reimbursed out of the treasury of said Company, and that a large sum was used to influence legislation connected with said road in the same year ; and that other gross irregularities on the part of said road and its managers were committed, have Resolved, That the Attorney-General of this State be and is hereby directed to report to this House within twenty days, whether in his opinion the dividends so declared upon the aforesaid fraudulently- issued stock of said Company can be legally paid out of the treasury, and whether the said Erie Railway Company may not be restrained by the courts from paying such dividends, or any other dividend, upon any stock thus fraudulently created. Resolved, That a select committee of five, to be appointed by the speaker, be and they are hereby authorized and directed to investigate said improper and corrupt acts, and to report thereon to this House, within thirty days ; and that said committee be authorized to send for persons and papers. The Speaker, March 12th, appointed the following special committee, under the resolution : Isaac H. Babcock, of Nia- gara County; Cyrello S. Lincoln, of Ontario County; Wil- liam S. Opdyke, of New York ; Charles Crary, of New York ; Jacob B. Carpenter, of Dutchess County. March 20th, Mr. Opdyke resigned, and Amherst Wight, Jr., of Westchester County, was appointed in his place. April 9th, Mr. Babcock presented a partial report, in which he said that the committee had been unable to complete its labors within the time allowed bv the resolution, and recon ■ THE STORY OF ERIE 453 mended the adoption of the following preamble and resolu- tion : Whereas, The special committee appointed to investigate theaffairs of the Erie Railway Company or its officers, and to ascertain and report whether said Company or its officers have been guilty of any unlawful or corrupt practices with regard to legislation during the year 1S72, has fully investigated the present management of said Company and the proceeding upon which the dividend recently declared by said Company, was declared and paid ; but it appears by the books of the Company produced in evidence before the committee, that large sums of money were paid out of the treasury of the Company during the years 1869, 1870, and 1S71, as it is supposed for the purpose of in- fluencing legislation during these years, and the committee have reason lo believe that evidence can be procured of the payment of large amounts which it is alleged were used to influence the votes of Senators and Members of Assembly during the year 1S72, but they have been unable to procure the attendance of witnesses who are said to have direct knowledge of such payments, and it will be impossible to pro- cure such attendance during the time allowed for the investigation ; therefore. Resolved, That the committee be and are hereby authorized and instructed to make a thorough investigation regarding all payments made by the Erie Railway Company during the years above named for the purpose of influencing or controlling legislation, whether such payments were made to Senators, Members of Assembly or other per- 50ns for such purposes, and to ascertain and report with regard to all other unlawful or corrupt measures, by or on behalf of said Company, its officers, agents, or employees, to influence, control, or defeat legis- lation, and that the time for such committee to make such investiga- tion and report thereon be extended until further direction of this Assembly. On motion of Mr. Weed, April 23d was fixed as the limit of the investigation. April 10th, Mr. Babcock stated that William M. Tweed, Jay Gould, and John B. Dutcher had re- fused to pay any attention to subpoenas served on them to appear before the committee and testify, and moved that they be arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms and brought before the House, ami show cause why they should not be punished for contempt. Tweed and Dutcher were declared in contempt of the House, but, May 16th, on motion of James W. Husted, Dutcher was purged of his contempt. The committee had meetings as follows : Albany, March 18th and 19th. Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, March 21st, 22(1. 24th. 25th. Erie Railway office, New York, March 25th, for the purpose of continuing examination of the books and papers of the Company. Fifth Avenue Hotel, March 28th, during the day ; in the evening at the residem e of Frederick A. Lane to take his testimony, he being confined to his room by illness. March 25 th, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Erie Railway office, where President Watson and Auditor Dun 111 were examined. Fifth Avenue Hotel, March 31st; April 1st, zd, 3d, 5 th, 7th, 8th. Albany, April nth, 15th, 16th, 17th. Fifth Avenue Hotel, April 19th, 21st, 22d. Albanv, April 23d. Taking of testimony closed that day. Following were the principal witnesses examined : lav Could, l'eter H. Watson, President of the Companj ; S. L. M. Barlow, Erie Director and counsel, and counsel for the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company : Oliver Hazard Perry Archer, late Yice-President of the Company, and one of those who had joined against Gould in March, 1872; Justin I). White, ex-Treasurer of the Company, and Svlvanus H. Dunan, Auditor of the Company ; W. Archdall O'Doherty, late close friend of James McHenry ; Homer Ramsdell, ex- President of the Companv and a Director; Henry Thompson, ex-Erie Director, who was in the 1872 conspiracy against Gould ; Gen. Alexander S. Diven, Erie Director, ex-Yice- President and ex-General Manager of the Company ; Francis C. Barlow, Attorney-General of the State of New York; Henry X. Sherwood, who succeeded William M.Tweed in the Erie Director)' in December, 187 1 ; Giovani P. Morosini, Auditor of the Company under Gould ; Samuel J. Tilden, who appeared in behalf of himself, to deny that he had ever received a fee of $20,000 from the Erie Railway Company ; A. I). Barber and Abram Yan Yechten, lobbyists; John Taylor Johnston, John J. Cisco, and John Y. L. Pruyn, Erie Directors ; Senator E. M. Madden, of Orange County, who explained that the $4,000 Gould gave him was to pay his election expenses ; Matthew Hale, of Albany ; Chaum ey M. Depew, then counsel for the Xew York Central Railroad Company, who admitted ignorance of the inner working of legislation at Albany : Thomas G. Shearman, who was after Attorney-General Barlow ; James J. Kelso, Superintendent of Police of Xew York ; Thomas G. Alvord, Joseph Seligman, William Belden, Colonel Fisk's old-time partner ; Hamilton Harris, of Albany, who, being a lawyer, explained easily why he received so much Erie money; Gen. George H. Sharpe, ex-United States marshal, who was examined as to his services during the "Sickles coup" of 1872. The first matter to be taken up by the committee was whether the dividend declared upon the stock of the Com- pany in February, 1873, was P a 'd out °f tne net earnings of the road. histin D. White, who had been Treasurer of the Company until March 17, 1873, testified that there was no money to pay the interest that had matured ($800,000), and that the money with which the dividend was paid in February, 1873, came from Bischoffscheim & Goldschmidt, of London, being the proceeds of bonds negotiated by them ; and Giovani P. Morosini, ex-Auditor of the Company, swore that the net earnings of the Companv for the first six months of the year 1872 were $377,885, although Mr. Watson's auditor, Svlvanus H. Dunan. had reported the earnings for the same six months, upon which the dividend for February, 1873, was made up, as $2,387,610. The second subject of investigation was the improper use of money in the transfer of the management of the Com- panv in 1872, and as to reimbursements on that or othc counts of such expenses from the Company's treasury. It had been charged in the public prints that the then Attorney- General, Francis C. Barlow, had been in the pay of the Erie, and that he hail then accepted a retainer of $10,000 from Daniel F. Sickles, to which was subsequently added $2,000, to proceed with measures looking to the ousting of the Gould management, anil the Heath ami Raphael party increased 454 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES the amount by {1,500. General Barlow testified that this money was placed in his hands to employ special counsel and for disbursements. He had disbursed of the money placed in his hands all but $3,307. 19, which he returned by check to General Sickles, although the General solicited him to retain it. Mr. Smith retained by the Attorney-General was a member of the Legislature, but the Attorney-General swore that he had not employe. 1 him because of that. Thomas ('.. Shearman had charged that the Attorney-Gen- eral, while professedly carrying on a suit in the interest of ' rie stockholders, was secretly receiving a large sum from Could and Fisk, under a mysterious contract by which ?3,ooo a month was to be paid, with the understanding that no harm was to result to them from the proposed suits, and which accounted for the delay in the Legislature and the . and that he had written a letter demanding $100,000 Erom General Sickles for his services in the Erie overthrow. Several witnesses denied this, as did correspondence between Sickles and the Attorney-General — which Shearman declared had originated since the charges were made — and the com- mittee believed the Attorney-General's story, stating in their report that they " cannot resist the conclusion that the whole (the charges) was a fabrication, and that the parties giving currency to the tale had probably been grossly deceiv- ing one another." The committee went also into the matter of the overthrow of the Gould management. The third matter that occupied the committee in its in- vestigation was as to payment of money to influence legisla- tion connected with the Company, and other irregularities. "The testimony of several witnesses was taken on this sub- ject." said the committee, " and although the information acquired was not as spec ific as could be asked, enough was obtained to show that the railroad companies have been in the habit of spending large sums from year to year either to procure or reject the passage of bills. ... It appears conclusive that a large amount — reported by one witness at $100,000 — was appropriated for legislative purposes by the railroad interests in 1872," and Krie's proportion of it was £31 1.000. It was in evidence that it had been the custom of the managers of the Krie Railway Company, from year to year in the past, to spend large sums to control elections and to in- fluence legislation. In the year 1868 more than Si, 000,000 was disbursed from the treasury for " extra and legal services." I i\ Could was examined on this point, and admitted the payment, during three years prior to 1S72, of large sums to A. 1). Barber, William M.Tweed, and others, and also large sums drawn by himself which might have been employed to influence legislation or elections. These amounts were (barged in what was known as "the india-rubber account" (probably because of its elasticity). "The memory of this witness was verj e as to details," the committee's re- port declared, " and he could only remember large transac- tions; but he could distinctly recall that he had been in the habit of sending money into the numerous districts all over the State, either to control nominations or elections for Senators anil Members of Assembly. He considered that, as a rule, such investments paid better than to wait until the men got to Albany, and added the significant remark, in re- ply to a question, that it would be as impossible to specify the numerous instances as it would to call to mind the num- ber of freight cars sent over the Erie road from day to day." According to Mr. Gould, his operations extended into four different States. It was his custom to influence both nomi- nations and elections. " When the Legislature is Republican, I am a Republican," said he. " When it is Democratic I am a Democrat, but I am always an Erie man." John H. Comer, who had been private secretarv to James Fisk (and, after Fisk's death, to Vice-President O. H. P. Archer, who succeeded Fisk in the Erie management), and attorney and agent for Fisk's executrix, Mrs. Fisk, said that Jay Gould made a claim upon him in February, 1S72, and renewed it in March after his removal from the Erie manage- ment, to refund from the Fisk estate $2,000, which was one- half of $4,000, he said, that had been paid to Senator E. M. Madden, of Orange County, for influencing legislation. He was present at Fisk's office one time when $2,500 was paid to Van Vechten, and another time when $4,000 was paid to him. William Belden, who had been Gould and Fisk's broker in the great gold speculation of 1869 that culminated in Black Friday, in which his sen-ices saved them from the most seri- ous consequences, told of a contract he was to have in De- cember, 1 S 7 1 , for transporting coal over the Erie and the storage of it free in the Erie yards, whence he could sell it, because of these privileges, and make 75 cents a ton more than any other dealer ; but as Gould and Fisk were too busy at the time to draw up the contract, they made one with him by which they were to pay him $3,000 a month, in prospect- ive profit on the coal deal, in lieu of the other contract, to compensate him for the loss their lack of time in placing the privileges of the Erie at his service might subject him to. He said he was, to perform services for them for the time, but he could not remember any sen ice he ever performed for the $3, 000 monthly that he drew regularly, except some errands at the Opera House when the Gould management was under fire, March n, 1872, and services in connection with bringing about a meeting between Gould and the confidence man, Lord Gordon-Gordon. (" Administration of Jay ( lould," pages 183 to 1S6.) George Hays was a partner with Belden in this remarkable prospective coal contract. Gould, Comer said, claimed that this contract was simply a cover by which the money was paid to Attorney-General Barlow for efforts to keep him (Gould) in power. The Fisk estate paid two monthly installments, and then Comer refused to pay any more, on the ground that if it was to keep Gould in power. Fisk was not a sharer in the success of that, as he was dead and was not liable. Thomas G. Shearman. Gould's confiden- tial counsel, had said to him, on being asked by him whether it was true about the monev being for Barlow : THE STORY OF ERIE 455 " Don't ask me any questions about it ! Pay it ! It is all right ! " Ex-Auditor Dunan (the Erie dividend having been de- clared and paid before the investigation began) showed how entirely proper the dividend was ; how it had been honestly earned, producing convincing figures to that effect from the books of the Company. His testimony certainly did not fore- shadow the sensation he was to create a few months later, by officially declaring that the dividend was a cheat and a fraud. ("Administration of Peter H. Watson," pages 223- 227.) President Watson's statement to the committee defended his policy and showed how he was entirely justified in declar- ing the dividend, because the railroad had earned the money with which it was paid. Mr. Watson threw somewhat of light on the methods of a previous management in the matter of dealing with legislation, by producing some leaves that had been torn from an Erie Railway account book, show- ing disbursements for legal services rendered, which he had found in the office. The leaves bore entries as follows : James Fisk, Jr., March to December, 1863, six items, legal and incidental Si 17,400 43 Daniel Drew, March, 1S6S, incidental expenses 52,600 00 Jay Gould, June 1, i36S, incidental expenses 24,000 00 March 31st, incidental expenses 21,600 00 26th, injunction 1,80000 June 10th, legal expenses 20,000 00 July 10th, extra expenses 347,000 00 30th , expenses 10,000 00 " December 1st, legal expenses 7, 000 00 " 3 1st, expenses 500 00 $4^4,600 00 1S6S. Hamilton Harris, legal expenses, four items, March to December $26,000 00 YVm . M . Tweed, November 25th, legal expenses 20,000 00 December 1st 5, 500 00 4th 4,50000 Peter B. Sweeny 150,00000 Taylor's Hotel, April and July $6,41075 Henry Thompson, July 30, 1S68, extra expenses and services $159,000 00 YVm. H. Vanderbiit, August 5, 1S6S, expenses 18,950 00 M. P. Bemus, January 11, 1869, services and expenses. 1,000 00 A. 1'. I'.arber, May 12, 1869, legal expenses 4,00000 Hamilton Harris, January to July, 1S69, legal expenses 22,443 32 Win. M. Tweed, January to June, expenses 27,912 S6 .Samuel J. Tilden, January to February, 1369, legal services 20,000 00 A. Van Vechten, March Sth, legal expenses 2,500 00 " May 1 2th, " " 2,50000 A. D. Barber, March 4, 1S70, legal expenses $1,000 60 " May 19, " expenses 46,00000 " June 9, " " 4.70050 $5 1.700 50 Thos. C. Fields, retainer, December 31, 1869 $500 00 " " " April 8, 1870 2,50000 $3,000 00 James Fisk, Jr., November, 1S69, to June, 1S70, legal expenses and contingencies $22,000 00 Jay Gould, October 22, 1S69 (marked Senator Hum- phrey) $5,00000 S. H. Hammond, March 2S, 1S70 2,500 00 A. H. Barber, April 23d 2,500 00 Jay Gould, September 3d (" a Senator") $1,00000 " " legal expenses 100,000 00 " " September gth, legal expenses 50,00000 " " gth, " " 44,00000 $195,000 00 Hamilton Harris, December, 1869, to May, 1870 S20,ooo 00 James O'Brien, February 24, 1S70 $2,50000 Delavan House, March 25, " 377 75 June 12, " 34760 YVm. M. Tweed, December 9, 1S69, legal expenses. . . . $25,000 00 " " April 8, 1870 12,00000 " " June 4, " 10,75000 $57,750 00 A. Yan Vechten, January 21, 1S70, legal expenses $2,500 00 " April 2S " " " 2,50000 " Septembers, " " " 2,50000 $7,500 00 Jay Gould, October 4, 1S70, legal expenses $1,000 00 25, " " " 500 00 $1,500 00 Hugh J. Hastings, April 25, 186S, legal expenses $15,00000 Another significant exhibit that figured in the develop- ment of this uncovering of Erie secrets was a voucher pre- sented on April, 1S71, to Justin D. White, Treasurer of the Company, as follows : Erik Railway Company, 1871. To Wm. M. Tweed, Cr. For legal disbursements, as per order J. G $35,000 Approved — James Fisk, Jr., Comptroller, for the President. Dated April 25, 1S71. Received of the Erie Railway Company the sum of thirty-live thousand dollars ($35,000) in full for the above account. Wm. M. Tweed, per A. V. Interest — " Treasurer's Office, paid March 11, 1S72. Erie Rail- way Company." The conclusions of the committee, after digesting the testi- mony it had obtained, are incorporated, as a matter pertain- ing to the regular story of that management, in Part II. of the " Administration of Peter H. Watson," pages 220, 221 ; but this paragraph from the report, relating to the mysterious dis- 456 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES bursement of money at Albany by the Company's represent- atives, is a particularly fitting closing to this record : say that no portion of this money was disbursed to individual members would be to attach undue credit to the conversational powers of the men having it in chai 1879. In response to a memorial adopted by the New York Cham- ber of Commerce, February 6, [879, and addressed to the Assembly of that State, charging that the managers of the railroads of the State, particularly those of the Erie and the New York Central, were abusing the trusts vested in them by unjust discriminations in rates, by subordinating the rights of stockholders to private interests which the privileges of their companies were employed to enhance, and by other acts in- consistent with the honest exercise of authority in the opera- tion of the public highways, a special committee of five (in- creased to nine, March 12th), was appointed, on motion of Mr. Hepburn, February 28th, to investigate the charges. The committee consisted of A. B. Hepburn, H. L. Duguid, (ames Low, William L. Noyes, James \Y. Wadsworth, Charles S. Baker, James W. Husted, George I.. Terry, and Thomas A. Grady. The committee began the taking of testimony at New York, June 12th. It held sessions also at Albany, Roch- ester, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Utica, and Saratoga. The inves- tigation was closed December 19th. March 26th, the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade and Transportation of New York submitted to the committee in detail the charge of maladministration against the railroad managers. This was in response to a letter sent by the committee to those bodies, and to different represent- ative organizations throughout the State, requesting them to appear before the committee and prefer charges in order that it might determine therefrom what course to pursue. The charges of the New York bodies were generally accepted as covering the whole ground. The charges were read by Fran- cis B. Thurber, and were signed by Jackson S. Schultz, Ben- jamin B. Sherman, Francis 1!. Thurber, Charles C. Dodge, Jacob Wendell, and Benjamin G. Arnold, as a committee. The charges were replied to by Hugh J. Jewett, President of the Erie, and William H. Vanderbilt, President of the New York Central, in a joint letter addressed to the investigating committee, reviewing the charges and taking general issue with them. Upon the issue thus formed the committee pro- ceeded with the investigation. The New York commercial bodies prepared and supplied the evidence, and suggested the witnesses. Their counsel was Simon Sterne, of New York. The manufacturing and agricultural interests in the interior of the State were represented by J. H. Martindale, of Roch- ester. Ex-Judge William D. Shipman appeared for the Erie, and Chauncey M. Depew, Frank Loomis, and A. P. Laning for the New York Central. The entire answer of the railroad companies was submitted by George R. Blanchard, First Vice- President of the Erie, and this effort st.mds to-day as one of the clearest, most cogent, and thorough expositions of the transportation question and of the rights and moral powers of railroad corporations, from the corporation standpoint, in the entire literature of railroads. The witnesses examined by this committee formed an array of railroad and corporation magnates and celebrities never before summoned to give their testimony in the pres- ence of any body or tribunal. The issues thai brought the Erie's attairs particularly into the investigation called for the presence and testimony of President Jewett, First Vice-Presi- dent Blanchard, S. I,. M. Barlow, Chief Engineer < >< tave Chanute, Auditor Stephen Little, ex- Treasurer William Pitt Shearman, General Freight Agent Royal C. Vilas, ( len. A. S. 1 hven, Col. George T. Balch and Joseph \Y. Guppy, two old ex-employees of the Erie, both of whom had held close con- fidential relations with different managements. Collateral issues which involved the discrimination charge against the railroads were represented as witnesses by John D. An hi old, Jabez A. Boswick, and Henry H. Rogers, all Standard Oil Company magnates, and Josiah Lombard, of Lombard, Avers & Co., oil refiners. William H. Yanderbilt, Webster Wagner, of the Wagner Palace Car Company : James H. Rutter, Vice- President of the Central ; Alexander E. Orr, and Edwin D. Worcester, were other prominent witnesses. The testimony, arguments of counsel, and report of the committee fill five large volumes of the legislative records oi New York State. The testimony of more than 100 persons was taken, that of Vice-President George W. Blanchard alone making 851 pages, and that of President Jewett 146 pages in the report. All of the Erie dirty linen of years past was rewashed l>v the investigation, and it was shown that a large quantity of new had been added to the heap. The history of the most of it is virtually covered in the chapters in this book giving the story of Erie during those years. The committee's report, which was made January 22, 18S0, sustained the charges of the commercial bodies, although Senator Grady submitted a minority report embodying the views of the rail- road managers. The result of the investigation was the pass- ing of a law regulating the voting of railroad shares by proxy, so that they must be proxies executed three months before an election ; a law prohibiting discrimination in rates, and the law establishing the Board of Railroad Commissioners, and a law prescribing and regulating the form and substance of reports to be made by the companies to the State engineer, an important and timely enactment has resulted not only in the putting on record of railroad statistics invaluable, but in hedging railroad corporations about by many wise re- strictions. Among the testimony in regard to the recent transactions of the Erie management that the Hepburn investigating com- mittee brought out was that in relation to one of Mr. Jewett's first official acts after taking charge of the Company. Octo- ber 1, 1874, so the testimony ran, the Erie became a party with the Standard Oil Company in hauling crude oil from the wells to the Cleveland refineries, 150 miles, and then car- rying the refined oil from Cleveland to New York at the same THE STORY OF ERIE 45 7 rate crude oil was charged from the mouth of the wells — a voluntary haul of 300 miles for nothing. Previous to this, in 1S72, during the Watson administration, the Erie had agreed to pay a rebate to the South Improve- ment Company, of which the Standard Oil Company was the sun essor, on all oil shipped, and if any competitor got the same rate, the same reduction was to be made on the net rate of the South Improvement Company, the rates being thus managed so that the rivals would be compelled to pay full rates, or alwavs more than the South Improvement Companv. August 1, 1S75. the Erie agreed to let the Standard • >il Company have the lowest net rate to other parties, and to pay the Standard 10 per cent, rebate on all shipments. The Erie, in 1S77, joined hands with the Standard Oil Company to fight the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and force it to close out the Empire Transportation Company, a rival to the Standard Oil Company as a shipper and refiner of oil. The light lasted until October, when the Standard and its railroad allies won, the great oil company not only crushing its rival, but gaining control of the terminal facilities for oil at Phila- delphia and Baltimore, and becoming dictator to the railroads. In 1S79, to harass the Tidewater Pipe Line Company, another projected rival of the Standard, the Erie and the other rail- roads reduced the rates on oil as low as fifteen cents a barrel to the Standard, from the open rate of Si. 15, and allowed a mileage that reduced the amount received by the railroads to ten cents a barrel. It was also elicited that Jay Gould made a twenty-year lease, February 1, 1^70, with the National Stock Yard Com- panv at Weehawken to handle all the live stock transported by the Company. Charles S. Robinson was president of the Stock Yard Company, and John H. Comer, Fisk's private secretary, was secretary. The same day Gould made an agreement that the Erie Railway Company would advance such money from time to time as the National Stock Yard Company might require for the purpose of completing and fitting its yards for use. Not more than $100,000 were to be advanced, for which the Railway Company accepted first _ age bonds issued by the Stock Yard Company. This company also leased stock yards at Deposit, N. Y., and Buf- falo. By an order of Judge Donahue, July 29, 1875, Receiver lewett was permitted to cancel the contract with the National Stock Yard Company by purchasing all the outstanding stock held by Charles Robinson, at the rate of $50,000 worth of the first mortgage bonds of the Stock Yard Companv for 3,623 shares, also buying 1,822 shares of the Stock Yard Company held by the widow of James Fisk, Jr., for $5,000 of the first mortgage bonds of that company. January 28, 1876, Re- ceiver Jewett leased all the Company's stock yards and facilities to John R. McPherson, of New Jersey (United Mates Senator), who took chargeof the unloading, care, and handling of the live stock transported by the Erie, which paid him yardage charges of forty-five cents per head for cattle, six cents for sheep, and eight for hogs, and from $45 to $50 per ton for hay, besides Si per car for unloading. The arrangement the Erie had with the Car Trust of New York was also gone into by this investigating committee. This Car Trust was formed in 1878. 'The parties to it H John Lowber Welsh, of Philadelphia; Homer Ramsdell. Newburgh, N. Y. : John A. Hardenbergh and George R. Blanchard, of New York, and Clement R. Woodin, of B wick, Pa., of the first part, and the New York, Lake Erie and "Western Railroad Company of the second part. Welsh and Ramsdell were Directors in the latter company : 1 [ardenbergh was its purchasing agent, and Blanchard was its first vice- president. Woodin was a car-builder. The capital stock of the Car Trust was S3, 000,000. Its purpose was the buying, selling, and leasing railroad cars, to be sold or leased to com- panies owning or operating railroads. 'The business of the Trust was to be conducted by trustees, who were Edwin I >. Morgan and Alfred W. Morgan, of New York. The special business of the Trust seems to have been the leasing of 1 to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, and had leased that Company 3,000 freight cars and 500 gondola cars on August 1, 1879, for five years, the rent for them, which was to be 6 per cent, of the principal of all the shares of the Trust Company then outstanding, besides $69,730, was to be paid in quarterly payments. The Railn Companv was compelled by the lease to keep the cars in good repair, replace at its own cost all that were destroyed, and keep them branded, " Car Trust of New York," the 'Trust to be kept informed by annual statements of the condition of the cars. If the Company made default in payment of its rent, or any part of it, for thirty days after it was due, the Trust Companv had power to remove the cars from the pos- session of the Railroad Company, the Company to haul them to any point on its line designated by the 'Trust as most con- venient for its further disposal of them. 'The declared purpose of this Trust was to furnish needed rolling stock to the Erie, which the Company had not the means to purchase outright, and on terms easy and econom- ical, but the conditions of the arrangement proved to be so much the contrary that in 1884, when the Jewett administra- tion came to an end, the Erie was in default to the 'Trust Compain- $5,666,000, and the Company is to-day paying off that debt, which is for cars supplied to the Erie, some of them nearly a score of years ago, and which were long since worn out and discarded. FATHERS IN ERIE. 1829. William C. Redfield, who first suggested and mapped out a route and advocated the building of a railroad through the country and over the very ground occupied by the Erie, was born March 26, 17S6, at South Farms, Conn. He learned the trade of saddler and harness-maker, and was a bom scientist. He announced his plan for a railroad in a pamphlet published in 1829. ("In Embryo," pages 4-5.) The bridge that carries the Chicago and Rock Island Rail- road across the Mississippi River is located on the exact spot where he marked on his map that such a railroad bridge should be built. More than a quarter of a century passed before the railroad and bridge were built there, and Mr. Re Ifield was the guest of honor at the opening ceremonies, in 1.S54. He continued to agitate the subject of the rail- road until the project at last interested others, and resulted in the charter, survey, and building of the Erie. William C. Redfield may then be justly called the " Father of Erie." He was the author of many scientific works, and received the honorary degree of A.M. from Vale College in 1839. He was the first president, in 1843, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He died at New York, February 12, 1857, aged 68. 1831. Richard P. Marvin was the author of the first notice of application to the New York Legislature for a charter for a company to build a railroad from the Hudson River to Lake Erie over the route now covered by the Erie, which notice was adopted at a meeting called by him at Jamestown, N.Y., mber 20, 1 83 1. He was a conspicuous delegate to the ution at Owego, December 20, 1831, from the delib- erations of which the New York and Erie Railroad resulted. (" Taking Form," pages 10-14.) Mr. Marvin was born at Fairfield, Herkimer County, N. Y., December 23, 1803. He taught school, and studied law, and was admitted to the bar in May, (829. He settled at Jamestown, N. Y., the following June. He became eminent at the bar. In 1S35 he was elei led to the \< u York Assembly, where he was influential in Erie interests. In 1836 he was elected to Congress, and was reelected in [838. From 1847 until 1871 he was a Supreme Court Justice of the Mate of New York, and made a lasting reputation for judicial acumen and legal learning. He married, in September, 1834, Isabelle Newland, who bore him eight children. He died at Jamestown, at the age of eighty-eight. Philip Church drafted, and had it adopted at a meet- ing held at Angelica, N. Y., October 26th, the notice of appli- cation for a charter for a railroad through the Southern Tier counties of New York, from the Hudson to Lake Erie, which notice was the one adopted by the memorialists and petitioners for the charter. He was chairman of the con- vention at Owego, December 20, 1831. ("Taking Form," pages 10-14.) Philip Church was a gentleman of the old school, and be- longed to the aristocracy, so far as any aristocracy existed in this country at that day. He was born at Boston, April 14, 1778. His father was an officer in the American Army in the war resulting in Independence. His mother was Angel- ica Schuyler, a daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler of Albany. Gen. Alexander Hamilton married another daughter of Gen- eral Schuyler, so that Philip Church was a grandson of Philip Schuyler, and a nephew of Alexander Hamilton. He was edu- cated at Eton. In 179S, at the age of 20, he was appointed by Washington a Captain in the United States Infantry, and January 12, 1799, Gen. Alexander Hamilton made him his chief of staff. May 6, 1800, he became the owner of 100,000 acres of land in Allegany County, X. Y., through which the Genesee River flowed. He laid out a town which he named Angelica, for his mother, and became a resident there in 1805. A large portion of the tract was covered with pine forests of the finest quality, of little value for the want of a market. When railroads began to be talked, Mr. Church at once saw how important one would be to him if it could pass through his vast estate, and to the public at large in opening up that then isolated country, and as early as 1830 he began agitating the possibilities of such a railroad. He labored incessantly in its interest for many years, having been named in the charter as one of the incorporators of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. (" First Admin- istration of Eleazar Lord," pages 21-22; "Administration of James Gore King," pages 34-35 ; " Fighting Its Way," pages 295-296; "The Building of It," pages 310-31 1.) February 8, 1807, he was appointed by Gov. Morgan Lewis first ludge of the Common Pleas for Allegany County, an office he held fourteen years. February 4, 1S05, he was married to Anna Matilda, daughter of Gen. Walker Stewart, of Philadelphia, and took his bride to his home in the Gen- esee wilderness. They had nine children, of whom but two, Maj. Richard Church, of New York, and Mrs. Horwood, of London, survive. Judge Church died January 10, 1861. THE PRESIDENTS OF ERIE. 1833-1835 ; 1839-1841; 1844-1845. Eleazar Lord. — Eleazar Lord, A.M., LL.D., was born September 9, 1788, at Franklin, Conn. His early boyhood was spent among the quiet scenes of that even-tenored rural vicinage, where his elementary education was obtained in the district schools. At the age of sixteen, in 1804, he left home and began life as a clerk in a store at Norwich. In [808 he returned home to prepare himself for college, under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Lee, of Lisbon, of whose church (Presbyterian) he became a member in 1809. After two \e.irs of preparatory study, he entered Andover Seminary, and remained there three and a half years. While there he ime deeply interested in the subject of Foreign Missions, an interest that remained active with him all his life. He wrote the first pretentious work in the literature of that de- partment of the church ever published in this country : "A History of the Principal Protestant Missions to the Heathen." It was published in 181 3 at Boston. In September, 181 2, he was licensed to preach by the Haverhill Association at Salem, X. H. He had no regular charge, but preached acceptably at various places for a year. He entereil Princeton College, where for some months he attended the lectures and recitations of that celebrated in- stitution. A serious affection of the eyes compelled him to give up his cherished position in life to devote himself to secular concerns, the exactions of which would not demand the sacrifice of his sight. He engaged actively in commer- cial and financial affairs, and while giving to them necessarily a large part of his time, his inclinations for religious work and its advancement were not permitted to languish in the slightest degree. In 1815 he personally called a public meeting of the citi- zens of New York City to consider the subject of Sunday- schools, then an untried branch of church work. He organ- ized the New York Sunday-school Union Society, and became its corresponding secretary. He spent much time in organizing Sunday-schools, and in editing and superin- tending the publication of Sunday-school literature. In 1816 he was a member of the convention in New York City that organized the American Bible Society. In March, 1 S 1 7 , his eyes again warning him, he spent nearly a year and a half travelling in Europe. While abroad he met and estab- lished cordial relations with all the prominent reformers of the day, philanthropical, evangelical, and political, among them Wilberforce, Canning, Rowland Hill, Chalmers, Ma- caulay the elder, Sir Thomas Baring, and hosts of others. He returned to New York in 1818. He was instrumental, in 1826, in the formation of the American Home Mission Society, of which he was the first corresponding secretary. He wrote the first annual report of this society. In 1819 Mr. Lord was selected by the leading merchants of New York City to go to Washington in their interest as an advocate for the adoption by Congress of a protective tariff, which, they held, would be for the general good of the country. The measures he prepared were passed in 1820, but the business men of the Fast insisted that the tariff was not yet protective enough, and in 1823-4 Mr. Lord was sent to Washington to advocate still further tariff revision. His views were opposed by Clay, Calhoun, and all the Southern and some of the Western statesmen. His arguments were such, however, that Clay finally acquiesced in them, and used them in his subsequent speeches in and out of Congress, whence came his fame as the " Father of the American System." In 1 82 1 Fleazar Lord obtained the charter for and organ- ized the Manhattan Fire Insurance Companv of New York, of which he was president twelve -years. During the man- agement of Mr. Lord the Manhattan Company paid annually dividends of nine per cent. Early in 1827 Dartmouth College and Williams College each conferred the degree of Master of Arts on Eleazar Lord. In that year the banking system then in operation in New York State had shown its utter inefficiency by the de- plorable condition into which the banks had fallen, and Mr. Lord turned his attention toward placing it on a sounder basis. In 1828-29 ne wrote and published a book entitled, " Credit, Currency and Banking," in which he recommended a system that he claimed would remedy the defects of the one prevailing. His recommendations became the founda- tion of what was known as the Free Banking System, and from r83S until it was replaced by the national banking law, it remained in force in New York State, and was adopted by others. When, during the emergency that came with the Civil War, the Committee on Ways and Means in Congress was devising a method to best sustain the finances of the country, Mr. Lord was summoned by it to give the benefit of his knowledge of and experience in practical finance. In response, he formulated the plan, and made the original draft of the bill authorizing its adoption, on which the present national banking system was established. Eleazar Lord was one of the originators of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and was elected its first presi dent August 9, 1833. His plan for the construction of the road through the Susquehanna Valley, and the work he did under that plan, may well be wondered at now, as it was 460 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES then, but that his motives were honest, sincere, and intended for the promotion of the best interests of the Company and the hastening of the enterprise to successful issue, not one of his most hitter detractors, if any are living to-day, would undertake to deny. His insistence on the six-foot gauge was also an unfortunate error in judgment. In spite of these, however, the fad remains that Eleazar Lord tided the New York and Erie Railroad Company over some of its darkest days. ("Administrations of Eleazar Lord — First, Second, and Third" — pages 20-31, 48-51, and 74-85.) Mr. lord's busiest years were doubtless those of the Erie Railroad period, yet from 1831 to 1844 he wrote and pub- lished five books on scientific and religious subjects, besides numerous papers for magazines on similar subjects. From that time until 1866 he added to his literary work many vol- umes, having for their subjects finance, general and doctrinal theology, history and science, besides innumerable reviews for magazines and periodicals. During the same time he was in < onstant correspondence with most of the leading men in this and foreign countries. In 1866 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by the University of Xew York. In 1855 he published his " Historical Review of the Xew York and Erie Railroad." Mr. Lord married, July 12, 1824, Elizabeth Pierson, only daughter of Hon. Jeremiah H. Pierson, of Ramapo, N. Y. She died May 3, 1833. December 31, 1835, he married Ruth Thompson, daughter of Deacon Eben Thompson, of East Windsor, Conn. Seven children were born to him by his first wife. None survive but Sarah Pierson Lord Whiton, wife of \Y. H. Whiton, Esq. This daughter and her husband occupy the Lord homestead at Piermont-on-the-Hudson, where Eleazar Lord died, June 3, 187 1, aged 83 years. The portrait of Mr. Lord which accompanies this sketch was taken from a miniature likeness painted on ivory when he was 36 years old, and which was a gift from him to his be- trothed, in 1824. 1835-1839. 1 vmes Gore King. — James Gore King was born in New York City on May 8, 1791. He was the third son of the dis- tinguished statesman, Rufus King, and of Mary Alsop, daugh- ter of John Alsop, one of the most eminent of early New York citizens. As a child he spent several years in England, his father being Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Court of St. James. He returned to this country in 1S03, entered Harvard College, from which he was gradu- ated m 1.S10. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but in 1S15 abandoned that profession to enter into the more congenial pursuits of men antile life. In 1815 he established a commission house in New York City, and in 1818 removed to Liverpool, where he remained in business until 1824, when he returned to New York. LTpon the recommendation of John Jacob Astor, he was offered a partnership in the then great banking house of Prime, Ward & Sands, of New York. Of this house and its successor, Prime, Ward & King, he remained a leading member until 1 S 4 7 , when he withdrew and established the firm of James ( ',. King & Sons. It was while in the enjoyment of the great prestige he had won as a member of the first-mentioned house that he was selected in 1835 as President of the New- York and Erie Railroad Company. The story of the difficul- ties he encountered and bravely endeavored to overcome in the advancement of the great undertaking of that Company is told with much detail in the historic chapters of this volume, but it may be mentioned here that the first ground for the Erie Railroad was broken by him November 6, 1835, at Deposit, N. Y. ; that he raised the first money to pay con- tractors for work on the road ; that he was instrumental in negotiating the first State stock of the Company, through Prime, Ward & King, so that much-needed money could be obtained without delay ; that he began the first work on the road at the eastern end, at Piermont, in 1838; and that he only ceased his efforts to forward the interests of the strug- gling company, after a few years' term of office, when he found that it was impossible to secure the cooperation of New York capitalists in the great enterprise that meant so much to their welfare and the welfare of the metropolis, and that influences in the Legislature, and within the Company itself, were opposing his plans. ("Administration of James Gore King," pp. 32-47.) James Gore King's great financial genius, and the influ- ences he wielded as an individual in the financial world, are best testified to by his record during the disastrous crisis of 1 S3 7. Through his efforts the Bank of England con- sented to advance a large amount of specie to enable the resumption of specie payments in this country, and to restore financial strength and confidence to it. This Mr. King did by his own personal power, winning over to his opinion and wishes the governor of that conservative and powerful institution. Mr. King resigned as President of the New York and Erie Railroad Company in 1839. In 1848 he was elected a rep- resentative to the Thirty-first Congress from New Jersey, he being then a resident of that State, living at a beautiful country seat on Weehawken Heights. In 181 7 Mr. King was one of the reorganizes of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and was ever afterward one of its most conspicu- ous and influential members. In 1841 he was elected vice- president of that institution. In 1S45 he was chosen presi- dent unanimously. He resigned in 1847 t0 g° abroad. The next spring, on his return, he was reelected president, Moses H. Grinnell withdrawing in his favor. Mr. King married, February 4, 181 3, Sarah, daughter of Archibald Gracie, a distinguished New York merchant of that day. He died October 4, 1853, only a short time after the railroad he had spent so much of his time to carry to a sue cessful issue against overpowering odds, was completed. His portrait, painted at the order of the Chamber of Com- merce, by Thomas P. Rossiter, hangs on the walls of the chamber, among the portraits of the other distinguished members of that body who were in their day potent in the affairs of the commercial world. THE STORY OF ERIE 461 1 840-1 842. Gex. James Bowex. — James Bowen was born at New- York City in 1808. His father was a merchant of ample means, and the son was liberally educated. He was not trained to any profession or business calling, but he cultivated habits of business voluntarily and intuitively. He was a close and persistent student of public affairs, and among his inti- mate associates were Daniel Webster, Gen. James Watson Webb, William H. Seward, Philip Hone, Moses H. Grinnell, Charles A. Peabody (subsequently of national fame as a jurist, who is the only survivor of that notable coterie), and men of similar cast and bent of mind. Most of them were mem- bers of a society famous in its day as the Hone Club. Its membership was not only exclusive but limited. Healey's celebrated painting of Webster belonged to this club, and a resolution was passed by the club that the painting should pass to the heirs of the last surviving member. James Bowen was that one, and the painting is now in the posses- sion of Gen. Alexander S. Webb, of Xew York, to whom it was willed by him. Early in life Mr. Bowen developed a taste for rural life, and he purchased an estate in Westchester County, which was ever after his home. Railroad affairs attracted his attention while the Xew York and Erie Railroad was in its earliest struggles, and it was at the request of James Watson Webb that he took a leading part in the direction of that company. He was elected a director in 1839 ; vice-president and treasurer, April 30, 1840, and president pro tern, May 27, 1841, and president in October, 1841. (" Administration of James Bowen," pages 52-66.) Upon the passage of the act creating the Metropolitan Police of Xew York City in 1857, James Bowen was ap- pointed by Governor King one of the first Board of Police Commissioners under that act, his associates in the Board being Simeon Draper, James W. Nye (afterward United States Senator), James S. T. Stranahan, and Jacob Chandler. Mr. Bowen was elected president of the Board, and had charge during the exciting and riotous days of Mayor Fer- nando Wood's organized but unsuccessful opposition to the replacing of his police force by the new one. During the Civil War Mr. Bowen organized six regiments of volunteers. He ceased to be president of the Police ' Board at the close of 1862. He was appointed general of the brigade composed chiefly of the six regiments he had enlisted. He went to Xew Orleans with his com- mand, where he served one year, when he was appointed provost marshal of that department, which embraced Louisi- ana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, as far as the United States Government had regained control over these States. Just before the war ended General Bowen was com- pelled by broken health to resign from the army. He returned home, and was soon appointed a Commissioner of Charity and Correction of Xew York City. While he was in office the Legislature increased the salary of these commis- sioners from §5,000 to $10,000 a year. General Bowen declared at a meeting of the Board that the increase was an outrage, and he resolutely refused to receive more than the former salary. The attitude he took in the matter resulted in the repeal of the law that authorized the increase. Gen- eral Bowen served two terms as charity commissioner, and introduced the ambulance system in the hospital service. He greatly improved the standing and efficacy of Bellevue Hospital, by insisting that the best medical skill should be employed there, with the result that to-day a course in the Bellevue Hospital practical schooling in medicine and surges- is considered recommendation sufficient as to the capacity of any beginner in the professional practice of medical science. In 1842 James Bowen married Eliza Livingston. She died in 1872. In 1874 he married Josephine Oothout, daughter of John Oothout, then president of the Bank of Xew York. He survived her, and married Athenia Livings- ton, a cousin of his first wife. There were no children by either marriage. General Bowen died September 29, 1886, at Hastings-on- the-Hudson, where he owned a fine estate, his home being preeminently one of culture and refinement. He was a man of entirely domestic habits, of quiet temperament and fine literary taste. His widow married Judge Peabody, his old- time warm friend and associate. 1 842-1 843. William Maxwell. — Guy Maxwell was the father and founder of the Maxwell family of which William Maxwell was a scion — a name itself that savours rather of mediaeval romance than of one who managed banks, dug canals, and was adopted as a chief into a tribe of the Seneca Indians. Guy Maxwell's father, Alexander Maxwell, and his mother, Jane McBrantuey, belonging to the Clan McPherson, left ( rlas- gow, Scotland, in 1770, to come to this country. The ship was driven on the coast of Ireland by a storm. There, in the County Down, Guy Maxwell was born. Two years passed before the Maxwells at last reached America. They settled near Martinsburg. Ya. From Martinsburg had gone, some years before, into the Susquehanna Valley, settling at Wilkes- Barre, Pa., a man of the name of Matthias Hollenback. He was a banker, a farmer, a merchant, and a fighter. He later won the title of colonel in the Revolutionary War. He became the biggest man of his time in Northern Pennsylvania and Southern Xew York. His operations extended up the Susquehanna and Chemung rivers, and at every " point" or trading post, all along the valley, he had a store. Ib- opened up the country with his push and his accumulated capital. His was a heroic figure of that time and locality. When Guy Maxwell was about eighteen years of age, Colonel Hollenback was down in Martinsburg and met him, and was so pleased with him that he invited the young man to return with him to what is now Elmira, X. Y., and take charge of the Hollenback enterprise there. Young Maxwell seized the opportunity, and went. It was the making of him and of the locality to which he emigrated. Two years later he 462 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES returned to Martinsburg and married a relative of Colonel Hollenback, taking hei with him to the new country. ( ,n\ Maxwell was the first Internal Revenue Officer of that region, a very important office in those days. He was also sheriff of I iog 1 I ounty, when to lie a sheriff was indeed an honor and a dignity in the estimation oi the people. He ■d much local distinction in many other ways. In the War of E812, the "embargo" brought disaster to main- of his undertakings. He died less than forty-four years of age, in 1 S 1 4 . William Maxwell, Guy Maxwell's third son, was one of the strongest men of his day, politically, financially, and socially, in his own locality and in the State. He was born at Tioga Point, now Athens, Pa., February n, 1794. His parents n moved that year to Newtown Point, now Elmira. He was educated in the schools of that neighborhood, and studied faw in the office of Fletcher Mathews, a distinguished mem- ber of the bar at that time. In 1S22 he was the District Attorney of Tioga County, of which Chemung County was then a part; in 1829 he was the surrogate of the county, and was a member of the Assembly in 1S3S and in 1847. He was a delegate from the county to the State Constitu- tional Convention of 1846. He was always prominent in the public- affairs of the town and county, and was connected with the formation of the Chemung Canal Bank, one of the earliest enterprises of the kind in the Southern Tier. At one time most of the land in the Third and Seventh Wards of the city of Elmira, and reaching beyond for two or three miles toward Horseheads, stood in his name. He was a power in the Democratic party in those times in that region, and what he said became the order of things. It was largely through his push and influence that the Chemung Canal mstrui ted, and his enterprise and money helped on most of the railroad enterprises centring in Elmira. He early became interested in the project of the New York and Erie Railroad, and was an influential delegate to several of the conventions held to adopt measures looking to the furthering of the prospects of that undertaking. It was the pirt he took at a convention held at Owego in the spring of 1S42 that brought him into the prominence in Erie affairs that resulted in his being made president in the fall of that year. He married Zerwiah Baldwin, September 15, 1814, a daughter of William and Azubah Baldwin, pioneers of the Chemung Valley. ( )ne son was born to Mr. Maxwell, but died in infancy. They adopted as their daughter a niece of Mrs. Maxwell, Azubah McQuhae, who survives. Mr. Maxwell died at Maxwell Park, Elmira, November 22, 1856. An old-time at of Elmira (Ausburn Towner, now of Washington, D. C, to whom the author is indebted for this sketch) pays this tribute to William Maxwell : " I remember him ever since I can remember anything. He lived in one of the most beautiful spots in the vallev, a big brick house, with a great lawn, and lots of trees, that must have belonged to the original forest there. He was very fond of children, and I have played for hours in and about his house. He was fitted by intellect and educa- tion to fill any position in the country, from President down." 1S43-1844. Horatio Allen was born at Schenectady, N. V., May 10, 1802. His father was professor of mathematics in Union College. Horatio Allen was graduated from Columbia Col- lege in 1820. He became a civil engineer, and entered the service of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which, in 1S25, began the construction of its canal to connect its mines in Northern Pennsylvania with tide-water on the Hud- son. In January, 1828, he was sent by that company to England to purchase three locomotives for use on its railroad at the head of the canal and about the mines. One of the locomotives arrived at New York in the winter of 182S-29. It was called the " Stourbridge Lion." This locomotive was shipped to Honesdale, Pa., the head of the canal and ter- minus of the railroad from the mines, and was set up on the track by Mr. Allen. August 9, 1829, Horatio Allen ran it on a trial trip, and thus became the first engineer on the first locomotive that ever turned a driving-wheel on a track on the American continent. (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," page 107.) As a matter of fact, the running of this locomotive antedated by two months the trip of Stephenson's locomotive " Rocket," from which trip the success of steam power on railroads is dated. This is an important historical fact that has always been overlooked. In September, 1829, Mr. Allen became chief engineer of the South Carolina Railroad at Charleston, the first railroad in the world to be projected with the declared intention of its projectors of using locomotives as the motive power upon it, this on the emphatic recommendation of Horatio Allen. Mr. Allen remained in the service of that company until 1834, in which year he married a daughter of the Rev. James Dewar Simons. He returned to New York, and became president of the Novelty Iron Works, which constructed the machinery for most of the steamers of the Collins and Clyde lines. He also was an engineer in the construction of the High Bridge across the Harlem River, and the reservoir at Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, which (1S99) is about to be removed to make room for the great New York Public Library of the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundation. He invented the making of car-wheels from paper. In 1844 Mr. Allen was called to the presidency of the Erie, at a most critical time in its affairs. (" Administration of Horatio Allen," pages 67-73.) ^ n 1846 he was president of the board of commissioners appointed to resurvey the route of the Erie over the location where changes were proposed (in Sullivan County, N. Y., and west of Deposit, N. Y.), which resulted in a report advising the change, Mr. Allen casting the deciding vote. ("Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages 88, 89; "Fighting Its Way," pages 305-307.) In 1849 Mr. Allen was appointed consulting engineer of the Erie, which office he held at the time of the opening of the railroad to Dunkirk, in 1851. He died at East Orange, N. J., January 1, 1890. THE STORY OF ERIE 46: 1845-1853. Benjamin- Loder. — Soon after Benjamin Loder was chosen president of Erie in 1845, ne invited twenty-two of the richest men in Xew York City to meet him in conference at the New York Hotel. They met, and he at once de- clared to them that among them they must subscribe suffi- cient money to start up the work on the railroad and keep it going, a sum which he placed at S3,ooo,ooo. To set an ex- ample to the others, he himself subscribed §250,000, his entire fortune. Stephen Whitney, the millionaire cotton-mer- chant, was one of the men present at the meeting. He pulled at Mr. Loder's coat-tail to attract his attention, and admon- ished him not to risk his all in the enterprise. '■ It will ruin you," the. cautious cotton-merchant whispered in his ear. But President Loder shook his head, and refused to with- draw the subscription. Aroused by his confidence in the enterprise, the twenty-two men there and then subscribed the required amount. The story of the struggles of Benjamin Loder in pushing the completion of the railroad from Middletown to Dunkirk is graphically told in the chapter on his administration of Erie in this History (also, "The Building of It," page 388). He was born at South Salem, Westchester County, X. Y., February 15, 1801. He began life as a school-teacher, and later engaged in ttfe wholesale dry-goods trade in Cedar Street, Xew York. Having accumulated a comfortable for- tune, he had retired from active business life at the age of forty-three, when the reputation he had made as a progressive and successful business man led the struggling New York and Erie Railroad Company, at a crisis in its affairs, to solicit him to take hold of them, and endeavor to save the Company from ruin. He was elected president, August 14, 1845, suc- ceeding Eleazar Lord, and remained at the head of the Com- pany eight years. He retired from the presidency broken in health. A friend, knowing of his large subscription to the stock of the Company, asked him, soon after he had retired, if he lost his money. " No," said he, " I neither lost nor made any money while with the railroad." As a matter of fact, the money President Loder received for his sen-ices, which were given night and day, barely reim- bursed him for his expenses. (" Administration of Benjamin Loder," pages 86-113.) In course of time, Mr. Loder's health was restored to somewhat of its old vigor, and he spent the closing d his life in Westchester County. He died at Rye, October 7, 1876, aged seventy-five years. He was a modest, able, generous, and honest man. He was survived by two sons and five daughters. The older of the two sons died in 1890. 1S53-1857. Homer Ramsdell.— Homer Ramsdell was bom in War- ren, Worcester County, Mass., August 12, 1S10. His par- ents were Joseph and Ruth Stockbridge Ramsdell, natives of the old town of Hanover, Mass., both being representatives of pioneer families. He was educated at the Academy of Monson, Hampden County, Mass., and after the close of his educational course, entered the dry-goods trade in New York, where he remained from 1S32 to 1840. In 1844 he became one of the freight-forwarding firm of Thomas Pow- ell & Co., of Newburgh, \. Y., and was a member of that firm all the rest of his life. The history of Newburgh for over a quarter of a century has been his history. Thomas Powell died in 1856. Mr. Ramsdell, by purchase and 1 on- solidation, added other forwarding lines to his enterprises, embracing not only those of Newburgh, but those of I' keepsie, Fishkill, and Highland, so that at his death he stood at the head of the forwarding and transportation business of the Hudson River. In 1845 Mr. Ramsdell came conspicuously to the front in Erie affairs, and not only was instrumental in restoring them to stability at a critical time, but made the Erie project at the same time subserve the interests of New- burgh. (" Third Administration of Eleazar Lord," pages 76- 83.) Later in that year he was elected to the Board of Di- rectors, and, excepting a brief interval, he continued in the board through the various changes of administration up to the coming in of Hugh J. Jewett. In 1 S45 the question of the change of gauge of the Erie Railroad from six feet to four feet eight and one-half inches was discussed, and Mr. Rams- dell advocated and voted for the narrow gauge. (" The Building of It," page 33S.) In June, 1853, he was elected president of the Company. He served four years. ("Ad- ministration of Homer Ramsdell," pages [14— 122.) Here- signed in July, 1857. A committee in behalf of the Board, by letter, after expressing for him their personal esteem and their appreciation of other valued services rendered by him to the Company, wrote as follows : " We desire particularly to tender the thanks of the Board for that crowning service of your administration, your original conception and judi< ious purchase of the Long Dock property, which project, when fully completed and annexed to the Erie Railroad, will stitute an unbroken channel of communication between the immense granaries of the productive West and the markets of this great metropolis and Europe, so that while one end of our road terminates at the lakes and rivers of the West, the other end shall discharge and receive its freights and passengers at the wharf shipping at the port of New York, an advantage of location, productiveness, and 1 omy which is without precedent in the histon of railroads, and as long as New York continues the great commer- cial 1 entre and distributing point for the commerce of this country, the Erie Railroad must be the great channel of its weste.n transportation. Your ; there- fore, not only rendered the Erie Railroad a permanent and valuable auxiliary to the commercial pr< of our city, but it opens at the same time an unfailing resource of income to the Company which must yield a permanent profit to the stockholders." The const ruction of the Hawley branch of the Erie Railroad was originated by Mr. Ramsdell. ("The 4 6 4 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Building of It," page 369.) Mr. Ramsdell was also active and influential in promoting the construction of the New- burgh and New York "Short-cut" Railroad between Vail's Hate on the Newburgh Branch and Greenwood (now Arden) on the main line of the Erie. Before the introduction of railroads into our system of internal communication, the mi- tion from New England to the more productive lands of the West was largely through Newburgh. To restore this lost trade, Mr. Ramsdell was among the first advocates of a rail- road from New England, and nearly fifty years ago made the first reconnoissance of the country preparatory to such an undertaking, the ultimate result of which was the New York and New England Railroad. Mr. Ramsdell was married, June 16, 1835, to Frances E. L., daughter of Thomas Powell, of Newburgh. The children of this marriage were Mary L. P., who died in childhood; Frances [., wife of Major George W. Rains; Thomas P., James A. P., Henry P., Homer S., and Leila R. Homer Ramsdell died at Newburgh in 1892. I 857-I 859. Charles Moran. — Charles Moran was born at Brussels, Belgium, October 31, iSir. He came to New York while a young man and engaged in business, becoming in time senior partner in the dry-goods commission and importing house of Moran & Iselin. This firm was dissolved in 1852, Mr. Moran retiring. He had won an enviable reputation as a careful and successful business man, and as his bent was toward finance, he founded the New York banking-house of Moran Brothers. The foreign correspondence of the house was particularly extensive and of high class, which fact gave Mr. Moran extraordinary opportunity for the placing of American loans abroad. It was his success in this way in 1856, with a large Erie loan, that made him a conspicuous figure in rail- road financiering, and turned the attention of the Erie toward him in a time of emergency, and induced it to call him to the management of its critical affairs. He became president of the Company on the eve of the great financial upheaval of 1 85 7, the disastrous effects of which harassed and hampered his earnest efforts in the herculean task he had undertaken, all through his two years' administration. ("Administration of Charles Moran," pages 123-129.) Few men would have faced the obstacles he encountered, much less have attempted \o overcome them. Mr. Moran retired from the Erie management, August, 1859, and gave his entire attention to his banking business. He continued as senior partner of the house he founded until his death, July 22, 1895. 1859-1861. Samuel Marsh.— Samuel Marsh was born in 1786, at Haverhill, Massachusetts, and died in 1872, at the Astor House, New York, at which place he had resided a greater portion of his long and useful life. His New England ances- try, traced back through the landing <<( the Pilgrims in 1638, becomes in the twelfth century, not Marsh, but de Marisco, with Marsh quaintly written as a parenthetical alternative in the manuscripts. Samuel Marsh came to New York during the War of 181 2, and from that time made the metropolis his home. After the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, he travelled long in Europe for the purpose of completing his business education and familiarizing himself with the usages of Euro- pean trade. In 1819 he established the New York Dyeing and Printing Company, with factories on Staten Island, and was its president until his death. The development of the canals of the United States greatly interested him, and in the early part of the century, in con- nection with Erastus Corning, Horatio Seymour, and others, he projected a canal system by which the waters of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River were to be connected. The name of the enterprise was the Fox River Improvement Com- pany. Many millions of dollars have been expended on it. The project greatlv aided the material growth of the State of Wisconsin, although as yet the canal is not available for ves- sels of deep-water draught. Mr. Marsh was among the pioneers of railways in America. He was one of the twenty gentlemen who met in 1845, at the New York Hotel, on the invitation of Benjamin Loder, and united in a subscription amounting to three millions of dollars, which was intended to complete the construction of the Erie. From 1846 until 1S65, Mr. Marsh was vice-president of the Erie Railroad, his incumbency of that position being oc- casionally interrupted by his being called upon to assume the duties of president a// interim. He invariably declined to permanently assume the office of president of the corporation. Mr. Marsh engaged with the late Moses Taylor, John I. Blair, and others in construction of railroads in various parts of the country, and until within a few weeks of his death, at the age of eighty-six, he actively superintended the vast interests under his control. Although he never married, his home at the Astor House was a happy one, and many friends were made welcome there, and many of the older New Yorkers spent care-dispelling hours in his company. Mr. Marsh was the ever-watchful adviser and instructor of his nephew, Nathaniel Marsh, as to his duties as secretary, receiver, and president of Erie. 1 862- 1 864. Nathaniel Marsh. — Nathaniel Marsh was born No- vember 27, 1815, at Haverhill, Mass. He entered Dartmouth College at the age of sixteen, graduating at the age of twenty, in 1835. He began the reading of law in the office of the Hon. James H. Duncan, of Haverhill. He did not take kindly to the law, and went to Kalamazoo, Mich., where he became a school-teacher. Soon after- ward he was appointed clerk of one of the courts of Michi- gan, and he abandoned his career as an educator to accept the place. In the fall of 1837, he relinquished his office, THE STORY OF ERIE 465 went to New York, and joined the staff of the New York Express, then edited by James and Erastus Brooks. Mr. Marsh was associate editor of the Express until 1S41, hav- ing, in May, 1S39, married Miss Brooks, the only sister of the Express editors. In September, 1841, he was appointed first assistant to the postmaster of New York City, and in 1845 he was unanimously chosen to be secretary of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, at the time of its rehabilitation under Benjamin Loder. He remained at his post of secretary under all the trying times of the Loder administration, through the darkening and discouraging events of the Homer Rams- dell administration, and during the futile efforts of Charles Moran to stem the tide of misfortune that circumstances had set in upon Erie ; and when the Company succumbed, in 1859, to the inevitable, he was appointed receiver. On the reorganization, January 1, 1862, he was chosen president of the new Company. This he accepted, and before entering upon the new duties he authorized a settlement of his accounts as receiver, in which he voluntarily relinquished more than half of the compensation to which he would have been entitled under the ordinary mode of computation in such case. In about a year after the reorganization, he began to show marked signs of failing — signs which he disregarded, notwith- standing the warnings of anxious friends, and he permitted himself to be reelected president a third time in 1864. He was at his desk at the Erie offices daily up to a week before his death. He died July 22, 1864, suddenly, and at an un- expected moment, although his death was known to be im- minent. Mr. Marsh was the only Erie president to die in office. His loss to the Company was fittingly recognized by official action of the Board. In April, 1846, Mr. Marsh lost his first wife. She left in his charge three small children, one but a few days old. One of his sons is Samuel Marsh, Esq., a well-known New York lawyer. He was married a second time in December, 1 84S, to Miss Julia Townsend, daughter of William Townsend, Esq., of Staten Island, by whom he had four children. 1 864- 1 867. Robert H. Berdell. — Mr. Benlcll had been remark- ably successful in the management of his own private business, against oppressive odds, and had won place and fortune. He became president of the Long Dock Company in 1S58, and managed its then critical affairs as successfully as he had his own business, with the result that the Long Dock credit was restored, its stock made one of the most valuable of invest- ments, and its work of completing the Erie terminals at Jer- sey City accomplished. Mr. Berdell became a conspicuous member of the Erie Directory, and was elected president, October 14, 1864, and was reelected in 1865 and 1866. Dur- ing the latter year he came into conflict with the Vanderbilt influence in the Board as to the policy of the Company, the plans of that influence being, in his opinion, dangerous to the future of the Company. His following in the Board being in a minority, the opposing influence prevailed, and he retired 30 from the Company in October, 1S67. Time proved that Mr. Berdell's estimate of the policy he had refused to sanction was more than true. (" Administration of Robert H. Ber- dell," pages 139-146.) Robert H. Berdell was born October 1, 1820, near Somer- town, Westchester County, N. Y. Circumstances compelled him early in life to become self-supporting, and while earn- ing his living he managed also to so inform and educate him- self that when he came to man's estate he was well equipped for the serious battle of life. While yet a young man he en- gaged in commercial business in New York City, and such was the natural force of his character, and such was his re- sourcefulness, that in a few years he had established a place among the leading merchants in his line, and acquired a com- petency. Once in his career he was pushed to the wall by the failure of heavy creditors in a time of financial stress, but he quickly recovered his standing, settled his obligations, and in time conquered a higher place in the commercial world than he had ever held. Mr. Berdell made a large for- tune in his business, which he more than once, together with the credit of his name, used in aid of the Long Dock, and subsequently of the Erie, in their hours of trial. Mr. Berdell was twice married. His first wife was Miss Elizabeth A. Clowes, of Hempstead, L. I., whom he married in 1843. She died in 1861, and in 1862 Mr. Berdell mar- ried Miss Harriet A. Barnard, of New York. For many years previous to his death Mr. Berdell made his home in New York City, where he died June 25, 1896. He was survived by two sons and one daughter: Theodore Berdell, Charles Prescott Berdell, and Mrs. L. A. Berdell-Miller. 1 867- 1 868. John S. Eldridge. — John S. Eldridge was bom in Yar- mouth, Mass., September 23, 1818, and died in New York, March 23, 1876. He was a lawyer by profession, a resident of Canton, Mass., and came to have much experience relating to matters of railroad corporations. At the time of his elec- tion as president of the Erie Railway Company he was presi- dent of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company, whose road it was then proposed to extend to the Hudson River at Newburgh, and thus give the Erie a New Kngland connection. It was due to the interests desiring this con- summation that he became president of tin- Erie Railway Company, October 8, 1867. The chaotic condition into which the Drew-Yanderbilt complications threw the Erie greatly disarranged President Eldridge's plans, but they were at last consented to and adopted. The bonds of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company having received the guarantee of the Erie, and the influence of Jay Gould in the latt r Company foreshadowing the predominance it soon afterward assumed, Mr. Eldridge, in July, 1S68, resigned as president of Erie, believing that he could serve no further the interest he represented by retaining the position. ("Ad- ministration of John S. Eldridge," pages 147-160.) 466 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES 18-1872. [ay Gould was born at Roxbury, I Delaware County, X. V., May 27, 1836. His lather was John B. Gould, who was a fanner, and during his childhood days the future financier and railroad magnate worked on the farm, his spare hours spent in getting such education as the district school could j Before he was twelve years old he hired out as clerk in a store in Roxbury village, at >i6 a month. At fourteen years of age he entered the academy at Hobart, X. V., to increase his store of education, keeping the books of the village blacksmith, and receiving private instruction from his elder sisters, out of school hours. He exhausted the course of study at Hobart in six months, and became a clerk in a hard- ware store, devoting his spare time to the acquiring of a knowledge of sun-eying and civil engineering. His recrea- tion was the reading of history, for which he always had a fondness. To obtain practical knowledge of his chosen pro- fession, he worked at surveying, with borrowed implements of a rude character, and with the aid of village boys as chain and flag bearers, rewarding them for their services by giving them toys that he invented and made himself. At fifteen he was made an equal partner in the firm he was clerking for. I [e increased the business of the firm, but the business was not to his taste, and in the spring of 1852 he gave his interest in it to his father, and took up his profession of surveying. He en- gaged with a surveying party that had been hired to make a map of Ulster County. His salary was $20 a month. The pro- jector of this scheme failed, and did not pay young Gould the salary due him, and the latter determined to complete the work himself, which he did, undergoing great physical hard- ship and mental distress while doing it. He had as his asso- ciates in the undertaking a young surveyor named Oliver J. Tillson and a man named Peter H. Brink. The map was completed in December, 1852, and he sold out his interest to Tillson and Brink for $90 and an odometer. In the spring of r853 he began sun-eying for a map of Albany County, and completed the survey the following fall. Dur- ing the ensuing winter he finished the map, which he sold, and made several hundred dollars. While he was sur- veying for that map, he made a map of the village of Cohoes, for which he received $600. It was in that year, also, that he took the contract for building the Albany and Niscayuna plank road. While he was engaged in this work, who objected to its passing through their land sen-ed a writ on him to appear at Albany three days later and show cause why he should not be enjoined from going on with the work. He asked Hamilton Harris, the Albany lawyer, if there was any law to prevent him working on his 1 pending the hearing as to the injunction. Mr. II assured him that there was not. Young Gould at once employed all the men he could find, and teams to haul lumber, and kept on with his work, early and late. When the da) for the hearing came, he was on hand. The decision was that the injunction should issue, and it was issued. When the officer went to sen-e it, however, he found that there was nothing to enjoin, for the plank road was finished and ready for operation ! By prosecuting his sun-eying and map-making during the next three years, young Gould, at the age of twenty, had ai - cumulated $5,000. In the meantime he had written and published a " History of Delaware County," a remarkably complete work of 450 pages, and exhibiting literary qualifi- cations of a high order. Copies of that history to-day are rare and almost priceless. In 1857 Zadock Pratt, the great Creene County tanner, was attracted to the ability of Gould, and he made him a partner in a big tannery enterprise in Luzerne County, Pa. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was just being built through that region, and a station that had been called Sand Cut was changed to Gouldsboro, in honor of Gould, and it became the station for the tannery the firm of Pratt & Gould erected. This was built under the personal superintendence of young Gould, who himself chopped down the first tree where the clearing was to be made in the wilderness for the tannery and its plant. He built a plank road from the railroad sta- tion, and a settlement so important grew up around the tan- nery that a postoflice was established and Gould was appointed postmaster. The young business man began his career as a financier by aiding in the establishing of a bank at Strouds- burg, the county seat of Monroe County, Pa., of which bank he became a leading director. In 1S59, Gould, then but twenty-three years old, bought out his partner for $60,000, capital being provided chiefly by Charles M. Leupp, an old-time Erie Director. Upon the death of Mr. Leupp, a few weeks later, his heirs cancelled the arrangement with Could, and, during his absence in New York, took possession of the tannery property and evicted Gould's employees. When Could returned he massed his forces, routed his opponents, and regained possession of the property, which he held and operated until an amicable set- tlement of the difficulty was made, and he retired from the tanning business. He then went to Xew York, and soon became interested in railroads. He was placed at the head of the management of the Rutland and Washington Railroad, which was in straits. He succeeded in putting the property on its feet, in the meantime buying up the discredited bonds of the company at ten cents on the dollar until he had control of it. He consolidated it with the Saratoga, Whitehall and Rensselaer Railroad Company, under the latter title, and under Gould's management the securities soon went to and above par. This was Jay Gould's first transaction in rail- roads, and it brought him a capital of no mean amount. With it he established himself in Wall Street. At the age of thirty-two Jay Could became president of the Erie. When he died, at fifty-six, he was owner of the Pacific Railroad system, the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany, the Atchison, Topeka, and Sante l'e system, the Ele- vated Railroad system of New York, and other princely possessions. THE STORY OF ERIE 467 It has been truly said that in downright dramatic interest, in its exhibition of results achieved through the exercise of intellectual qualities which were themselves an achievement, and in the example which it furnishes of the consistent development of traits which can scarcely be considered as the dower of heredity. Jay Gould's life-story surpasses by far the history of any of his great contemporaries in finance and in the management of stupendous enterprises — and in the genera- tion in which he lived his active and wonderful business life there were such masters of finance and such giants in the management of great affairs as were known in no former epoch of the world's history. It was from his connection with the management of the Erie Railway Company that Jay Gould first became widely known as a man of wonderful sagacity, fertility of resource, tenacity of will, and determination of purpose. It was that connection, also, that turned against him the stinging shafts of criticism, which followed him until and (from some sources) after his death, and made it popular to denounce and revile him. If he had chosen, he could have shown in compara- tively few words a defence for his methods in the control of Erie which would have given his critics much food for gentler thought, and blunted the sharp edge of popular malice ; but he remained silent under the storm of distorted statements and positive falsehood with which he was assailed. Thus it wis made to appear by such criticism, and in the popular mind to-day it remains disabused by any retraction or modi- fication, that Jay Gould gained control of the Erie Railway Company when its property was in the finest condition as to railroad and equipment, its financial affairs on a secure and enviable basis, and its future bright and promising, and that he left it with its treasury looted of its last dollar, its property in a state of dilapidation and decay, its business gone to the dogs, and its future only bankruptcy and ruin. As a matter of fact, when Jay Gould came into the Directory of the Erie Railway Company, in rS68, the Company's property, rights, and privileges were handled onlv as cards to be played in the great game of Wall Street speculation. In fact, the influence then dominating Erie affairs had been in control fur many years, and in all that time the great corporation had been used and abused as a speculative football. At the time Mr. Gould became connected with the Company as a Director, a desperate battle was on between the dominant power in the Erie management and an antagonist who had been his potent rival in Wall Street speculation and railroad manage- ment for vears, and who had noiv entered the lists to wrest the control of Erie from him and make that property subser- vient to his own transportation line. The success of this bold movement meant the taking of the Erie Railway out of the list of independent and competitive railroads of the country, the diversion of its business, and inevitable ruin and disaster to the region through which it had been constructed at so much cost, and after years of disheartening but per- sistent struggle. To prevent this, and save the Erie to its people and its territory, Jay Gould first brought to bear those qualities that subsequently made him for a time supreme in the Company. Although but one in the Board of Directors, the ex 1 mpaign that resulted during this crisis in the affairs of the Erie was conducted largely on his suggestion and advice, and if it had been continued on these lines, as Mr. Gould's close associates always contended, the end of the battl would have been a success for the Erie, unattended by any humiliating conditions. As it was, after months of legal strife, both in the civil and criminal courts, the controlling influence in the Erie management agreed to buy rather than drive their antagonist out of the fight, and paid his price, amounting to several millions of dollars, out of the Erie's treasury. Against this method of terminating the contest in defence of their own property and rights, Jay Could earnestly protested. The result of this ending of the " Erie War" brought also to an end the life of the r&gime that had ruled in Erie affairs so long, and placed Jay Could at the head of the Company. Instead of finding a treasury to be loop found one that had to be filled if the Company was to be kept out of absolute bankruptcy, for there was not a in it. Instead of a finely equipped railroad, in superior con- dition, he came into the possession of one not only deficient in the quota of its rolling stock, but with even its available stock in a condition of deplorable dilapidation, and of a road-bed and track sadly and dangerously out of repair. The foes of Erie were still intriguing and working for its downfall. Money, and a large sum of monev, had to be raised, and raised at once, if the Company were to be saved from bankruptcy and its railroad put in a condition that would warrant effort on the part of the management to make it the strong competitor of rival roads that it should be. A weak or hesitating man in his place would have succumbed on the threshold of this situation, and all would have been lost ; but Jay Gould was far from being either weak or hesi- tating. He raised money. His method of raising it was undoubtedly a heroic one, and the cliques that had been for months using even trick and game known to Wall Street to destroy Erie, instantly lifted up their voices in tones of pious horror, and roundly denounced the man who [twitted them by raising money to save the Erie prop ertv from its foes. At any rate, after a long and th< investigation, set afoot by the influences that had for years striven for the control of the Erie Railway, the New York Legislature approved his act, by an almost unanimous vote. The funds in hand, Mr. Gould at once began the recon- struction and building up of the railroad and the equipping of it with rolling stork commensurate with the demands that he foresaw of an increasing business. During his adminis- tration steel rails were introduced in place of rotten iron ones. New and important connections, not only local but through, were secured. Old and insecure wooden bridges were replaced by modern iron structures. Tumble-down depots and freight-houses gave u ry to substantial new build- ings. Train service was made as perfei t as the coaches, appliances, and conveniences of a generation ago could pro- vide. Within two years after Jay Gould became the con- 468 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES trolling power in Erie, the railroad had ceased to be a thing of ridicule and a byword to the travelling public, and a route in which the shipper had small confidence, and held a posi- tion second to none in popularity both with travellers and patrons of the freight department. It cannot he denied that under the Could regime, by the progressive ideas it originated, and the promptness and completeness with which they uric carried out, the science of railroad management was advanced many years. Mr. Gould accumulated enormous riches, but, to the few who knew him intimately, it was manifest that he enjoyed the possession of riches far less than the acquisition of them. He loved to surmount and circumvent barriers, to make a conquest of adverse forces, to conduct a complicated cam- paign, to apply all his strategic powers to the overcoming of difficulties, to employ all the weapons of aggression and de- fence his armory held, and finally win a victory which he thought worthy of his powers. And then he loved to seclude himself from the public gaze among his flowers and books and pictures, with those he loved about him, and the world at a distance. Of cultivated taste and varied information, yet he was not desirous of imposing or incurring social obligations, nor solicitous of distinction in any sphere of action except the one which he dominated. He was content to be what he was — the most daring, brilliant, and triumph- ant financier of the age in the eyes of the world, and the most loyal and devoted husband and father in the eyes of his wife and children. It is a great mistake to suppose that Jay Gould was a mere speculator in properties. He was the most consummate rail- road manager that the country had ever produced. He knew everything about a railway, from the rails to the locomotive, and from the brakeman's duty to that of the general man- ager. He could sit down and write a traffic contract, which is perhaps the supreme test of a railroad manager's perspi- cacity. He was a superb executive officer. He applied the military rule to his subordinates. Results, not processes, was his motto. His great genius was shown in his quick mastery of a thorough knowledge of the value of corporate proper- ties, and in perception of possibilities of consolidation of them. When he acquired properties he bent his energies to develop them, and he had both the will and the strength to defend and protect them. His money was invested in active enterprises which gave employment to many thousands of men. He frequently engaged in undertakings in which there was no prospect of any immediate chance of reward, relying on his efforts and on his faith in the future value of them for his compensation or profit. Faith in the constant and steady growth of the country, and the consequent prosperity of all legitimate and well-directed projects, was one source of his unexampled success ; and who may say that his efforts in sys- tematizing and combining the great railroad systems of the West and Southwest, and managing them as they should be managed, did not stimulate more than any one thing the growth and prosperity of that vast area of the country through which those highways have their amazing ramifications? A less forceful man than Jay Gould would have been tempted to sit down idly and take his ease on an income from government bonds or other infallible seturities, but he was not content except in directing the management of properties requiring constant supervision and perfect handling to make them suc- cessful. He, perhaps, wielded more power during the half score or more years preceding his death than any other one man on the continent, and all without one evidence of osten- tation or display. To no other man or collection of men is due so much the bringing of the railroad transportation sys- tem to the perfection it has reached in this country ; and the extension of that system so that it reaches the most out-of- the-way corners of the land is due entirely to the remarkable enterprise, sagacity, and organizing genius that he possessed. Through his telegraph and railroad enterprises great distances were narrowed, and isolated communities brought in touch with the outside world as they would not have been other- wise, perhaps, for many years to come. Physically, Mr. Gould was a small man. He had a remarkably high and broad forehead, and though his dark eyes sparkled continually there was yet a deeply thoughtful look in them. His manner was exceedingly modest, the tone of his voice low, and modulated in accents of gentle- ness. He was invariably courteous and natural. Affectation and hypocrisy were entirely unknown qualities in his character. For society outside of his own family circle he cared noth- ing, but at home he was genial, kind, indulgent, affectionate. It was not until the strain of mental toil began to tell upon his physical powers, many years after he had won almost undisputed dominion over the financial world, that he gave any thought to rest or diversion in the directions usually sought by men of vast wealth. Prior to that time his books, his pictures, his flowers, were his chief sources of recreation and pleasure. His putting of a yacht in commission — the splendid and speedy Atlanta — was consequently a source of much comment to the outside world ; but it was not as a sportsman that Mr. Gould sought to enjoy his superb play- thing. Jay Gould's secfetiveness in his business affairs was pro- verbial, but it was exhibited quite as strikingly in his bene- factions. He never achieved the reputation of one who was in the habit of contributing toward the needs of his fellow- men, but it is nevertheless a fact that few rich men were more charitable than he. Once only did he forego his customary reticence, and then it was in a time of great public calamity. Yellow fever was raging in Memphis, and subscriptions were being taken in all the large cities of the country to aid the afflicted town. Mr. Gould did not pro- crastinate. He telegraphed to the authorities of Memphis to draw on him for all the money they needed. It is said of him, by one who was close in his confidence, that " he was a constant and liberal giver, his benefactions being dispensed through a trustee in whose suggestions and advice in such matters he had every confidence. His invariable condition was that there should be no public blazonry of his benefac- tions." He never sought to delude himself or others with a THE STORY OF ERIE 469 show of counterfeit philanthropy. He was the most ab- stemious of men, never touching either spirituous liquors, wine (except at his physician's advice), or tobacco. Jay Gould died December 2, 1892, at his New York resi- dence. He was survived by four sons and two daughters : George Jay, Edwin, Howard, and Frank J., Helen M. and Anna. He left a fortune, as taxed by the Surrogate of Xew York County, amounting to nearly $56,000,000. 1872. Gen. John Adams Dix. — John Adams Dix was bom at Boscawen, N. H., July 24, 1 798. He obtained his early edu- cation in the academies at Salisbury and Exeter, and at a French school in Montreal, where he remained one year. In his fourteenth year he was appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy, but gave up the appointment to take part in the War of 1812 and 1815, having received a commis- sion as ensign in the Fourteenth United States Infantry. Within a year he was promoted to be third lieutenant and transferred to the Twenty-first Regiment of Infantry. In 1814 he became second lieutenant, and in the fall of the same year was transferred to the artillery. He was made adjutant in 1815, and in March, 1819, was appointed aide-de-camp to Maj.-Gen. Jacob Brown, commander-in-chief, becoming first lieutenant in 1818 and a captain in 1825. In 1828 he resigned his commission, having passed sixteen years in the military sen-ice of the nation. Much of his leisure had been given to the study of law, and upon his return from a trip abroad he settled at Coopers- town, X. Y., and entered the legal profession. Espousing the Democratic cause, he soon became prominent in politics and was a zealous partisan of Andrew Jackson. In 1830 he was appointed adjutant-general of the State of New York. In 1833 he was appointed Secretary of State and superin- tendent of common schools. He was also a member of the Canal Board and - one of the commissioners of the canal fund. At the expiration of his term he resumed his law practice. In 1842 he was elected to represent Albany County in the Assembly. In 1846 he was chosen United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Silas Wright as Governor of Xew York, in 1845, and served the remaining four years of the term. In 1853 he was appointed Assistant Treasurer of the United States at Xew York City, and became Secretary of the Treasury under President Buchanan, January 11, 1861, at a memorable crisis in national affairs. It was while holding this place that he wrote the famous message to W. H. Jones, a special agent of the Treasury Department at Xew Orleans, which, after ordering the arrest of Captain Breshwood, of the revenue cutter " McClelland," concluded with the memorable words : " If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." During the Civil War he was appointed a major-general in the regular army. At the conclusion of hostilities he resigned his posi- tion in the army and retired to civil life. On the organization of the Pacific Railroad Company General Dix was elected its president. He was chairman of the convention of the Xational Union Party held at Philadelphia in 1866. In the same year he was appointed minister to the Netherlands, but declined; a few weeks later he accepted the post of naval officer for the port of Xew York, resigning in Xovember to accept the mission to France. On March 11, 1872, he was elected president of Erie, succeeding Jay Gould. ("Administration of John A. Dix," pages 201- 207.) At the State election of that year General Dix was elected Governor of Xew York on the Republican ticket. He was renominated in 1874, but was defeated by Samuel J. Tilden. He died April 21, 1879. A son, the Rev. Morgan Dix, rector of Trinity Parish, Xew York, survives him. 1 872- 1 874. Peter H. Watson. — Born in England, 1819, this future president of Erie came to the United States at the age of twenty, and, after some months spent in civil engineering, began the study of the law at Rockford, 111. After his admis- sion to the bar he opened an office at Washington, D. C, where he soon took a leading place as a shrewd and success- ful patent lawyer, of which branch of the profession he made a specialty. He made fame and fortune through his promi- nent connection with the noted McCormick Reaper cases in the United States and other courts, being successful in all. He had become a warm personal friend of E. M. Stanton, and when the latter was made Lincoln's Secretary of War, to succeed Simon Cameron, he selected Mr. Watson as his first assistant. Mr. Watson had charge of the Quartermaster General's Department all through the Civil War, performing its duties to the entire satisfaction of the Administration and honor to himself. It is recorded of him, as showing his great capacity for work and extraordinary endurance, that he kept a night and day force of clerks in his department, and personally supervised the services of both. At the close of the war Mr. Watson returned to the practice of his profession, settling at Ashtabula, O. In Ohio he became interested in railroads, and constructed the Ashtabula and Franklin Railroad, which was subsequently made a branch of the Lake Shore Railroad. He was the originator of the South Improvement Company of Pennsylvania in 1S70, having become largely interested in oil transportation in that State. This corporation was later the basis of the present great Standard Oil Company. His bold ideas in railroad manage- ment made him prominent in transportation circles, and when the Erie Railway Company came to need a president to take the place of General Dix, after the stormy Gould times of 1S72. Mr. Watson was chosen to fill the place. He remained at the head of Erie until 1874, when, broken in health, he resigned. (" Administration of Peter H. Watson," pages 208-229.) Recovering his health, he again took up active business life, and organized in Xew York the Fabric Measuring and Packaging Company, under valuable patents. 4/0 BE 1\\ "1 EN 1 til OCEAN AND HIE LAKES pany until his death, July ^.\ Mr. Wai at the Hotel Albert. Unn \ • buried .it nla. H< veil by his wife and four children, whom. Edward P., i to the management of the business of the deceas ; 1S84. Hon. Hugh J, Jkwett. — Mr. Jewett, although a native of Maryland, having been born on his father's farm at Deer . Jul) 1, tSi7, settle. 1 in Belmont County, 0., in 1840, for the practici he having fitted himself tor th.it The Ohio bar was then famous for the surpass- ing genius of its members, and young Jewett soon compelled tion th.it made him the ed peer of such rare legal minds as Edwin M.Stanton (later Lincoln's great war [udge William Kennon, Governor Wilson Shannon, Benjamin Cowen, and others equally great in their da} and generation. Before he was thirty years of age. in [848, his reputation as a lawyer had become so wide, and had been followed by such a corresponding increase in his business, that he was obliged to seek a more extensive field, ami he removed to Zanesville, which was then one o\ the most important towns in the State. There he quickly rose to still greater prominence and influence, and his attainments, nly in the law but in financial matters, which he had made a study in his practice, n ed in [85a by his appointment as president of the Muskingum branch Of the Ohio Male bank. He had early taken an active interest in politics, and accepted and advocated the principles of the Democratic party. He was a member ol the Ohio State Senate in 1854, when he was appointed bj President Pierce (whose election lie had done much to secure) lulled Stales Distrit t \tlonicv for the Southern I list; 1. 1 of Ohio. In 1856 he was the delegate from the Muskingum Valley district to the Democratic National Convention which was held at Cincinnati. Mi. Jewett became largelj identified with the banking interests oi Zanesville, and became a pan tier in one of the leading banking-houses ol thai pi ice. Railroad building and management had become a leading : for agitation in Ohio, and Mr. Jewett, seeing not only the present but future im] ulroads, at once gave to them much of his attention. In iSss he was elected resident of tic Ohio Railroad Company, and ■usiness methods and rare judgment were quicklj .. ition to the vi< e presidencj of impany, he being at the same time appointed general manager of the road, rhese promotions were Eollowed in 1857 bj the ele< tion of Mr. Jewett as president oi the con pany. 1 "1, war of historic fin vulsion, and the Central Ohio Railroad, in common with all lines mi the country verses and loss oi business from the depressi 1 trade, and il » d into the hands oi a Mr. Jewett being the I the stock- holders for the place. The exacting duties of the rece ship were discharged so as to meet with the v. bation from all concerned.' For several years thereafter. Mi Jewett continued to glow in popular estimation and confi- dence, until his reputation as a railroad manager, legal ad\ and financie wis national. He led his party as their candidate for high office in many hopeless contests, owing to Republican preponderance, although he invariably reduced the regular opposition majority. Vs the Democratic candidate for Representative in Congress, in 1860, he carried Muskingum County, but was defeated in Morgan Count] bj a few votes. In 1861 he was the Democratic candidate for Govemoi of Ohio, and was iiis party's choice for United States Senator in 1863. He served in the 1 owe. House of the Ohio State I egislature in 1868 1869, and in the lattei year was elected president of the 1 ittle Miami and Columbus and \enia railroads. Shoith afterward he was made president of the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad Company, and removed to Columbus, where he was elected president and general manager of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. 1 ouis Railroad Company. In 1871, Mr. Jewett consented to lead his party in the congressional campaign in the capital district, and, the district being stronglj Republican, he was defeated. The same year, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. 1 ouis Rail- road Companj and the Muskingum Valle) Railroad Company having been consolidated as the Pennsylvania Company, Mi. Jewett resigned from their active management to accept the offii e o\ general counsel foi the Pennsylvania Company. The \c.u he was elected to Congress from the capital district. He was gaining still greater distinction for himself in this position, when he was summoned in 1874 to consider the offer of the presidencj of the Erie Railwaj Company. At that time, undoubtedly, there was no man in the coun- try, 1>\ reason of his thorough practical knowledge of all the blanches and intricate details 01 railroad management and his ripe experience and tried judgment in dealing with their com plicated and knottj problems, better equipped to take hold ^us and defamatory, the various loose, vague and general charges of mismanagement and mis- conduct that have been brougl I him in the course of the litigation in opposition to the scheme of reconstruction, and the various newspapers published in I Mr. Jewett continued at the head of Krie affairs until November 30, 1S.X4, when he retired from active business hi'-. 1" Administration of Hugh J. Jewett," pages 230-269.) At the close of his (Mime tion with the Erie, Mr. Jewett retired to his old family homestead and birthplace at Glen- ville, Hartford County, Md. Here, surrounded by his fam- ily, h.- and his agricultural pursuits, he spent the latter years of his life in the peaceful enjoyment of a leisure which he had certainly fairly earned by a long career of ac- tivity and labor. It was his custom to spend the winter months in New York, where he wis a member of the ' Manhattan, and City Clubs. 1 le died at Augusta, Ga., March 6, 1S9S, in his eighty-first year. 4-1S95. John King. — John King was liom at Baltimore, Md., April .- which, by strange coincidence, was the day and year the Krie charter was granted. His father. John and his mother, who was Miss --Mutter, we: natives of Baltimore. John King was educated in private and public schools in Baltimore, which he attended from his eighth year until his seventeenth, when he began life as clerk in a hardware store. A year later he <_ :h the late John Hoeyin the express business, which he abandoned after two years, and begin his railroad career as nt for tii,- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company at Camden. N.I. be paymaster, auditor, general fr it, and first vice-president of that company. He was active in the management of the company foi twenty-seven years, during which time he was president of the Pittsburgh and Connells- ville Railroad Company, and of the Baltimore ami Ohio and go Railroad Company ; and receiver of the Ohio and ■-ippi. and the Marietta and Cincinnati Raili ponies. In July, 1881, Mr. K lilroad life, and spent three years in foreign travel. He returned to luntry in [884, and August 21st of that year he became assistant president of the Erie, and president Noveml July 25, 1893, President K - of the irers of the Company. ("Administi .•74.1 He contin vex two years, when, on account of failing health, he resigned his place and went d, having decided on a tour of the world. Travel did not have the effect of restoring his health, and he died at ulieu, near nee, March 17, 1S97. Mr. King was a Freemason, and a member of the Metro- politan, the Manhattan, the Down-Town, the Lawyers', the Tuxedo, the New York Whist, and other clubs. He was an opalian. He is survived by his wife, who was Mary F. Jackson, of Baltimore, and by three children — two daughters, Mrs. Ralph Elliott, of Savannah, < la., and the Baronet Giskra, of Berne, Switzerland ; and one son, Jackson King. John Griffith McCullough (Receiver) . — Jol McCullough was liorn at Newark, Del., - otch and \\ elsh ■ ry. His father died when he was three, and his mother when he was seven years old. Although his means for obtain- i education were meagre, his persistence won him his way through Delaware College, from which hi luated at the age of twenty. He at once went to Philadelphia. When he was graduated from the University of Pennsvl- vania, he having, during his attendance there, studied law in the office of one of Philadelphia's ablest lawyers, St. Ceorge Tucker Campbell, Mr. McCullough found himself in such critical health that it would have been suicidal for him to re- main in that climate, much less to attempt the prai I on, and in 1S59 he went I r nia and settled at Mariposa. Gradually recovering his health, he opened a ■ e. It was not long he had built up a pn ous business. The political feeling in California that pre- the Civil War was of a particularly disturbing and omi- nous character, and as time went on a strong sentiment in if secession developed. Although liorn in a slave-hold- ; McCullough was opposed to the doctrines that emanated from those States, and used his influence and nee to arouse and strengthen the L'nion feeling in Cali- fornia. He became conspicuous for his persistent resistance to the secession element, and by a union of the Republicans and anti-sec ession Denux rai ts in t86i, he » is elected as a member of the California Legislature. In that body he con- tinued to light secession, and his earnestness and fearlessness went far toward stemming the tide that at one time threat- ened I ' llifomia with the erring sisters of the South. In 1862 he wi - nate, although the district had always been Democratic. Asa senator he maintained his attitude of unflinchii sm. At the end of his term in the Senate he « ted attorney-general of the State by a - majority. The political campaign in California, in s at- tended by a Democratic landslide, which swept eve- didate on that ticket into office. Mr. M • 1 had been nated as the Republican candidate f attorney-general, and was defeated with the rest of the Re- publican ticket. He thereupon established himself at - Francisco, where he liecame a leader at the California bar. During the five years that he practised I Francisco he managed important cases that brought him in contact with many of the great railroad minds of the coun- 47^ BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES try, and he managed these cases so successfully that he won a wide reputation as an astute lawyer and a man of safe judg- ment. Acceding to flattering solicitation, Mr. McCulIough closed up his affairs in California and came East to reside in 1871. IK at once became interested in railroad affairs. He was vice-president of the Panama Railroad Company from 1872 until 1883, and president from 1S83 until 18SS. In 1SN4, the affairs of Erie being then nearing a crisis, Mr. Mc- CulIough was called in as one of a new Board of Directors, and was subsequently made chairman of the executive com- mittee. He has been prominent in the management of Erie ever since. In 1890 he was elected president of the Chi- cago and Erie Railroad Company on its organization. In 1893 he was made co- receiver of the Erie with President John King, and, owing to the feeble health of Mr. King, practically had charge of Erie affairs during the receiver- ship. Mr. McCulIough married, in Vermont, Eliza Hull Park, daughter of Trenor W. Park, the financier and railroad magnate. 1894 (IN OFFICE, 1899). Ebex B. Thomas. — Eben B. Thomas, who came into the sen-ice of the Company in 1888, and was made first vice-president in November, 1890, succeeding S. M. Fel- ton, Jr., was elected to fill the places made vacant by the resignation of president and receiver John King, November 30, 1894. As a matter of fact, Mr. Thomas had been for months performing the duties of president, first vice-presi- dent, and second vice-president, the incumbents of the first and latter place being incapacitated by broken health. Pre- vious to his connection with the Erie management, Mr. Thomas had been for several years general manager of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, re- tiring from that high office in 1SS5 to become second vice- president and general manager of the Richmond and Danville system. In February, 1888, he was called to the Erie man- agement, having been elected second vice-president of the Company. In December, 1S90, he was promoted to the first vice-presidency, and was also general manager of the Chicago and Erie Railroad from September, 1890, to Jan- uary, 1 89 1. November 30, 1894, he became president and co-receiver of the Erie, and on the organization of the Erie Railroad Company, November 14, 1895, was elected presi- dent of the new Company, in which office he has continued ever since. (" Administration of Eben B. Thomas," pages 282-294.) President Thomas ranks among the really great railroad managers of this country. His abilities are not confined to any one particular sphere of railroad work. He is a master of details in all its departments, and has executive capacity of remarkable scope. Although conservative in his methods, Mr. Thomas is broad-minded and progressive in developing the resources of his Company. He believes in maintaining a high standard, and his rare personal popularity with his subordinates in office, and with the great army of employees along the Erie lines, is a significant testimonial as to his character. THE RULERS OF ERIE. i 832-1 898. NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. Incorporators under the Charter. — Samuel Swartwout, Stephen Whitney, Robert White, Cornelius Harsen, Eleazar Lord, Daniel Le Roy, William C. Redfield, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, Jeremiah H. Pierson, William Townsend, Egbert Jansen, Charles Borland, Abram M. Smith, Alpheus Dimmick, Randall S. Street, John P. Jones, George I). Wickham, Joseph Curtis, John L. Gorman, Joshua Whitney, Christopher Elridge, James McKinney, James Pumpelly, Charles Pumpelly, John R. Drake, Jonathan Piatt, Luther Gere, Fran- cis A. Bloodgood, Jeremiah S. Beebe, Ebenezer Mack, Ansel St. John. Andrew DeWitt Bruyn, Stephen Tuttle, Lyman Covell, Robert Covell, John Arnot, John Magee, William M. McCay, William S. Hubbell, William Bonham, Arthur H. Envin, Henry Brother, Philip Church, Samuel King, Walter Bowne, Morgan Lewis, William Paulding, Peter Lorillard, Isaac Lawrence, Jeromus Johnson, John Steward, Jr., Henry I. Wyckoff, Richard M. Lawrence, Gideon Lee, John P. Stagg, Xathaniel Weed, Hubert Van Wagenen, David Rogers, John Hone, John G. Coster, Goold Hoyt, Peter I. Nevius, Robert Buloid, Thomas A. Ronalds, John Haggerty, Elisha Riggs, Benjamin L. Swan, Grant B. Baldwin, William Maxwell, Darius Bentley. Previous to the second election of Eleazar Lord, no salary or compensation was paid to the president for his services, though the duties of that office since 1835 required much time and labor in their performance. On the 25th day of September, 1839, the date of Mr. Lord's second election, the salary of the president was fixed at $3,600 per annum. When the Company was organized Goold Hoyt was chosen vice-president, John Duer, counsel, and William G. Buckner, treasurer. These offices were little more than nominal until about the time of the commencement of the work in the Valley of the Delaware in 1835, and until then they were without salaries. The offices of vice-president and treasurer were filled by Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Buckner until the 4th of February, 1S35, when they resigned and Eleazar Lord (having resigned the office of president) was elected to both offices, and his salary as treasurer was fixed at §3,000 per year. He was required to give a bond in the penal sum of §20,000. Lord held these offices until the 14th of September of the same year, when he resigned, and Peter G. Stuyvesant was chosen his successor. Mr. Stuyvesant declined any salary, and was not required to give security as treasurer. These offices he held until December 6, 1836, when he resigned. From that time until November 22, 1838, the office of treas- urer remained vacant, its duties being performed principally by the secretary. November 22, 183S, Elihu Townsend was chosen treasurer. He resigned October 8, 1839, and was succeeded by George S. Robbins. Mr. Robbins served until April 30, 1840, when he resigned, and James Bowen was appointed vice-president and treasurer. He held these offices until the 27th of May, 1841, when he was elected president, and Henry L. Pierson succeeded him as vice- president and treasurer. From the time of the resignation of Mr. Lord as treasurer, in 1835, until the election of Mr. Bowen, in April, 1840, the treasurer had no fixed compensa- tion, nor was there any salary paid during that time, cm epl to Mr. Robbins, who received § 1,000 for his services from October 8, 1839, until April 30, 1840. On the election of Mr. Bowen as vice-president and treasurer, his salarv w.ts fixed at 83,000 per annum, and that remained the salary of Mr. Pierson. No salary had ever been paid to the vice- president, except as the office was held in conjunction with that of treasurer. There was no regularly appointed secretary of the Com- pany until the 14th day of September, 1835, when the Board of Directors established the office. Mr. Talman J. Waters was, on the nomination of the president, appointed to that office. His salary was fixed at §3,000 per year. This office he held until the 8th of November, 1839, when his resigna- tion, tendered on the 4th of October previous, was accepted. From November, 1838, until the time of his resignation, Mr. Waters received a salary at the rate of §1,250 per annum, he, during that time, being also engaged as cashier in the Custom House, in New York. Upon the resignation of Mr. Waters, William M. Gould was appointed. From the time of his appointment until October, 1840, Mr. Gould's salary was at the rate of §900 per annum ; on the latter date it was increased to §1,250. On the 2d day of October, 1835, the office of comptroller of the Company was established, and Samuel B. Ruggles appointed to that office. Mr. Ruggles held it without salary, except expenses, until the 14th of July, 1S3S, when the office was, on his motion (he being then a director), abolished. The title was revived for James Fisk, Jr., in 1S69, but was not used after his time except in 1883 and 1884, when Stephen Little was called comptroller. The addition to the number of vice-presidents began with Peter H. Watson in 1X72. No established rules or by-1 iws were adopted for the regu- lation of the business of the different departments of the Company until the 10th of September, 1 841, when a code of by-laws was adopted. Previous to that time the power and duties of the several officers and agents of the Com- pany were not specifically defined, but were left to such construction or limits, as were by common consent, or by analogy to the organization of other like chartered insti- tutions, concurred in. 474 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES UNDER THE ORGANIZATION. 1 833-1834. Eleazar Lord, President: Goold Hoyt, Vice-President; William G. Buckner, Treasurer; John Duer, Counsel. 3.— Eleazar Lord, Stephen Whitney, Peter Harmony, fohn Duer, Goold Hoyt, James Bowman, William G. Buckner, -end, Michael Burham, Samuel B. Ruggles. Benjamin Wright. David X. Lord, Jeremiah II. Pierson, Cornelius J. Blauvelt, George D. Wickham, Joshua Whitney, James Pumpelly. I834-I835- Eleazar Lord, President (resigned January 5, 1835); Goold Hoyt, Vice-President (resigned January j, 1835); Talman J. Water- - retarv. Januarys, 1835. — James Gore King, President, pro tern.; Eleazar Vice-President and Treasurer, pro tem.j Samuel B. Kuggles, Comptroller. Directors.— Eleazar Lord, James G. King. John Duer, Peter Harmony, Goold Hoyt, James Boorman. Michael Burnham, Samuel B. Kuggles, Elihu Townsend, Stephen Whitney. J. G. Pearson. W. 1;. Buckner, George D. Wickham, James Pumpelly, C. J. Blauvelt. Joshua Whitney. David X. Lord. January 5, 1S35, W. G. Buckner, C.J. Blauvelt, James Pumpelly, David N. Lord, resigned. Directors Chosen to Vacancies. — Peter G. Stuyvesant, John ('.. Coster, John Rathbone, Jr., Jeremiah H. Pierson. 1835-1836. James Gore King, President ; Peter G. Stuyvesant. Vice-President; Samuel B. Ruggles, Comptroller ; Talman J. Waters, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — James G. King, Peter G. Stuyvesant. Samuel B. Ruggles, John Duer, John G. Coster, Stephen Whitney, Peter Harmony, J. Greene Pearson, Peletiah Peret. Ell>ert J. Anderson, Michael Burnham, James Boorman, John Rathbone, Jr., William Beach Lawrence, Cornelius W. Lawrence, George Griswold, Jeremiah H. Pierson. I 836-I 837. James Gore King, President ; Peter G. Stuyvesant, Vice-President; Talman J. Waters, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — J. G King. Peter G. Stuyvesant, John G. Coster, Samuel B. Ruggles, Charles Hoyt, Stephen Whitney. John A. Steven-. (J wold, James Boorman, David X. Lord. Aaron Clark, John W. I.eavitt, Jeremiah II. Pierson, George S. Robbins, George D. Wickham, William Beach Lawrence, Edwin Lord. I837-1838. James Gore King, President; Peter G. Stuyvesant, Vice-President ; Talman J. Waters, Secretary. Directors.— James G. King. Edwin Lord. Samuel B. Ruggles, Charles Hoyt, Peter 1.. Stuyvesant, Stephen Whitney. John A. Stevens, George Griswold, lames Boorman, John >.. I oster, David X. Lord, \.!i"ii (lark. John W. I.eavitt, Jeremiah II. Pierson, I). Wickham, William Beach Lawreni >. Robbins. April 27, 1838, George S. Robbins and John W. I.eavitt resigned ; Eleazar Lord and Elihu Townsend the vacancies. May 4, 1S3S, John G. Coster re: |ohn A. King chosen to the vacancy. 1838-1839. James Gore King, President (resigned September 25, 1S39) ; John Duer, Vice- Presitlent ; Talman J. Waters, Secretary, September 25, 1839, Elihu Townsend, Pres Direi I'ORS. — JamesGore King. John Duer, Eleazar Lord. John A. Samuel B. Kuggles. Charles Hoyt, Peter G. Stuyvesant, - Whitney. John A. Stevens, George Griswold, James Boorman. David X. Lord, Elihu Townsend, Aaron Clark, Jeremiah H. Pierson, George I >. Wickham, William Beach Lawrence. 1839-184O. Eleazar Lord. President; Stephen Whitney, Vice President (resigned v 1839, James Bowen chosen to vacancy); Talman J. Waters, Secretary (resigned November S, 1S39, William Gould chosen tncj ). DIRECTORS. — Eleazar Lord, Stephen Whitney, James Bowen, John A. Steven-, Elihu Town-end. David X. Lord, Charles Hoyt, John A. King, William Beach Lawrence, George S, Robbins, George i.n-- wold, George D. Wickham, Isaac L. Varian, William H. Townsend, Henry L. Pierson, Jeremiah H. Pierson. December 27, 1839, John A. Stevens and John A. King resigned ; Robert 1'.. Minturn ami Simeon Draper, Jr., chosen to the vacancies. January 22, 1S40, William Beach Lawrence resigned. I84O-I84I. Eleazar Lord, President (resigned May 2S, 1841, James Bowen, Vice-President, chosen President pro tern.) ; William Gould, Secretary. Directors. — Eleazar Lord, James Bowen, Jeremiah II. Pierson, George D. Wickham, George Griswold, Stephen Whitney, Aaron Clark, Elihu Townsend, David N. Lord, Charles Hoyt, Robert B. Minturn, Simeon Draper, Jr., George S. Robbins, Henry L. Pierson, William H. Townsend, Isaac L. Varian ; one vacancy. I 84I-I842. James Bowen, President ; Henry L. Pierson, Vice-President ; William Gould, Secretary. Directors. — James Bowen, Eleazar Lord, Goold Hoyt, Elihu Town- send, George S. Robbins, Aaron Clark, Henry L. Pierson. George D. Wickham, George J. Griswold, John Haggerty, David N. Lord, Charles Hoyt, Simeon Draper, Jr., William H. Townsend, William Kent, Isaac L. Varian, Jeremiah H. Pierson. I 842-I 843. William Maxwell, President ; James Bowen, Vice-President ; Will- iam Gould, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Samuel Barrett, Benj. Chamberlain. Jesse Engle, Reuben Robie, William Maxwell, Jonathan Piatt, Thomas G. Water- man, John B. Booth, Thomas E. Blanch, Freeman Campbell, Henry L. Pierson. Charles Augustus Davis, James Bowen, William Samuel Johnson, Samuel Roberts, George Griswold, Prosper M. Wetmore. 1 843-1 844. Horatio Allen, President ; James Bowen, Vice-President ; William Gould, Secretary. Directors. — Horatio Allen, James Bowen, Don Alonzo Cushman, Charles M. Leupp, Frank W. Edmonds, Silas Brown, David Austin, Theodore Dehon, P. ml Spofford, George Griswold, Anson G. Phelps, Matthew Morgan, John C. Green, A S. Diven, William Maxwell, Elijah Ridley, Daniel S. Dickinson. 1844-1S45. Eleazar Lord, President (resigned July 25. i>4j ; James Harper, chosen President pro nm., declined to serve ; Benjamin Loder, chi >sen President pro tern.; James Harper, Vice-President ; Nathaniel Marsh. Secretarv. THE STORY OF ERIE 475 Directors.— Eleazar Lord, Jacob Little, George Griswold, John C. Green, James Harper, Paul SpofTord, Stewart C. Marsh, Henry L. Pierson, Henry Sheldon, C. M. Leupp, ]. W. Alsop, Silas Brown, Robert L. Crooke, Sidney Brooks (declined), Daniel S. Dickinson, A. S. 1 liven, Elijah Risley. July 25th, Eleazar Lord, George Griswold, John C. Green, Paul Spofford, C. M. Leupp, J. W. Alsop, Daniel S. Dickinson, and Eli- jah Risley, resigned ; Benjamin Loder, Stephen Whitney, Homer Ramsdell, Cornelius Smith, Thomas Tileston, Daniel S. Miller, Shep- herd Knapp, and Samuel Marsh, chosen to the vacancies. I 845- I 846. Benjamin Loder, President; James Harper, Vice-Presideni ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, James Harper, Samuel Marsh, Dan- iel S. Miller, Henry L. Pierson, Stewart C. Marsh, Jacob Little. Rob- ert L. Crooke, Henry Sheldon, Henry Suydam, Jr., A. S. 1 liven, John Wood, William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Homer Ramsdell, Cor- nelius Smith, Thomas Tileston. 1846-1847. Benjamin Loder, President ; Stephen Whitney, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, Stephen Whitney, Silas Brown, Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. Miller, Stewart C. Marsh, Henrv Suydam, Jr., William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Samuel Marsh, Robert L. Crooke, A. S. 1 'iven, John Wood, Thomas Tileston, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Homer Ramsdell. 1 847-1 848. Benjamin Loder, President ; Stephen Whitney, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, Stephen Whitney, Silas Brown, Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. Miller, Stewart C. Marsh, Henry Suydam, Jr., William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Samuel Marsh, A. S. Diven, John Wood, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Homer Rams- dell, William B. Skidmore, Marshall O. Roberts. I 848- I 849. Benjamin Loder, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Benjamin Loder, Silas Brown, Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. Miller, Henry Suydam, Jr., William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Samuel Marsh, John Wood, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Homer Ramsdell, William B. Skidmore. Marshall O. Roberts, Thomas W. Gale, Charles M. Leupp, Theodore Dehon. I 849- i 8 50. Benjamin Loder, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, John J. Phelps, Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. Miller, Henry Suydam, Jr., William E. Dodge. Shepherd Knapp, Samuel Marsh, John Wood, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Homer Ramsdell, William B. Skidmore, Marshall O. ! Roberts, Thomas W. Gale, Charles M. Leupp, Theodore Dehon. 1850-1851. Benjamin Loder, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. Miller, Henry Suydam. Jr., William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, - Marsh, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Homer Ramsdell, William 11. Skidmore, Marshall O. Roberts, Thomas W. Gale, Charles M. Leupp, Theodore Dehon, John J. Phelps, Norman White. I85I-1852. Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- Benjamin Loder, President ; thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, Henry Sheldon, Daniel S. Miller, Henry Suydam, Jr., William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp. Samuel Marsh, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Home: I William B. Skidmore, Marshall ( 1. Roberts, Thomas W. ( iale. I M. Leupp, Gouverneur Morris, John J. Phelps, Norman White. 1852-I853. Benjamin Loder, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Benjamin Loder, Homer Ramsdell, Samuel Marsh, Henry Sheldon, William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Cornelius Smith, Thomas I. Townsend, Marshall O. Roberts, Charles M. Leupp, Gouverneur Morris. Henry Suydam, Jr., Thomas W. Gale, Theodore Dehon, John J. Phelps, Norman White. I8S3-I8S4. Homer Ramsdell, President; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President : Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Homer Ramsdell, Samuel Marsh, William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Cornelius Smith, Marshall O. Roberts, Charles M. Leupp, Nelson Robinson, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, George F. Talman, Don Alonzo Cushman, William B. Skid- more, Louis Von Hoffman, Charles Moran, Ralph Mead. 1854-1855. Homer Ramsdell, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Homer Ramsdell, Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, Will- iam E. Dodge, Cornelius Smith, Marshall O. Roberts, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, Don Alonzo Cushman, William B. Skidmore, Louis Von Hoffman, Charles Moran, Ralph Mead, Richard Lathers, Dudley S. Gregory, John Steward, Edwin J. Brown. 1855-1856. Homer Ramsdell, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Homer Ramsdell, Samuel Marsh, William E. Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Cornelius Smith, Marshall (I. Roberts, Charles M. Leupp, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, Richard Lathers, Don Alonzo Cushman, William ]',. Skidmore, Louis Von Hoffman, Charles Moran, Ralph Mead, Dudley S. Gregory. I856-US57. Homer Ramsdell, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- thaniel Marsh, Secretary. Directors. — Homer Ramsdell, Samuel Marsh, William E. 1 ! Shepherd Knapp. Cornelius Smith, Marshall O. Roberts, Charles M. Leupp, Daniel Drew, John Arnot. Ambrose S. Murray. Richard Lathers, Don Alonzo Cushman. William B. Skidmore, Louis Von Hoffman, Charles Moran, Ralph Mead. I'udley S. Gregory. 476 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES 1857-1858. Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Na- Charles Moran, President thaniel Marsh, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Charles Moran, Samuel Marsh, Cornelius Smith, Marshall 1 >. Roberts, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, Llonzo Cushman, William B. Skidmore, Ralph Mead, Richard Lathers, Dudley S Gregory, Edwin J. Brown, Herman Celpcke, George Bruce, Robert II. Berdell, one vacancy. 1858-1859. Charles Moran, President; S. F. Headley, Assistant President; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Nathaniel Marsh, Secretary. DlREi rORS. — Charles Moran, Samuel Marsh, Cornelius Smith, Daniel Drew, Don Alonzo Cushman, William B. Skidmore, Edwin J. Brown, Herman Gelpcke, Ralph Mead, Robert H. Berdell, Edward H. Alburtis, Ceorge T. Cobb, Dudley S. Gregory, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, S. II. P. Hall. 1859-1860. Samuel Marsh, President; Nathaniel Marsh, Receiver; Henry L. Pierson, Vice-President; II. N. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Samuel Marsh, Nathaniel Marsh, Henry L. Pierson, II. N. Otis, Daniel Drew, Cornelius Smith, William I!, Skidmore, Don Alonzo Cushman, Robert H. Berdell, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, A. S. I liven, Ralph Mead, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Dudley S. Gregory, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Thomas D. Wright. l86o-lS6l. Samuel Marsh, President; Nathaniel Marsh, Receiver; H. L. Pier- son, Vice-President ; H. N. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Samuel Marsh, Nathaniel Marsh, Henry L. Pierson, II. X. litis, Daniel Drew, Cornelius Smith, William B. Skidmore, Don Alonzo Cushman, Robert H. Berdell, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, A. S. 1 liven, Ralph Mead, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Dudley S. Gregory, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Thomas D. Wright. ERIK RAILWAY COMPANY. {Formal under Articles of Association, April 30, 1S61.) ASSOCIATES.— Dudley S. Gregory, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Nathaniel Marsh, Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, Robert H. Berdell, William B. Skidmore, Don Alonzo Cushman, Henry L. Pierson, Ralph Mead, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry A. Tailer, Ambrose S. Murray, Thomas 1 1. Wright, John Arnot, Alexanders. Diven, Horatio N. Otis. UNDER THE REORGANIZATION. 1861-1862. Nathaniel Marsh, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Hora- ii" \ . in is, Seen tary. DIRECTORS.— Dudley S. Gregory, I. C. Bancroft Davis, Nathaniel Marsh, Samuel Marsh, Daniel I hew, Robert II. Berdell. William B. Skidmore, Don Uonzo Cushman, Henry I.. Pierson, Ralph Mead, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry A. Tailer, Ambrose S. Murray, Thomas D. Wright, John Arnot, Alexander S. Diven, Horatio N. Otis. 1 862-1 863. DlREi i"i;.. — Dudley S. Gregory, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Nathaniel Marsh, Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, Robert H. Berdell, William B. Skidmore, I ion Alonzo Cushman, Henry 1.. Pierson, Ralph Mead, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry A. Tailer, Ambrose S. Murray, Thomas D. Wright, John Arnot, Alexander S. Diven, Horatio N. Otis. I 863- 1 864. Nathaniel Marsh, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Hora- tio N. Otis, Secretary. DlREi rORS. — Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, William B. Skidmore, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert H. Berdell, Dudley S. Gregory, Ralph Mead, Nathaniel Marsh, Ambrose S. Murray, William Evans, J. C. Bancroft Davis, 1 'on Alonzo Cushman, Alexander S. Diven, Thomas W. Gale, Isaac N. Phelps, Horatio N. Otis. I 864- I 865. Samuel Marsh, President pro tern. ; Alexander S. Diven, Vice-Presi- dent ; Horatio N. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — John Arnot, Robert H. Berdell, Don Alonzo Cush- man, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Alexander S. Diven, Daniel Drew, Will- iam Evans, Thomas W. Gale, Dudley S. Gregory, Samuel Marsh, Ralph Mead, Ambrose S. Murray, Horatio N. Otis, Isaac N. Phelps, Henry L. Pierson, William B. Skidmore, Cornelius Vanderbilt. 1 86 5- 1 866. Robert II. Berdell, President ; Alexander S. Diven, Vice-Presi- dent ; Samuel Marsh, Honorary Vice-President ; Horatio N. Otis, Secretary Directors. — Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, William B. Skidmore, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert H. Berdell, Dudley S. Gregory, Ralph Mead, Ambrose S. Murray, William Evans, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Henry L. Pierson, Don Alonzo Cushman, Alexander S. Diven, Thomas W. Gale, Isaac N. Phelps, J. F. D. Lanier. 1 866-1 867. Robert H. Berdell, President ; Alexander S. Diven, Vice-Presi- dent ; Samuel Marsh, Honorary Vice-President ; Horatio N. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Robert II. Berdell, Alexander S. Diven, Samuel Marsh, John Arnot, Ambrose S. Murray, Henry I.. Pierson, Daniel Drew, William B. Skidmore, Dudley S Gregory, William Evans, J. C. Bancroft Davis, Don Alonzo Cushman, Thomas W. Gale, Isaac N. Phelps, J. F. D. Lanier, Franklin F. Randolph, Frederick A. Lane. 1 867- 1 868. S. Diven, Vice-I'resi- Nath.imel Marsh, President ; Samuel Marsh, Vice-President ; Hora- tio N. Otis, Secretary. John S. F.ldridge, President ; Alexander dent ; Horatio N. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — John S. F.ldridge, Eben D. Jordan, Josiah Bardwell, James S. Whitney, J. C. Bancroft Davis, A. S. Diven, William Evans, James Fisk, jr., Jay Gould, Dudley S. Gregory, George N. Graves, Frederick A. Line, I lomer Ramsdell, William B. Skidmore, Henry Thompson, Frank Work, Levi Underwood. Underwood resigned and Daniel Drew was elected to the vacancy. i 868-1 869. Jay Gould, President ; A. S. Diven, Vice-President ; James Fisk, Jr., Comptroller ; H. N. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS. — Jay Gould, A. S. Diven, Janus I isk, Jr., Frederick A. Lane, J. S. Bancroft Davis, William M. Tweed, Peter B. Sweeny, Daniel S. Miller, Jr., Homer Ramsdell, John Hilton, George M. Graves, John Ganson, Charles G. Sisson, 0. W. Chip- man, Henry Thompson, William B. Skidmore, George M. Diven. THE STORY OF ERIE 477 1869. Jay Gould, President and Treasurer; James Fisk, Jr., Vice-Presi- dent ; H. N. Otis, Secretary. Directors under the Ci vssification Act.— Terms to expire in October, 1870: Homer Ramsdel], Charles G. Sisson, Justin D. White. Terms to expire in October, 1871 : John Hilton, M. R. Simons, George C. Hall. Terms to expire in October, 1^72: John Ganson, O. W. Chapman, Henry Thompson. Terms to expire in October, 1873: Alexanders. Diven, Henry N. Smith, Al. ram Gould, Horatio X. Otis. Terms to expire in October, 1874 : lay Gould, James Fisk, Jr., William M. Tweed, Frederick A. Lane. 1870. Jay Gould. President and Treasurer; James Fisk, Jr., Vice-Presi- dent and Comptroller ; H. X. Otis, Secretary. DIRECTORS.— Jay Gould. James Fisk, Jr., William M. Tweed, Frederick A. Lane. Alexander S. Diven, Henry X. Smith, Abram Gould, Horatio X. Otis, Henry Thompson, O.W. Chapman, John Ganson. George C. Hall, M. R. Simons, John Hilton, Homer Rams- dell, Charles G. Sisson, Justin D. White. IS7I-IS72. Jay Gould, President and Treasurer; James Fisk, Jr., Vice-Presi- dent ; Horatio X. Otis, Secretary ; .Mortimer Smith, Assistant Secre- tary. James Fisk, Jr., died January 7, 1*72. O. H. P. Archer elected Vice-President. Jay Gould ejected, March nth. Directors. — Jay Gould, James Fisk, Jr., Frederick A. Lane, Justin I). White. II. X. Otis, Henry Thompson, John Hilton, O. H. P. Archer, M. R. Simons, George C. Hall, Edwin Eldridge, Homer Ramsdell, Charles G. Sisson, Henry Sherwood, John Ganson, two vacancies. Board changed, March nth. 1872. John A. Dix, President, March nth, to succeed Gould; O. II. P. Archer, Vice-President ; Horatio X. Otis, Secretary. Archer was succeeded as Vice-President, June, 1S72, by A. S. I >iven. Directors. — John A. Dix. O. H. P. Archer, George B. Mc- Clellan, S. L. M. Barlow, W. Watts Sherman, William R. Travers, H. L. Lansing, H. G. Stebbins, Charles Day, Alexander S. Diven, Jay Gould, Homer Ramsdell, Henry Sherwood, Edwin Eldridge, George C. Hall, F. X. Drake, John Ganson. Directors.— Hugh J. Jewett, Herman K. Baltzer, S. L. M. Barlow. William Puller Duncan. R. Suydam Grant, John A. C.Gray, John Taylor Johnston, Edwin D. Morgan, Louis il. Meyer, erick Schuchardt, Henry G. Stebbins, Marshall 0. R landt Parker, Lucius Robinson. Homer Ramsdell, Thomas A. 1 incv. September 10, 1S75, S. L. M. Barlow and Marsl Roberts resigned. James P. Brown and J. Lowber Welsh were elected to the vacancies. 1S75-1876. Hugh f. Jewett, President and R I. R. Blanchard, Assist- ant to Receiver; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors.— Hugh J. Jewett, Samuel Sloan. Henry 1;. Stebbins, George F. Talman, Mar-hall ( 1. Roberts, John A. C. Gray, I I >- Morgan, John Taylor Johnston. R. * .rant, Herman R. Baltzer, John B. Brown, Thomas Dii kson, Giles W. Hotchkiss, Asa Packer, Homer Ramsdell, J. Lowber Welsh, Solomon S. Guthrie. 1 876- 1 877. Hugh J. Jewett, President and Receiver ; G. R. Blanchard, Assist- ant to Receiver; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Direi CORS. — Hugh J. Jewett. Samuel Shan, Henry G. Stebbins, Louis H. Meyer. Edwin 1). Morgan, Solomon S. Guthrie, John Tay- lor Johnston, R. Suydam Cram, Herman R. Baltzer, j. I Welsh, Lucius Robinson, Giles W. Hotchkiss, Homer Ramsdell, Cortlandt Parker, Asa Packer, Thomas Dickson, John I!. Brown. 1877-1S78. Hugh J. Jewett, President and Receiver ; G. R. Blanchard, W. R. Sherman. Assistants to Receiver; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secre- tary. Directors. — Hugh J. Jewett, William Wallace MacFarland, Jo- seph Larocque, William II. Taylor, Henry I.. Lansing, Pascal I'. Pratt. A. S. I liven, Charles Dana, Samuel D. Babcock, A. R. Mac- Donough, Herman R. Baltzer, J. Lowlier Welsh, John Taylor John- ston, Cortlandt Parker, Henry G. Stebbins, Edwin D. Morgan, George E. Talman. I 872- 1 873. Peter H. Watson, President (President Dix retired July 10, 1S72) ; A. S. Diven, Vice-President ; Horatio X. Otis, Secretary. Directors. — Peter II. Watson, A. S. Diven, W. R. Travers, William Butler Duncan, Charles Day. S. L. M. Barlow, J. A. Dix. J. V. L. Pruvn. Henry L. Lansing, Homer Ramsdell, William W. Shippen, Edwin D. Morgan, Frederick Schuchardt, S. D. Bab- cock, John J. Cisco, George Talbott Oiyphant, John Taylor Johnston. 1873-IS74. Peter H. Watson. President ; A. S. Diven, Vice-President ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. June, 1S73, Diven retired as Vice-President. September, 1873, G. R. Blanchard appointed 2d Vice- President ; J. C. Clarke, 3d Vice-President ; Henry Tyson. 4th Vice- President. October, 1S73, Lucius Robinson, 1st Vice-President. June, 1S74, Tyson and Robinson retired. Directors. — Peter H. Watson, Samuel D. Babcock. Herman R. Baltzer, S. L. M. Barlow, George H. Brown. W. Butler Duncan, John Taylor Johnston, Edwin D. Morgan, Frederick Schuchardt, Giles W. Hotchkiss, William T. Hart. Henry L. Lansing. Cortlandt Parker, Homer Ramsdell, Lucius Robinson, William W. Shippen, one vacancy. 1 874- 1 875. Hugh T. Jewett, President (President Watson retired July 15, 1874)"; (;'. R. Blanchard, 2d Vice-President; Augustus R. Mac- Donough, Secretary. NEW VORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAIL- ROAD COMPANY. (Formed under Articles of xtion, April 27, 1S7S.) Incorporators.— Hugh J. Jewett. John Taylor Johnston, R. Suydam Grant. Solomon s . Guthrie, Edwin D. M 1 ortlandt Parker, Homer Ram-dell. Samuel Sloan. Henry ('.. Stebbins, I F. Talman. J. Lowber Welsh, David A. Wells. William Waller Phelps. Charles Dana. J. Frederick Pierson, Theron R. Butler. James J. Goodwin. Herman K. Baltzer, John B. Brown, Thomas Di Asa Packer, C.iles W. Hotchkiss. Marshall 11. Roberts, >ir 1 William Watkin, Ml'., Olivi 1 Milton, Henry Rawson, John Keyneston Cross, M.P., John Wi tlake Q.i , Peter M. Logan, M. P., Benjamin Whitworth, M.P., 'Thomas Wilde Powell. UXDER THE REORGANIZATION. 1878-187,,. Hugh T. Jewett, President; G. R. Blanchard. Assistant to Presi- dent; Augustus R. MacDono etary. Directors. — Hugh J. Jewett, John taylor Johnston, Edwin D. Morgan. Henry G. Stebbins, Samuel Sloan. John Frederic! son, George F. Talman, Solomon S. Guthrie. Cortlandt Parker, Homer Ramsdell. David A. Wells. J. Lowber Welsh. Theron R. Butler. Charles Dana, R. Suydam Grant. James J. Goodwin, one vacancy. 47 S BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES [879-1880. Hugh J. Jewett, President ; George R. Blanchard, Assistant to the President ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors.— Hugh J. Jewett, J. Lowber Welsh, Theron N. But- K. Suydam Grant, James J. Goodwin, John Tay- lor Johnston, James R. Keene, E. D. Morgan, J. F. Pierson. II. G. Stebbins, Samuel Sloai . Talman, Cortlandt Parker, Solo- mon S Guthrie, Homer Ram-Jell, one vacancy. [88O-1881. Hugh T. lewett. President ; George R. Blanchard, Assistant to the President ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — Hugh J. Jewett, Theron R. Butler, Charles Dana, Harrison Durkee, R. Suydam Grant, James J. Goodwin, John Tay- lor [ohnston, James R. Keene, E. 1 ). Morgan, John Frederick Pierson, Henry G. Stebbins, William L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, Cortlandt Parker, Solomon S. Guthrie, Homer Ramsdell, Thomas Dickson. [88l-l882. Hugh J. Jewett, President : George R. Blanchard, Assistant to the President ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — Hugh J. Jewett, Theron R. Butler, Charles Dana, Harrison Durkee, R. Suydam Grant. James J. Goodwin, John Tay- lor Johnston, Jacob H. Schiff, Francis N. Drake, E. D. Morgan, John Frederick Pierson, Henry G. Stebbins, William L. Strong, J. Low- ber Welsh, Cortlandt Parker, Solomon S. Guthrie, Homer Ramsdell, Thomas Dickson. 1882-1883. Hugh J. Jewett, President ; George R. Blanchard, First Vice- President ; Robert Harris, Second Vice-President ; Stephen Little, Comptroller ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — Hugh J. Jewett. Theron R. Butler, Charles Dana, Harrison Durkee, R. Suydam Grant, James J. Goodwin, John Tay- lor Johnston, Jacob H. Schiff, Francis N. Drake, E. D. Morgan, John Frederick Pierson, Henry G. Stebbins, William L. Strong, J. Low- ber Welsh, Cortlandt Parker, Solomon S. Guthrie, Homer Ramsdell, Thomas Dickson. 1883-1884. Hugh J. Jewett, President ; John King, Assistant President ; George R. Blanchard, First Vice-President ; Edmund T. Bowen, Sec- ond Vice-President ; Stephen Little, Comptroller ; Augustus R. Mac- ugh, Secretary. Directors.— Hugh J. Jewett, Theron R. Butler, Charles Dana, Harrison Durkee, R. Suydam Grant, James J. Goodwin, John Tay- lor Johnston, Jacob H. Schiff, FrancisX. Drake, E. L). Morgan, John Frederick Pierson, Henry G. Stebbins, William L. Strong, J. Low- ber Welsh. Cortlandt Parker, Solomon S. Guthrie, Homer Ramsdell, Thomas Dickson. [884-1885. John King, President; Edmund T. Bowen, Vice-President ; Au- gustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. tors.— John King, William Whitewright, J. G. McCul- lough, Ogden Mills. William A. Wheelocfc, W. B. Dinsmore, Will- iam Libby, James A. Raj I ge M. Graves, Henry H. Cook, George W. Quintard, William X. Gilchrist, Jacob Hayes, William L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, Cortlandt Parker, James J. Goodwin. [S85-1886. John King, President; S. M. Felton, [r.. First Vice-President; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; Augustus R. Mac- Donough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, Henry H. Cook, W. B. Dinsmore, Wm. N. Gilchrist. James J. Goodwin, George M. Graves, Jacob Hayes. William Libby, Ogden Mills, Geo. W. Quintard, Wm. L. Strong, Wm. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright, Chas. E. Loew, John G. McCullough, J. Lowber Welsh, Cortlandt Parker. i886-[887. John King, President ; S. M. Felton, Jr., First Vice-President; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; A. R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, J. G. McCullough, J. Lowber Welsh, Cortlandt Parker, Henry H. Cook, William Libby, William A. Wheelock, William Whitewright, George W. Quintard, Ogden Mills, William L. Strong, William B. Dinsmore, Morris K. Jessup. James J. Goodwin, William N. Gilchrist, Josiah Belden, Joseph Ogden. i88/-[888. John King, President; S. M. Felton, Jr., First Vice-President; A. Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; A. R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, Josiah Belden, Henry H. Cook, William B. Dinsmore, William N. Gilchrist, James J. Goodwin, Morris K. Jessup, William Libby, John G. McCullough, Ogden Mills, Joseph Ogden, Cortlandt Parker, George W. Quintard, William L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, William A. Wheelock, William Whitewright. i888-[88q. John King, President; S. M. F'elton, Jr., First Vice-President; Eben B. Thomas, Second Vice-President ; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, Josiah Belden, Henry H. Cook, W. X. Gilchrist, J. J. Goodwin, Morris K. Jessup, Wm. Libby, J. G. McCullough, Ogden Mills, Cortlandt Parker, G. W. Quintard. W. L. Strong. 1. Lowber Welsh, W. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright, Wm. F. Reynolds, S. M. Felton, Jr. I 889-I 89O. John King, President ; S. M. Felton, Jr., First Vice-President ; Eben B. Thomas, Second Vice-President ; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, Josiah Belden, Henry H. Cook, W. X*. Gilchrist, J. J. Goodwin, Morris K. Jessup, Wm. Libby, J. G. McCullough, Ogden Mills, Cortlandt Parker, G. W. Quintard, W. L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, W. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright, Wm. F. Reynolds, S. M. Felton, Jr. I 89O-I 89I. John King, President ; Eben B. Thomas, Second Vice-President ; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; Augustus R. MacDon- ough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, Josiah Belden, Henry H. Cook, W. N. Gilchrist, J. J. Goodwin, Morris K. Jessup, Wm. Libby. J G. McCullough, Ogden Mills, Cortlandt Parker, G. W. Quintard, W. L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, W. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright, Wm. F. Reynolds, Eben B. Thomas. l89[-[892. John King, President ; E. B. Thomas, First Vice-President ; G. H. Vaillant, Second Vice-President ; A. Donaldson, Third Vice-Presi- dent ; A. R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors. — John King, E. B. Thomas, G. H. Vaillant, J. G. McCullough, Henry H. Cook, W. X". Gilchrist, James J. Goodwin, Morris K. Jessup, Wm. Libby, Ogden Mills, Cortlandt Parker,. THE STORY OF ERIE 479 George W. Quintard, William L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, W. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright. 1 892-1 893. John King, President; E. B.Thomas, First Vice-President ; G. H. Vaillant, Second Vice-President ; A. Donaldson, Third Vice-Presi- dent ; A. R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors.— John King, E. B. Thomas, J. G. McCullough, Henry H. Cook, \V. X. Gilchrist, J. J. Goodwin, A. S. Hewitt, Morris K. Jessup, Wm. Libby, Ogden Mills, Alexander E. Orr, Cortlandt Parker, Geo. W. Quintard, William L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, W. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright. 1 893- 1 894. John King, President, and J. G. McCullough, Receivers ; Eben B. Thomas, First Vice-President; G. 11. Vaillant, Second Vice-Presi- dent; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President; Augustus R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors.— John King, E. B. Thomas, J. G. McCullough, Henry H. Cook. W. X. Gilchrist, J. J. Goodwin, A. S. Hewitt, Morris K. Jessup, William Libby, Ogden Mills, Alexander E. Orr, Cortlandt Parker, Geo. W. Quintard, William L. Strong, J. Lowber Welsh, W. A. Wheelock, Wm. Whitewright. 1894-1895. Eben B. Thomas, President, and J. G. McCullough, Receivers ; Andrew Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; A. R. MacDonough, Sec- retary. Directors. — E. B. Thomas, John King, J. G. McCullough, Ogden Mills, J. Lowber Welsh, A. S. Hewitt, Wm. Whitewright, W. A. Wheelock, A. E. Orr, H. II. Cook, Morris K. Jessup, G. W. Quintard, Wm. Libby, Cortlandt Parker, Jas. J. Goodwin, W. N. Gilchrist. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. Incorporated November 14, 1S95. Incorporators. — Temple Bowdoin, Charles H. Coster, J. H. Emanuel, Jr., A. H. Gilland, A. B. Hopper, Thomas W. Joyce, Walter S. Kemeves, T. P. Morgan, Jr., Francis Lynde Stetson, Mortimer F. Smith, W. T. Townsend, J. II. Tierney, E. B. Thomas. UNDER THE REORGANIZATION. I 895-I 896. E. B. Thomas (President), J. G. McCullough, Receivers ; A. Don- aldson. Third Vice-President; A. R. MacDonough, Secretary. Directors.— E. B. Thomas, John King, J. G. McCullough, Ogden Mills, T. Lowber Welsh, A. S. Hewitt, Wm. Whitewright, W. A. Wheelock, A. E. Orr, H. H. Cook, Morris K. Jessup, G. W. Quintard, Wm. Libby, Cortlandt Parker, Jas. J. Goodwin, W. X. Gilchrist. 1 896- 1 897. E. B. Thomas, President ; G. M. Cumming, First Vice-President ; William F. Merrill, Second Vice-President ; A. Donaldson. Third Vice-President ; G. G. Cochran, Fourth Vice-President ; J. A. Mid- dle t <> n , Secretary. Directors.— E. B. Thomas, C. H. Coster, Samuel Spencer. J. G. McCullough, F. L. Stetson, L E. Williamson. James Galkm E. Orr, A. S. Hewitt. James J. Goodwin, D. O. Mills, G. W. Quin- tard, J. Lowber Welsh. 1 897- 1 898. E. B. Thomas, President; G. M. Cumming, First Vice-President; William F. Merrill, Second Vice-President; A. Donaldson, Third Vice-President ; G. G. ( .1. hran, Fourth Vice-President ; J. A. Mid- dleton, Secretary. DIRECTORS.— E. II. Thomas, C. II. Cster, Samuel Spencer. I. G. McCullough, F. L. Stetson, L. E. Williamson, |ames Gallow E. Orr, A. S. Hewitt, James J. Goodwin, D. U.'.Mills, G. W. Quin- tard, J. Lowber Welsh. TREASURERS. NEW YORK AMI ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. William G. Buckner Sept. 10, 1S33 to Feb. 4, 1835. Eleazar Lord May 1 1, 1 S35 " Sept. 14,1835. Peter G. Stuyvesant Sept. 14. [835 " Dec. 6, I Elihu Townsend Nov. 22, 183S " Oct. 8, 1839. George S. Robbins Oct. 8, [839 " April 30, [840. James Bowen April 30, 1840 " May 2*, 1841. Henry I.. Pierson May 28, 1841 " Feb. II, 1*42. Silas Brown July t, 1844 " Mar. 10.1^4-. Thomas J. Townsend. .. .May 10, 1848 " July 27, 1 Xelson Robinson July 27, 1S53 " Dec. 12, 1-54. Daniel Drew Mar. 14, 1S54 " July 20,1857. Herman Gelpcke July 20, 1S57 " April 12, 1S5S. erie railway company. Talman J. Waters April;,'). 1-1,1 t., Sept. 2, 1863. John Flilton Sept. 2. 1M11 " fune 26, 1S66. E. W. Brown June 26, 1S66 " Oct. 8, 1S67. Daniel Drew Oct. 8, 1867 " July 10, 1868. lav Gould July 10, 1S68 " Dec. 30, 1871. J. D. White Dec. 30, 1871 " Mar. 11,1872. W. W. Sherman Mar. II, 1872 " July 23,1872. James B. Hodgskin July 23, 1S72 " Jan. 14. '"75 William Pitt Sherman Jan. 14, 1S73 " Dec. 21, 1S76. Bird W. Spencer (acting). .Dec. 21, 1S76 " April 27, 1878. NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY. Bird W. Spencer Apr. 27, 1S7S to Nov. 24, i--|. Charles G. Lincoln Nov. 24, 1884. Hied in Dec, 18S4. Edward White Jan. 15, 1885 to Nov. 30,1895. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. Edward White Nov. 30, 1S95 to Oct. 11, 1S9S. Andrew Donaldson Oct. 11, 1S9S. (In office, 1S99.) AUDITORS. NEW YORK AND ERIK. RAILROAD COMPANY. (The title of auditor was not actually conferred in the Erie service until 1S55, when Benjamin E. Bremner was appointed auditor, the duties having been performed under direction of the secretary until that time, although W. F. Warren, anil later Talman J. Waters, had acted as chief accountants during that period.) Benjamin E. Bremner 1855 to 1S61 ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY. Benjamin E. Bremner 1861 to 1S65. John Hilton 1865 " 1868. John Calhoun 1S6S " 1-7.'. '(',. P. Morosini 1S70 " 1872. Sylvanus H. Dunan 1872 " 1874. Stephen Little lS 74 NEW York. LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY. Stephen Little Andrew Donaldson. . . .1878 to 18S6. .1886 " 1895. 4«o BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ERIE RAILROAD I OM1 ANY. J. T. Wann 1895. (In office, 1S99.) G] NERA1 PASSENG1 R A.GENTS. NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. . Fitch May, 1-4" I" Mar., 1S52. les B. Greenough Mar., [852" Vug., S Dunlap Vug., 1859 " June, 1861, ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY. William K. Barr June, 186] to June, 1872, John N. Abbott June, 1872" April 28, 1878. NEW York, LAKE ERI1 AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY. fohn N. Abbott Vpril 28, [879 to Dec. 16, 1SS6. P Farmer Jan., 18S6 " Aug., 1S90. W.i Rinearson Vug. 6,1890" Dec, 1S91. Pun, in 1. Roberts Dec. 7, 1S91 " Nov. 30, 1895. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. Duncan I. Roberts .Nov. 30, 1895. (In office, 1899.) (.1 \1 RAL FREIGHT AGENTS. NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. Samuel S. Brown Sept., 1 84 1 . 1 No record in the freight department of his immediate suc- cessors.) B. W. Blanchard Jan., 1S58 to April 30, 1S61. ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY. B. W. Blanchard Vpril 30, 1861 to June, 1S72. John M.Osborne June, 1S72 " Sept., 1872. George R. Blanchard Sept., 1S72 " Sept., 1S73. R.C.Vilas Sept., 1873 " April 30, 1S78. NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY. I I Vilas... April 30, 1S7S to May 1,1883. Edward Foley May 2, 1SS3 " Sept. 1, 1S85. John S. Hammond Sept. 2,1885" Mar., 1886. I I Pomeroy Mar., 1S86 " Jan., iSg3. H. B. Chamberlain Feb., 1S93 " May, 1S95. James Leeming May, 1S95 " Nov. 30, 1895. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. James Leeming Nov. 30, 1S95. (In office, 1899.) ERIE'S OPERATIVE DEPARTMENT. 1841-1899. rhese l historical review simply of the operative department of the Erie in so far as it relates to the railroad and its outgrowth in the original Erie territor) ["hi I rie proper, its entire length, is now known officially as the Erie Division. The railroads now in the Erie system obtained by the acquisition of the Nypano and Chicago and Erie connections comprise the Ohio Division. Data in relation to them is dealt with on pages 283, 286, 287. GENERAL SI PERINTENDENTS. Hezeki 1 eymour Sept. 23, 1841 to April 1,1849. James P. Kirkwood April I, 1849" May 1, 1S50. Charles Minot May 1, [850" May 1,1854. Daniel Craig McCallum. ... May I, 1S54 " Mar. I, 1857, (\<> successor was appointed to McCallum as general su- perintendent. President Ramsdell assumed the duties of superintendent, and April 1, 1X57. the old system of oper- ating' the railroad by Eour divisions was changed to one that divided the railroad into two divisions: one from New York to Susquehanna, called the Eastern Division, and one from Susquehanna to Dunkirk, called the Western Division. Nei- ther the Rochester nor Buffalo Divi inns had as yet come to he parts of the Erie. Hugh Riddle was made superintendent of the Eastern Division, and James A. Hart, of the Western Division. This arrangement was continued under the admin- istration of President Moran, he acting as general superin- tendent. In August. 1859, Charles " Minot, having been recalled to the railroad as general superintendent, the old four-division system was restored.) Charles Minot Aug. 19, 1859 to Dec. 31, 1S64. Hugh Riddle Jan. I, 1865 " May 1,1869. L. D. Rucker May 1, 1869" Sept. iS, 1872. (September 18, 1S72, Peter H. Watson, then president, abolished the office of general superintendent, and created a department of transportation, a department of rolling stock, and a department of roads. ( len. A. S. Diven, vice-president, had charge of them all. H. D. Y. Pratt was appointed super- intendent of transportation; Robert M. brown, superintend- ent of roads, and Myron T. Brown, superintendent of rolling stock. The division superintendents became assistant super- intendents of transportation. Robert B. Cable succeeded Pratt as superintendent of transportation, January 12, 1S73; the division superintendents were changed back to their old titles. The office of general manager was created, and James C. Clarke was appointed to the place. August 15, 1874, Hugh J. Jewett, he having come in as president, abolished the office of general manager, and restored the title of general super- intendent. Clarke retired, and Edmund S. Bowen became general superintendent. The office of general manager was revived by President Jewett, January, 1S79, and Robert Harris was appointed to perform its duties. He left the Erie ser- vice in 1883, and the title lapsed. It was revived in 1887, when R. H. Soule was made general manager. He was succeeded by Alfred Walters, March 1, 1892, who continued in the office until November 22, 1894. There has been no general manager since then.) Edmund S. Bowen Aug. 15, 1S74 to June 1, 1SS1. Benjamin Thomas June 1, 18S1 "Aug., 1887. W.J. Murphy Aug. 21, 1S87 " Mar. 26, 189O. J. H. Barrett' Jan. 23, 1890 " April 10. 1S92. C. R. Fitch Nov. 1,1892. (In office, 1899.) DIVISION SUPERINTENDENTS. Mew York {originally Eastern) Division and Branches. Jersey City to Port Jervis, N. Y., 88 miles ; " Bergen County, Short-cut," Rutherford Junction to Ridgewood, 10 miles; Piermont Branch, Suffern to Sparkill, 16 miles; "Newburgh, Short-cut," Arden to Newburgh, 14 miles; Newburgh Branch, Greycourt to Newburgh, 19 miles; Montgomery THE STORY OF ERIE 481 Branch, Goshen to Montgomery, 10 miles: Pine Island Branch, Goshen to Pine Island, 1 2 miles : Crawford Branch, Middletown to Pine Bush, 26 miles. NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. W. C. Taylor, Division Agent, Piermont May i, 1850 to Mar. 17, 1851. A. S. Whiton Mar. 17, 1S51 " May, 1852. Peter-Ward May, 1852 " Sept., 1854. A. S. Whiton Sept., 1854 " Mar. 31, 1857. H. Riddle Apr. 1, 1857 " Do [- H. F. Sweetser I lee. 17, [859 " Apr. 30, 1 - 1. ERIE RAILWAY COM ['ANY. II. F. Sweetser Apr. 30, 1 86 1 to Nov. 1. 1S62. C. S. Robinson Nov. 1, 1S62 " Sept. 1, 1-1,4. H. Hobbs Sept. I, 1864 " Aug. 7, A. P. Berthoud Aug. 7, 1869 " Sept. 21,1872. G. S. Redington Sept. 21,1872 " fan. 7, 1873. E. O. Hill Jan. 7, 1873 " Apr. 30, 1878. NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY. E. O. Hill Apr. 30, 1878 to fan. 7, J. II. Barrett Ian. 7, 1886 " Sept. 21, W. W. Stearns Sept. 20, 18SS " May 13, W. H. Starr (Acting) May 13, 1891 tojune 1. 1 11. C. R. Fitch June I, 1S91 " Nov. 1, 1892. M. W. Maguire Nov. 1, 1S92 " Nov. 30. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. M. W. Maguire Nov. 30, 1S95 to Mar. I, 1S99. J. F. Maguire Mar. 1, 1S99 " date. Miles of track in Jersey City yard, fifty-five ; in Bergen yard, thirty-two. Track changed to standard gauge June 22, 1880. The third rail was first used from Jersey Cit day, December 29, 1878. The making of the great Erie terminals at Jersey City- was begun in 1856, after the Long Dock Company was chartered. ("Administration of Homer Ramsdell," page 119.) Not un- til the Bergen tunnel was completed in 1S61 were they brought to a capacity commensurate with the increase in the traffic of the railroad. Year by year they have grown in greatness. In 1897 the crowning work in their completeness was begun. ("Administration of John King," page 284.) This was the elevation of the tracks at Jersey City. The work was finished Sunday, May 7, 1S99, when the change was made, under the direction of Superintendent J. F. Maguire, from the old sys- tem to the new, between the time of train 604, at 9.56 a.m., and the time of train 603, at 10.44 a.m., without delaying either. This improvement does away with all grade cross- ings in Jersey City, and cost Si, 000,000. When Hugh Riddle was superintendent of this division the railroad had been changed from four divisions to two, and Riddle was superintendent of the Eastern Division, Jersey City to Susquehanna. At the time G. S. Redington was superintendent of this division, he was also superintendent of the Delaware Division, with the title of assistant superintendent of transportation. Delaware Division ami Brat Port Jervis, N. Y., to Susquehanna, Pa., 105 miles ; Hones- dale Branch, Lackawaxen, Pa., to Honesdale, Pa., 24 miles. 31 MAY YORK AND ERIE RAII MANY. YV. II. Power May, 1850 to May 1, I Hugh Riddle May 1. 1-;; " Apr. 30, 1861. ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY. Hugh Riddle \pr. 30, 1861, to Tan. I, 1S65. C W, Douglas Jan. r, 1865 " Mar., 1869. G. S. Redington Mar., 1869 "Jan. 12, B.Thomas Jan. 12,1873 " Apr. 30, 1 NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY. 1 I IS \pr. 30, 1878 to June 1. 1S80. Chas. Neilson June 1,1880 "Aug. 22,1882. W.J. Murphy Aug. 22, 1882 " Nov.. 1--4. E. Van Etten Nov., 1884 " Aug., 1--7. W.H.Starr \ng., 1 I, 1S90. W. 1.. Derr Oct. 1, [89b " Nov. 14, 1S95. ERIE RAII l:< IAD COMPANY. W. I.. Derr Nov. 30. 1S95 to Mar. 1, 1S99. Geo. A. Thompson Mar. 1, l8gg "date. Division agent was the original title of the superintendent, by which W. H. Power was known until after the railroad was opened to Dunkirk in 1851. Division headquarters at Port Jervis. Division all double- tracked. Miles of track in Port Jervis yard, 42. Susquehanna Division, Susquehanna, Pa., to Hornellsville, N. V., 139 miles. NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. First superintendent, or division agent, not on record. n May I, 1850 to June 30, 1853. R. X. Brown July I, 1S53 " Sept. 30. I J.A.Hart Oct. t, 1854 " April 1,1 II. R.Smith Vpril 1,1857 "Apr. 30, I III. RAILWAY COMPANY. II. B. Smith April 30, 1S61 to Ian. I. i II. I). V. I'ratt Jan. 1, 1 2] [872. C. W. Gardner Sept. 21, 1S72 " Jan. 12. R. B. Cable Jan. 12,1*73 " Api 30, 1878. NEW- YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN I OMPANY. R. B. Cable April 30, 1878 to [882. I. Jolls (Acting) 1 i" = . R. B. Cable Feb. 9, 1885 "Oct 1. I>. II. Blackham Oct. 1, 1-', "Feb [4 A. M. Tucker Feb. 14, 1887 " Feb. [S, C V Merrick (Acting) \\ . I!. I offin ) ' J. H. Parsons Sept. 1, i . 1,1890. YV. H. Starr (Acting) Nov. 1. [890 " V M. YV. Maguire Nov. 10, 1890 " Nov. 1. J. F. Maguire Nov. 1, 1892 " Nov. 14. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. I. F". Maguire Nov. 14, 1895 to April 1. W. L. Derr Vpril 1, 1899 " date. Division headquarters, Elmira, X. V. The original I quarters were at Owego. Main shops of the Erie are at Sus- quehanna, Pa., and employ 992 men. Elmira shop (repaii shop) employs 123 men. 482 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES II. B. Smith succeeded J. A. Hart as superintendent of the Susquehanna and Western Division, with headquarters at llsville, in [858, and served until the two-division sys- tem was abolished in December, 1859. He was also super- intendent of the Northern Division, Elmira to Canandaigua. ('. W. Gardner was assistant superintendent of transporta- tion for the Susquehanna and Rochester Divisions, from September 21, 1872, to January r.2, 1873. 1 livision all double-tracked. Allegany (originally Western) Division. Hornellsville, N. Y., to Dunkirk, N. Y., 128 miles. NEW YORK AMJ ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY. R. N. Brown Aug. I, 1S51 to June 30, 1S53. T.L.Smith July 1,1853 "Dec. 31,1853. J.A.Hart Jan. I, 1854 " Sept. 30, 1854. II. li. Smith Oct. 1, 1S54 " May 31, 1856. S. C. Jilison June I, 1856 " Mar. 31, 1857. J.A.Hart April 1,1857 "May 31,1858. C. L. Robinson June 1, 1S5S " April 30, 1S61. ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY. C. L. Robinson April 30, 1S61 to Oct. 31, 1862. II. G. Brooks Nov. 1, 1862 "Feb. 28, 1865. J. S. Beggs Mar. 1,1865 " Sept. 30, 1872. R. ( ;. Taylor . Oct. 1, 1872 " June 30, 1873. J- S. Beggs July 1, 1S73 " April 30, 1S78. NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AM) WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY". I. S. Beggs April 30, 1S78 to Nov. 20, 1S81. W. II. Coffin Nov. 20, 18S1 " Dec. 14, 1SS7. E. F. Knibloe Dec. 15,1887 " June 30, 1888. I. II. Parsons ...July [,1888 " Sept. 30, 1889 M. W. Maguire Oct. 1, l88g " Nov, 9, 1890. J. F. Maguire Nov. 15, 1890 " Oct. 31, 1892. H.E.Gilpin Nov. 1,1892 " Nov. 14, 1S95. ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY'. II. E. Gilpin Nov. 14, 1S95. (In office, 1S99.) Division headquarters transferred from Dunkirk to Hor- nellsville, November 20, 1881. Track on the division changed from six-foot gauge to standard gauge, June 22, 1880. Single track, except 6 miles between Carrollton and Sala- manca. Miles of track in Hornellsville yard, 46. Inter- < hange yard at Dayton, 20 miles of track. In 1 85 1, all the plant the Erie had at Hornellsville was a shed that housed two engines. In 1852 additions wer; made for machinery for repairing engines. From time to time ad- ditions wee made until by 1854 the shop was large. In that year ground was broken for a new round-house and shop, which win- two years in building. When done, they were dedicated by a grand ball held in the shop, attended by citizens of Hornellsville, and by many prominent railroad men from other points along the line of the Erie. A ban- quet was provided at the Erie depot dining-saloon. January 20, [857, the shops were partially destroyed by fire. The Company thought it never would want any bigger shops, and sold mui li oi the land. The shops and round-houses had to be enlarged several times, and in 1S78 the Company pur- chased thirty acres on the east side of the yard, near the river, and built the present great shops, round-houses, and offices, erected and first occupied in May, 1882. The original depot was burned November 31, 1S79, and the present one built in 1880. Buffalo Division and Branches. Hornellsville to Buffalo, 92 miles; Buffalo to Suspension Bridge, 26 miles; Tonawanda to Lockport, 14 miles; Inter- national Junction to Black Rock, 3 miles; Buffalo to James- town, 69 miles. II. C. Fisk 1859 to 1S72. O. S. Lyford 1S72 " 1873. R.G.Taylor 1S73 " 1SS1. C.W.Gardner 1SS1 " 1S82. Charles Neilson 1SS2 " iv;. W. J. Murphy 1SS4 " 1SS7. E. Van Etten 18S7 to July 1, iSSg. C. A. Brunn July 1, 18S9. (Inoffice, 1899.) While this division, from Hornellsville to Attica, was the Buffalo and Xew York City Railroad (1852 to 1857) it had as superintendents, Silas Seymour, J. H. Hoyt, and A. D. Patchin successively. ("The Building of It," pages 360- 363-) The broad gauge was changed to standard in June, 18S0. Division headquarters at Buffalo. Division all double-tracked. Rochester Division ami Branches. Corning to Rochester, 91 miles; Avon to Mt. Morris, 15 miles ; Avon to Attica, 35 miles ; Conesus Junction to Lake- ville, 2 miles. George W. Bartlett Feb. 1, 1S86 to Feb. 15,1887. W. H. Starr Feb. 15, 18S7 " Aug. 21, 1887. G. A. Thompson Aug. 21, 1S87 " Mar. 1, 1899. W.H.Barrett Mar. 1 , 1 S99. (In office, 1S99.) Division headquarters at Rochester, N. Y. The Roches- ter Division was operated jointly with the Buffalo Division previous to February 1, 1886, and at the time of the change was in chtirge of W. J. Murphy, as superintendent, with head- quarters at Buffalo, N. Y. Track changed to standard gauge in June, 1880. (" The Building of It," pages 360-363.) Divisions formerly Erie Branches or leased Linos, Jefferson Division. — Susquehanna, Ta., to Carbondale, Pa., 39 miles. Geokue W. Dowe, Superintendent, Carbondale, Pa. Tioga Division. — Elmira, N. V., to Hoytville, Pa., 6; miles; Tioga function to Lawrenceville, Pa., 4 miles. F. 1!. Lincoln, Su- perintendent, Arnot, I'a. Bradford Division. — Carrollton, N. Y., to Johnsonburg, I'a., 53 miles; Brockwayville, I'a., to Toby Mines, 12 miles; I )aguscahonda, Pa., to Dagus Mines, 6 miles. C. V. MERRICK, Superintendent, Bradford, Pa. GREENWOOD Lake Division. — Jersey City to Greenwood I.ake, N, V., 4S miles; Caldwell function to Essex tails. \. J., 6 miles; Forest Hill. N. 1 ., to Orange. 4 miles. NORTHERN RAILROAD OF New Jersey.— jersey City to Nyack, N. Y., 28 miles. T, II. Pin- dell, Superintendent, Jersey City. THE STORY OF ERIE 483 Table Showing, Year ey Year, the Growth of the Erie in Mileage of Track Owned and Leased, the Increase in Its Equipment and Traffic, etc., since the Beginning of Operatioi er 23, 1-41. (The Number of Employees in Round Numbers is Estimated, there being no Return of that Item Made in the Official Reports for thosi Yi uts.) '3 a a.s •a u J2 / CO B3 oS u 184... 1842 . . 1843.. 1844.- 1845.. 1846 1847 ■ 1848.. 1849.. 1850. . 1851.. 1852.. 1853- • 1854 . . 1855- • 1856.. 1857 1858.. 1859 i860.. 1861 . . 1862 1863 . 1864 . . 1865.. 1866.. 1867.. 1868.. 1869.. 1870.. 1871 1872.. J873.. 1874. 1875 1876.. 1877.. 1878.. 1879 . 1883.. 1884.. 1885.. 1886.. 1887.. 1888.. 1889.. 1890. 1891 . . 1892. 1893.. 1894.. 1895.- 1896.. i? 97 .. 46 46 53 53 53 62 62 74 269* 337 445 445 445 445 445 446 446 446 446 446 44° 446 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 459 460 460} 460} 460} 460 460 460 460 460 460 460 460 460 446 459 459 459 446} 44' ; 446* 44&* 446} 5? s.1 tftfl r* 1- Is ■a 9.S CO •a 3 -' SOi- S Sl 19 19 19 19 19 19 J9 '9 19 '9 '9 .65 165 165 165 .65 3'4 3i4 3'4 364} 3641 455 495 495 96, 9<* 96* 96} 96} 96* 96* 9 6i 96} 96* 96} 96* 106 102 102 102 102 J04* 104* 104} 108} 108} 1,024 1,021 1. 01 5 26 26 56 56 56 56 I20 56 56 56 94 94 403i 3861 399 400} 384 371} 37H 379 379 472 47* 472 472 470 452 486 486 544 55°S 5S6i 55' 552 358 388} 396 .3 -a o rt a 9 19 58J 8of = ■:'. 262 269 281 281 281 282 286 286 290 320 351 357 379 38 S 399 413I 449! 508 515 572 641 643 660} 669 6761 759* 772 791 803 854 912 987 1,013 1,019 1,067 1,072 1,091 J, 139! 1,158}. 1,187 1,202 1,206} 1,650* '.675 1,704} T3 rt ~ ia i» > ■* a e - *o s s u *i J >" 2 56 5 56 5 56 5 56 5 56 5 56 7 56 to 60 10 56 to 60 '9 56 to 60 55 56 to 60 65 56 to 60 123 58 to 72 T 42 58 to 72 »43 58 to 74 183 58 to 74 203 58 to 74 203 56 to 74 210 56 to 74 210 56 to 74 219 56 to 74 219 56 to 74 220 56 to 74 225 56 to 74 242 56 to 75 249 56 to 75 319 56 to 75 371 64 371 64 to 70 37' 64 to 70 444 64 to 70 440 64 to 70 475 64 to 70 483 60 to 70 497 60 to 67 505 60 to 67 S°5 60 to 67 505 63 505 63 515 63 504 63 to 70 539 60 to 70 545 60 to 70 564 60 to 70 585 60 to 70 584 60 to 70 554 60 to 70 460 56 to 66 485 60 to 74 4=7 60 to 74 515 60 to 80 555 60 to 80 574 60 to 80 623 626 63 to 80 667 63 to 90 666 60 to OO 668 60 to 90 918 60 to 00 903 6'-> 83 6 tx 2 4 4 4 6 6 9 9 =4 3 2 38 61 75 93 102 97 103 99 96 IOO I03 I02 IOI 105 113 120 178 190 187 220 220 232 258 250 200 198 241 237 236 235 240 230 255 272 270 268 275 2S5 259 253 241 244 266 343 356 356 356 434 448 3 3 5 7 17 26 28 28 28 3° 42 49 42 40 3 2 38 40 7° 66 60 56 54 54 53 44 44 69 67 67 67 73 68 74 78 79 130 87 86 86 80 90 '°3 116 "3 no '■3 in in 1 11 152 136 ojO Bfc£ S3 is. « , 3 n 60 77 72 12 17 =4 43 41 43 43 43 40 45 45 46 44 48 48 48 48 61 68 60 7' 7t 7» 76 81 75 93 99 96 93 107 102 106 158 in 112 109 120 119 '35 171 '74 174 178 175 180 180 230 236 25 39 66 70 383 448 784 1.349 ■■834 2,281 2,762 2.770 2,810 2,780 2,684 2.763 2.895 2,850 3,040 3,3'9 3.768 5.181 5.717 5.709 6,040 7.447 8,840 9-779 10,6,8 ■0.373 io,775 11.274 ".337 11,298 16.585 16,609 23,920 28.405 37.068 29.205 29.950 28,820 29,716 30,292 30,243 31.383 30,353 30,219 30.535 28.784 28.972 28.847 40.557 42-54' 8 3 t - Si 5j -r. ST. c 2g < •H.E c : _- = uu •?*! ggs U — ~ M > =^ < 25 25 2S 28J 30 33 35 32 32 32 26J 27* 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 30-40 26-30 32 35 55 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 3S 24 24 29 3° 26 26 26 26 22 23 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26-30 26-30 26-30 26-30 26-30 26-30 26-30 26-30 26-30 22-26 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 11,627 80,0201 83-483* 103,288} 155.295 288.069 282,662} 414.727 688,789 864,330 1,154,4371 1,125,123! 1,033.392 1,077.026 1,016,086 793.882 866,841 941.544 842,049 859.203 1,065.752 1.652,301 2,036,835 2.444 935 2,245,180 2,194,848 2,497."3 2,275,025 3.509,462 3.598.988 3,992.156 4,223,130 5.052.855 5,032.831 4,887,238 3.080,242 4.894.527 5,471.43' 6.144.158 6,784,195 6,934,724 5.385.669 5.899.757 6.261,118 6,865,903 8,543.684 10,107,306 11,074.489 11,677.902 1 1. 805.389 12,452.623 11,967.285 11. 521.997 5,692,801 14.4tii.47S 14,703,426 — -6 ^_ c '-■2 O ~ (- 109,402 131,312 250,096 456,460 631,039 743,250 842,054 692.488 978,069 816,964 869.872 1,139.554 1,255.419 1,632,955 1,815,096 =■234.350 3,242,792 3.484,546 3,908,243 4.312,200 4.852,505 4.844,208 5,564,274 6,312.762 6.364,276 6,239.943 5.972.818 6,182.451 4,128.906 8,212,641 8,715.892 11,086,823 11,895,238 11,610,673 11.071.938 10,253.498 12.806,918 i5.'74-o°9 15,084.132 16,269.656 17,339.'4° 18.614.822 17,309,188 15,305,200 12,928.530 10.935.779 19.443,898 22,547.528 25 IS '4 '9 '5 2.3 21 9 11 7 12 17 II 18 27 17 'S 30 29 26 34 '37 SO 33 H ?'■ 5 = 25 21 4< 7 32 55 60 61 57 27 5« 65 76 65 70 96 102 71 77 68 70 67 58 92 124 '33 162 209 276 3'9 344 5'4 604 986 1.325 i,8co 2,600 3,000 3.500 4,000 4.000 4,200 4.400 4.600 5.000 S-Soo 6.000 6,800 7.000 7,000 7,000 7.000 7,500 8.000 8,000 9,000 9,000 9.500 10,000 10.500 10.000 10000 11.000 11,000 11,000 12,000 14.000 15.241 '5.? 6 3 15.212 16.355 .6,384 16.500 16.845 16,962 17.211 16,835 14.249 14.158 21.26. 19.992 21,063 tt^&&22&?^r^~j£^&ti ^»fttSti?g£25&SZS$^ Canned ,0 couriers, the .as. wood- bUrne Th i e^t e s[eef or U stee! S^d^'s we«™, E£5iri£*& They were made a, Trenton. In the report lor ,874 the weigh, of rails began ,0 be stated operated by the Erie Company. _,„~ »„ »h<. ctanrtarH hepan in 187.. when 114 miles were put down. It was completed The layin L ot the £'^„S^^^ The '^ "" was taken up in ,8So. tut "^ W2X WeilesaCo began the express .-sp^ion^usir, ss^r theEri. They were ™^V £«* P- , fished [/SSUS^U^S: wulchTa^ ^^^3jMJS^ t TSSg r ^d has since «>„<»«*«, *Z ^.n^. ,..,,„, .... ^ company aj pjr cent, ot the express earnings. ;„H^r%*>nH^nr freicrhr linei nmninir over the Erie, owning the cars in use. V The Erie Despatch, Commercial Express, and Inter-S ate Despatch are '" d eP™ d ent ^ rreiRhtj nes runnm^o r , ^ ^^^ ^ fau The passenger cars were onginally lighted by whale^.l larnps^ rhen ca ™ e ^™ cl d nd '£ 1C ^ „ l crc ,, r ,:„ na ii v heated by wood m box stoves. CoaJ were in use as late* as 1872. Gas-lighting of cars on the :Ene began , .r, , -SS^ Gas and o,l ^ e ^d ^..e cars g^ JsUmated.j ^"tSS^^^tad^oa^SS^^^^^JA The block system was introduced in .888. Totafmileage uSssf: single track, .,857.67 ; double track, s.d.ngs, and turnouts. 3.570*. 484 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES [•ock, Bonded and Floating Debts of the Company, the Cost of the Railroad, the Earnings of the Railroad, and n rATioN Expenses, for Each Vear since the Beginning of Operations, September 23, n 1 11. the End of the 1 \ 1 I e 30, 1898, as They Appi \k from the Official Reports of the Company to Engineer and Surveyor and rHi Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of New York. This Table is Intended to Show the Earning Capacity of the Railroad, and the Expenses Connected with Developing that itv, with.'! i Regard ro Collateral Income or Disbursements of the Company. 1841. 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845- 1846. 1847- 1848. 1841. 1850. 185 1. 1852. 1853- 1S54. 1855. 1856. 1857. 1858. ■839- 1860. 1861. 1862. 1863. 1864. ■863. 1866. 1867. 1868. 1869. 1870. 187 1. 1872. 1873. 1874. ■ 875- 1876. 1877. 1878 J 1879. 1886. 1887. 1888. 1S89. 1890. 1891. 1802. 1803. 1894. 1895- 1896. 1897- •Capital Stock. I as bv Debt. Charter. S.778,891 5,992,290 7,766,991 10.000,000 10,023,958 10,023,958 10,000,000 11,000,000 11,000,000 ir,ooo,oco 11,000.000 See note. 19,973,200 19,973,200 24,223.800 24,935,800 25,105,800 46,302,210 78,536,910 83,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,900 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,910 86,536,900 S ,536,900 86,536,900 86,536.900 86,536,900 86,536,900 86,536,900 86,536,900 86,536,900 86,5 $6,91 •> 86,536,900 86,536,900 86,536,900 146,000,000 146,000,000 171,090,300 I None. 3,000,000 oc 3,000,000 00 3,000,000 00 3.000,000 00 5,839,918 00 9,856,568 00 14,503,868 00 18,003,868 do 20,173,868 00 22,601,000 00 24.8,51,000 00 24,891,000 CO 24,891,00000 26,438,016 00 25,260.000 00 26,351,000 00 See note 19.831.500 00 20,093,200 00 17,822,900 00 18.285,90000 22,368,834 94 22,429.920 00 23, 3' 18, 300 00 23,398,00000 -■ :- j )8,8oo 00 26,398,800 00 26,398,800 oc 37,917,142 70 45,576.814 00 54,271,814 00 54.271,81400 54,271,81400 54,271,81400 See note. 66.678.501 10 67,173.744 85 67.165,66595 70,269.13765 75.267,13690 75,268,485 10 75,268,485 10 78,500,385 10 78,550,865 10 78,567,245 10 77,759.245 10 77,756,205 10 77,643,885 10 77.643,885 10 77,643,885 10 77,643,885 10 77,644,125 10 78,800,125 10 125.404.100 00 238.852,100 00 238,852,10000 Floating Debt. None reported 2,481,647 41 2,475,864 64 2.957,376 31 1.323,053 55 2,685,026 49 2,525,669 85 1,051,54003 991.068 91 1,982,482 42 73 2 . 2 57 86 353.703 33 2.725,620 43 See note. 480,665 00 - None. 2,364,238 4: 3,638,450 29 3,524,813 00 4. 8 93-735 81 None ported 2.517.301 26 2. 714. 103 5' 2,552,203 34 1,421,641 8} 1,159,060 46 1,887,216 11 669,705 77 400,000 00 482,763 51 See note. Gross Earnings. tTotal Cost of Railroad and Equipment. Passenger. 16,4 |0,868 oa 20,823.581 00 24,028,858 20 27,551,205 00 31,222,834 00 33.439.43 2 °° 33,742.317 11 33.93 8 , 2 54 °o 34,033,680 16 34,058,632 63 35,320,907 19 35,574.171 97 35.796.901 91 89,985,202 03 ] ;. [28,660 82 40.954,463 62 45.879,522 28 48,507.544 52 49,247,769 7O 56,486,605 97 65,131,95901 73.945,587 02 106.904,362 22 108,807,687 26 111,630,092 26 115,075,000 87 115,955,946 63 117,140,287 47 117,445,120 54 n7.633.790 09 574,122 26 3,325.369 2 ? 5.344.575 32 7,213,614 12 8,818,860 71 9,552,704 93 11,502,380 63 12,722,610 64 12,761,536 52 15,386,099 42 14.772.494 27 160,862.500 74 161,145.922 43 161,621,092 44 162,739,413 26 163,598,371 02 163,827,791 22 '6-t.333.398 37 No report. 274,300,131 23 271,727,58649 2 73. 587,262 41 Freight. 15,165 44 34,848 00 35,000 CO 46,178 00 44.'75 35 64.754 73, 100,990 74J 125,722 32 363,209 96 573. 15083 ,186,034 21 ,382,636 87 ,601,209 7 1 .743.379 72 ,698.670 15 ,656,674 66 ,495,36096 1,182,258 27 3. ',554-083 53 1,180,957 55 1,136,045 73 1,096,196 60 1,670,082 58 2.523,005 50 4,450,209 60 3,593,966 20 2.931.833 45 j. 5! i.coi 88 4,043,048 82 ,972,064 70 ,329,346 84 ,651.554 18 ,705,574 06 ,461,304 31 ,427,626 45 ,220,089 88 ,900,045 50 170,075 52 118,943 75 ,682,951 18 041,267 03 384.509 78 632,229 27 675,871 14 106,707 61 443.771 81 706,16459,15 ,808,390 67 15 894,052 8i 15 ,443,598 16 22 855,445 09 22 724,819 90 24 ,810,284 55 23 888,898 61 19 081,307 I5liq 475.804 33I 8 861,094 62. II 365,47932 21 570,600 53 23 s 14,523 99 43,677 00 60,735 00 79,842 00 82,169 66 120,761 75 153,138 68 185,190 93 425,078 12 564.445 15 ,091,388 11 ,883,198 76 ,537. 2 '4 52 ,369,59005 .653.3°' 70 ,554,721 86 ,097,610 12 ,843,310 77 ,195,869 57 ,351,464 35 ,642,914 68 ,432,234 47 ■855.087 70 ,726,264 33 ,611,023 01 ,204,688 73 ,780,975 86 ,583.793 73 ,983,547 06 ,861,999 74 ,509,745 47 .015,807 85 ,740,042 44 ,287,399 85 ,429,929 70 ,647,807 38 ,087,075 50 ,827,414 31 ,233,48090 ,39'. "5 33 ,979.576 61 ,642,128 38 213,621 15 773,004 60 I 394,625 00 ,808,180 00 I ,203,285 88 ,821,210 04 375-347 75 ,454.7=9 42 1 ,162,40330 I ,760,488 01,1 ,581,380 41 I ,187.997 67 ' ,009,238 28 ,801,435 3 1 ,919,650 95 ,594,864 26 ,050,600 53 2 JOther Sources. 21,855 54 1,529 63 4.246 33 271,930 90 180,538 13 246,948 9: 137.321 46 146,593 63 149,635 43 126,047 39 132,196 22 115,020 61 103,406 52 124.861 40 143,800 18 173.3S6S9 124,100 92 167,820 35 180,690 96 64,302 27 94.657 79 227,014 78 33,940 72 53 2 .795 49 ,345.244 4 8 ,153,282 26 ,128,15444 994,904 99 840,992 66 465,17596 "95.I9I 39 589,597 84 .379. 6 97 37 .539,067 50 969.235 45 956.396 48 .56034 989,123 48 ,058,543 34 419.242 3° ,210,422 13 S43.7 8 3 77 ,141,490 50 ,249,397 74 ,207,604 50 ,246,413 67 ,231.84767 ,702,290 82 7'?i i. ■ ,6 :-■ 1 697,291 40 ,090,666 98 ,150,669 23 Total. 29 78 95 126, 126 185, 254, 310 810 1,139, 2,281, 3.537 4.318, 5,359 5.488 6,349 5-742 5.151 4.882. 5,180, S.590 7,863, 10,246, 12,551. i5.3°o 15.372 14.317 14.376 16,721, 16.179 16,868. 18,371. 20,012 18,598 16,876. 15.852. 14,708 10.452 5,192, '5,94 2 19.453 21-559 19,995, 22,802, 21,637. 15,49° 22,500, 19.327- 27.217, 27,004. 29,039. 29.263. 31,692, 30,638. 26,308. 2S.79 2 - 12,061. 15-477- 29,051. 30.771. ,689 43 ,52500 ,335°o ,020 00 345 01 ,51648 119 08 ,913 2 5 ,140 62 125 61 .668 65 764 53 ,962 36 ,958 68 993 37 ,99° '5 60551 ,616 43 ,14932 ,321 70 ,916 60 ,972 68 ,11723 480 09 ,574 85 ,809 56 ,213 14 ,871 81 50034 ,461 66 905 16 887 80 ,606 5 896 76 858 60 461 14 ,889 92 ,296 87 ,681 22 ,022 58 ,763 88 911 14 ,873 61 24695 ,436 08 ,45609 -047 73 692 77 98975 406 01 S180S ,246 13 ,912 41 078 63 743 95 836 25 ,636 45 936 97 010 56 297 82 Expenses of Transportation. Mainte- nance of Way ard Real Estate. Not separated until 1849. 61,640 44 127,146 13 149,524 13 296,267 26 471,469 19 602,786 81 584.983 93 641.588 89 938,603 73 1,135,504 25 1,049,187 05 1,024,837 16 1,049,298 48 ', 367-783 9° i,83°.579 56 2,680,142 04 3.501,457 79 3,460,618 39 3,001,482 82 3.303.524 56 4,248.273 36 3,689,693 64 3,432,948 46 !,686,8l 4 , , 3-7 I 7.333 78 3,485,662 20 3,3 2I ,37°57 2.630.486 45 2,295,529 46 1,505,502 48 722,790 48 2,289,215 67 2,187,963 91 2,263,552 94 2.23'. 877 58 2,967,616 86 2,°58-555 79 3.4°5.9°° 41 2.365-559 34 2,444,648 79 2,083,916 96 2.058.543 79 2.688.108 " 2,864,046 88 2.963,990 23 2,904,404 37 2,738,806 99 2,491,866 65 1,561,245 01 1,515,87941 2.777.487 48 3,095,869 29 Repairs of Machinery Not separated until 64.030 53 55.813 64 230,592 16 376,564 74 434.893 88 560,582 14 386.894 90 63'.'79 59 882,086 30 890,274 10 609,650 87 718,11473 808,638 14 1 1,063,022 06 1,427,043 02 1,760,833 53 2.602,42009 2,555,288 83 2,606,412 73 2,843,040 29 3,182,634 07 2,601,691 05 2,354,644 97 .-,.-,, .),'■' _■ ,:-' 2,562,359 08 2,799,102 30 2.446,863 53 2,664,456 87 1,981,059 67 1,324,269 85 530,689 91 1,784,304 17 1,906,425 90 2,207,689 14 2,160,119 9° 2 -733. 2 44 73 1,899,657 22 1,313.702 60 2.374,228 63 2,393,271 07 2,827,296 56 2,983.902 2S 4.369.563 8 7 3.795.S6056 4.266,890 57 3,034.334 67 3. 164-053 54 3,273,11231 1.890,871 70 2,180,815 58 4,030,261 94 4,883,910 49 Operating. $ No report. 46.793 00 52,520 00 66,945 00 70.217 74 123,173 97 172,970 68 195.508 17 273,676 12 440.788 29 848.- 95 ' 1,130,498 02 '.349.635 9 1 1,474.23937 1.708,449 09 1,887,629 22 2,086,198 26 1,569,228 95 1,384,331 05 1.476,743 °7 1,646.53496 2,034,808 23 2,446,748 27 3,406,014 61 4,713,311 09 5.135.633 45 4,726,093 94 4.996.527 47 5.828.359 18 5,781,626 20 6,411,502 73 6,612,978 19 7,360,049 46 7,278,923 82 6,910,896 85 6,936,258 46 6,623,250 77 4.553.342 57 2,019,268 38 7,101,1.79 11 7.549.535 54 x.;.- (., '-7 .,:- 8,696,096 26 9.743.721 53 S.i 1 1. 124 75 5,692,446 15 7,270,284 86 8,080.231 77 8,188,15875 7.878.360 85 11,825,103 27 12,623,009 11 14.003,837 57 '3.43 2 .956 53 12,223,580 84 12,272,897 51 5.732,909 74 7,334,264 18 14.473.603 74 14,149,044 13 Total. Met Earnings. s 46,79 I 52,520 66,945 70.217 ' 2 3.'73 172,970 195,508 399-347 623.748 226,212 805,340 378,267 637,606 680,327 160. ^,,7 906.888 595.o67 043,168 219.6. 465.614 704.370 846,99 8i 7 ,ir 151,540 333.989 143,092 ,259,266 073,010 199.096 594.504 640,64: 563738 679,130 231,201 oi6,r 363,114 ,272,748 174,698 643,925 256,230 088,093 444-583 358,077 987,329 008,594 022,465 620.257 453-385 882,775 282,616 234.718 271.695 120.441 037,876 185,026 030.959 281.353 128,823 0, 31 43 59 56. 62, 81. 115, 410, 515- 1,055- '•73 2 - 1,940. 2.722, 2,808, 3,189- 1,835. 1,556. 1,838, 1,960, 2,086, 3.398, 4.541 4,704 4.483 4,221 3,983 3.233 3.4^2 4.106 4,968 5-777 6-37' 5.°35 4-i,<7 3.621 4,692 3,089, 1.919 4-767 7.833 8.303, 6.907 7-357 5.279 1.403 6.491 4.C04, 0.597 9-55J 10.157 55] 9.98° 37! 10,458- 57 10.366 37 8,182, 47 7-754- 45 2-876 17 4.446 16 8.769. ,.,1 8,642, 73 2 oo 215 00 ,07500 128 00 34300 149 00 ,405 c8 796 53 377 55 45640 424 25 549 77 351 74 ,665 39 592 45 718 22 549 '3 980 35 626 14 445 02 358 49 746 38 ,489 91 385 88 ,2(8 89 323 65 72949 2 33 73 45o 77 .9C9 00 ,;8 3 16 ■964 10 ,160 44 ,727 65 .-ft- 4' ,050 32 ,.81 77 -932 45 323 63 -738 53 ,681 08 77' -7 ,663 78 358 34 ,12682 453 '3 3'3 9 2 ,732 39 ,02c 99 ,042 10 ' ---j 58 19404 ,383 06 302 58 95968 ,6xo 00 977 80 657 40 473 9' * The original capital stock was $10,000,000. The State of New York loaned its credit to the Company for $3,ooo,oco. That and something over $1. 500,000 paid in on Company stock comprised the stock debt up to 1845. No statement of the slock account was made in the reports until 1849. " Capital Stock, as by charter," means both the amount authorized by the original charter and by subsequent legislation. t The regular annual statement of construction and equipment expenses did not begin to appear in the reports until 1849. These expenses up to and includ- ing 1848 were 512,070,165. of which $4,360,702 was expended previous to the reorganization in 1845. t " Other Sources " applies to the earnings of the railroad from mails, express, and incidental earnings entirely due lo the movement of trains. These items were not separated in the reports until 1849. Note to i86r.— The property being in the hands of a Receiver, and in course of radical readjustment, no statement of the stock or bond debt was made. For the years succeeding 1861 the preferred stock is included in the reported capital. From 1873 to i3SS these expenses only under reorganization reported. N ,1 1 ro 1868-69-70-71.— See " Administration of John S. Eldridge " and " Administration of Jay Gould," Chapters XV. and XVI.. for the explanation ; i f the increase in stock debt and equipment account. Note to 1878.— Report includes last operations of the Erie Railway iSept. 30, 1S77, to May 31, 1878*, and first operations of New York, Lake Erie and Western May 31. 1878. to Sept. 30, 1878). Funded debt awaiting details of reorganization. ("Administration cf Hugh J. Jewett." pages 246-251.) Note to 1883.— The NY , P. and O. Railroad was leased by the Eric April 30, 1883. Since then the operations of that road have been included in the Erie reports- according to the terms of the lease until 1896 ; subsequently as part of the Erie system by ownership. o 1895. — The report includes the five months from June 30, close of the fiscal year, to November 30. when the Erie Railroad Company succeeded the New Y->rk, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company. Note ro 1806. — This report is for the seven months from November 30, 1895, to June 30, 1896, end of the fiscal year. Fli , \ 1 inc. Debt. Since 1880 no statement of a floating debt as a floating debt has been included in the State reports. Dr .in.- 1S48- $143,147: 1849— $291,585 : 1850— $391,855.37 ithese were on the basis of an agreed payment of 6 per cent, interest to the stock- holders) ; 1851 — $346,859.04 : 1852— $416. 1 , $252,660 : 1854—^700,605.50; 1857— $1,000,000 (stock dividend from proceeds ot sinking fundi; 1862— $441,575 ; 1863— $1,288,124: 1864— $1,832,623.58; 1865- -$2,243,017.02; 1866— $567,304: 1867— $567,30.1.85 : 1868— $567,104.85 : 1869— $567,304 ; 1872— $1,463.791 ; 1873-$!, 569,- 437-77 : 1880— coupons on the income bonds : 1881- 6 per cent, on the preferred stock and coupons on the income bonds ; 1882—6 per cent, on the preferred stock ; 1883—6 per cent, on the preferred stock ; 1889— interest on the income bonds and 1 per cent, on the preferred stock. THE STORY OF ERIE 4§5 Table Showing the Prick of Erie Common stock ,n Wall Street Each Year , k m t8 4 8, Lowest an,, Highest Q tions Eai h Month, am, Lowest am, Highesi Price for Each Year. K January. February. March. April. -May. June. July. August. Septemb'r. October. November. December For the Year. H : ►J be X .-5 4=1 £ ►J 4= X i 22 X i ►J 4= X i X 45 = i : *3 H X i 22 X i J 4= X i - 42* i i 1 4= a X 1848.. 1849.. 1850. . 1851.. 1852 1853 : 1854 1855.. 1856.. l857- • 74 80 76 90 75} 38} 5of 61} 79} 62 59* 93* 83 94 80} 47! 53 63 72* 60} 56} 78 77J 7? 44} 5,s 52! 77 62 «3* 84. 1 821 47i 59i 61} 69* 58* 63* 79* 80! 82; 75* 53* 76* 62} 67s 82* 86} SS 82I 50} 58} 5«* 67* 57* 67 81* 86} 84} 68 J 48i 56* S2 7°* 62 74* 91 90 92} 53 57 52} 60S 74" 83} 86} 87* 68 47* 56 33 70} 62} 81* 90} 89* 71* 50} 56; 42; 68 60} 73 81} 87 79* 61 48 5't 3°i 73 64! 80} 85* 89I 88} 7° 54* 58* 39 591 73 7i* 86) 76} 45* 5° 62} 27 68} - 86 87 8oJ 63} 53 64 35* 6. 591 74 69* 87* 68 51 56 25* s» 77* 76 89) 61} 34] oil 6ol 71* 89 76 29 5° 58} 17 80s 80} 91* 86 49 57 62} 21* 58* 591 75 73} 90} 68} 43 49* 60 ■7} 61} 6.} 78 85S 91 8o( 4 6j 56| 62 •3* 58* 60} 78J 81} 9'* 73 40} 57* 12} 62} 62 79 89} 95* 83* 44} 54* 61} 17 60} 581 77 791 93 76} 44 60s 16 «4 62} 90 89* 971 82} 39 52 6.1 I7i 57* 79} 62} 90 93* 97* n 57 62} 63 37 1858.. 20 21* 22J 37 25 34* 21* 25* 20 17* 18 ■7* 18 18} 14; •7* 15! ■6» ■7* . 1859.. 14! ■5* 13* 14! 13* 14 12* 13; ■'. 13 IO "1 91 9 9* 8* 8* 8 81 7} 8 8} 9* ■5* i860. . 8! 9 81 9i 10} IO* 18 16 T 7 18} 241 =3 31 26} 43 27} 43 26 34i 24 39 43 l86l- 34* 40* 3° 36 30 35 17 32* 19* 21 22} 29 24* 26] 24* 2-1 25} 34* 298 35* 33 :t 40* 1862. . 36} 33 38 36* 37* 40* 39* 33 37 331 39* 36} 49} 49 65* 59 Ui 60 63} 65* 1863.. 66 85* 70 80I 74* 80} 76 84; 84* 105 . 98 92} 10;: i°3 122 IOI Il8} 106J 1 10} 99* HoJ 104! 109 122 1864.. 1061 "3 107 "3 126} IO7 126 107 ■ ■ 118 108 i 116 108* "3* 93 IO9 86 98 93} 104} 82 96} 82 126 1865.. 66 f 85! 69; 45 72 51* 86} 7°* 80} 7>. 7S: 95 79* 92} 86} 91* 881 93* 9iS 92 97 85* 1866. . 80 \ 93 76 85* 74; 87 79* 75 62 77* 66} 74} 68} Sol 1 95 7»* 86} 65 i 1867.. 52! 58 55* 61} 53 64 58* 65! 77* 66{ 76} 59 7"* 63» 76* 65} 72* 71 77* 1868.. 7'i 78* 78! 65} 8if 65J 75 68} 72} 68 71] 67* 71 68 J 46 39t 49* 35* 54 37* 41 78* l869. . 187O.. 38 22I 40! =5 '24* 28; 24J 264 "■■li '25} '23* '24} "21"* «i 27 22 42 23) 29,' 22 34! 23} 27 22 30 25} 21 22} 27* 24! 40* 2£l 187I 2,: 23* 2'S 23* 18; 22} 20 22; 31* 26 31} 294 28} 3'i 29J 35 26} 32* 28} 3>S 3°} 35» 1872.. 30 38> 3° 33* 32* 6 7 * 60} 72 62 66} 44* 471 54 55 48 57* 5ii 751 1873 58, 1 66} 63 69} 62} 66} 59* 65} 61} 64), 58 62 58S 50} 44 53* 35* 47 47} 691 l8 7 4-. 46} 51} ♦s 5°* 375 4°} 34 40} 36} 26} 30 33* ' 33* 27 36 29} 26 29* 51) l8 7 5- ■ 28 3°i 26* 29* 26( 35* 28! 3=* 30* iSi '5* 14I 20} '■■ 18} M} 184 15 ■7* 35* 1876.. *5* 18 16J 18} >7* 23} 13* 20} 13 'J 15 M* ■ 4: ' 9l 12* 9} ■ ■1 7* ioi 23! 1877.. 9? loj 7 9* 5 8 4* 7i 61 71 5* 6} 9* 8i 12 10 15 8* 10} 5 ■3* 1878.. ; 10 9 9* 9* 11* ioi ■3* i'i ■5f 14. 15; 18} u. 12} '4 ■4} 14 ■9 ■ 8j 1879.. 27 * 24 27J 23* 251 -■4. 27* 29* 26} 28I 27} 28} 23 23* 1 43* 32 49 37 44 49 1880.. 4 1 - 1 48 43* 47: 4 4-: 46S 3°* 3° 43} 3*; 44* 37l 41 37} 38] 451 42* 49 43* 51* 51* 1881.. 47; 52* ' ■ 50; 45.! 4" 5i) 5°i 411 47* 41.' 44 42 4>. 44) 48} 39} 461 52; 1882.. 38. 1 43* 4°i 34 38; 34* 3"! 36} 33* 37? 35* 39 i 39: 43} 34} 4C} 35* 40! 1883- . 37-' 4°i 1 39 3S 36! 39* 33* 37* 28} 34} 29* - 3i* 27* " 26j 40; 1884 24? 28} 24I 27} 205 26 <7* 22} ■9* !I 16 12 '7* 15 ■9* 12 15* 12 13* ■5* 12 28} 1885.. I2| ■t. ni 14: 1 ■ '4 "} 13 9* 12 9* 10! 9* 15; 15* ■81 14} 17} 23* 21} 22} 27} 1886 23 27! 24? 28; 28} 26} 22} 30} 34} ■ 361 35} 38* 38} 1887.. 3°* 344 29* 34* 33* 35* 26 32i - 3'* 27 24* 29S 26} 27* 27 35* 1888.. 27 29* 25 27! 25} 1 1 23} -4; 24 27* 26} 28} 28 3°} 25 29} 28. 1 -4 • 1889.. 26! ;■.; 285 3°* 30 - 29l 27} 29* 26} 27* 28 S 28 3° 27* 29 28; 3°i 189O.. 26 27I 25* 27* 26J 27* 29* 25} 29 26; -'4: 26} 24} 20} 16 21} 17: 28} 189I.. 19 2.4 .0* 20} 17, ■8} 224 19 22} 18} 20} 17* 19! 26} -5 3i: 26} 308 2„: ■ 1892.. 29} • 29 | 34* 32* - 251 28} 26; 29* 2ft 27* 24 27* 34l 1893.. 23* 265 20* 25; 22} 20} 18} - to ■5 12* 16 13 15* 26} 1894.. 13} 15! 16} i6j m 18* 16 II* 13! 14* I2J 16} "I 10} 16* 18I I895.- 9* IOi 8! ioi 7i 10} 91 10; '5f 11: 9! 105 8 10} i>; 13* 9* 13! 8 ■5* 1896.. 131 i6f 16; 17* 14 I5t 14* 15* 14} 13* 15: •3 IS ioi 12! 12 13} 15 ■ 5* 14 17} 1897.. i 4 5 15! '< 15 12; Hi 13* 11* 12* 12; 15* 16 in 16} 19 13} .6* ■■ 18} 1898 . . ■4 i>* '3* 16} 11 . II ,-'. 12 Mi 13 13J •4} 13! "} ■3i 12} ■4* 1 ! Erie stock enjoyed barely a fictitious value until 1846, after the first reorganization of the Company, as there was no visible prospe, mpany being able to finish the railroad, and the future of an enterprise which was to cost more than twice the amount of its authorized capital was n>,t a tempting one for investors. The stock advanced rapidly in quoted value, however, as the work of constructing the railroad proceeded westward, and when it became known that the Company intended to begin the payment of 6 per cent, interest on the stock then outstanding, in 1848, Erie shares began to rise rapidly in the market. It may be said that the regular dealing in Erie began in 1S48, and regular daily quotations were first reported in that year. Note to 1869.— November 30, 186S. the Regular Board and the Open Board of Brokers each passed a resolution declaring that after January 31. 1S69, it would not call or deal in any stock a registry of which was not kept by its company in some responsible bank or trust company or agency, with public notice of number of shares thus entered for registry, and of any intended increase in the number and of the object for the issue. This action was brought :ib:,ut by the secret issue of a large amount of stock in "the summer and fall of 1868, by which the market was ruinously demoralized (see Chapter XVI 1 The Erie refused to abide by the resolution, and its stock. b"th preferred and common, was excluded from the Exchange from January 31, 1869, until September, which will explain the absence of quotations during that time. (For an account of some early transactions in and manipulation of Erie stock, see pages 318-320.) 486 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Showing the Market Price of Erie Preferred Stock from June, 1S61, when Its Quotations Began, until the End OF iiif Yi ir 1S9S. January. February. March. April. May. JUNE. J"! Y. August. Septemb'r. October. November. December. For the Year. < H > i J 14 X 3 ji X i i ►3 4= be X i X i J be X is bt X bo I 4= bo £ i J 45* a X i J J3 bt X ►J 4= X i 42 X 43 43 4° 43 42 49 46 48 45 53 53 61* 46 55 42 61} 1862. 47. 58* 55* 59; 57} 60* 62} 62 67* 63S <=7i 61* 64+ 62J 69) 67* 83* bi» 93 88} 92* 93 97 47} 97 1863. 108 99 95 96 103 102 nt) 102 106} 102} 105} 102* 111} 102 108} 104} 105} 100* 105 101 ■03 S 95 in} 1864. 101 101J 109 i°5* 05* 107 116 106* 109 108} "3 107 ■15* 109* 112} 101 109 99 104* 100 106* IOO 103} IOO 116 1805. 100) 90 93* 70 90 74 92 77* 90 «i* 85 85 88 80 87+ 82 8 7 * 82 86 82 84 85 86 70 100} 1866. 81 861 80 82* 80 Si 79 80J 74 80 72 76 72* 784 72} 79 75 8i+ 79* 87 82 86} 82 86 72 86 1867. 69 79 70 75 69 73 69* 72 7i* 73 72 75* 75* 78 76 79 74 76* 75 80 76 80 79 81 69 81 1868. 7 2 s 1 75 83 74 So; 69 75 74 77 75 76 76* 75+ 68 73* 68 7°* 65 71 59 65 60 95 59 95 1869. 61} "4 57* 71 54 59) 42 53 39 46 42 64 18/0. 41* 4° 1 42 52 47+ 5° 46 50 45 46 44* 44" 45 47 46 48* 45 49* 47* .51* 47 48 37 51} 1871.. 46J 47i 44 46 44 46 45 46 47* 57 55 57 57 58 58 60 60 65 60 66 61 70 64 '..,: 44 70 1872.. 64 62 62 60 »3* 79 84* 82 87 78* 84* 73 80 68) 74) 69 71* 70* 74* 7" 74 73 79 60 84* 1873.. 77 80J 78 82 74 79* 73 75) 72 74 73i 74* 72 731 72 73* 66 73) 64* 70} 56} 67! 71 71 56} 75) 1874 75 75 72i 74* 64* 70 56 61 61 55 55 47* 47i 47* 48) 33) 381 27 16 26t 29} 26 29} 26 74* 1875.. 51 53 42 5° 42* 44 25 41 20 24+ 28 28 .32} 40 35 36 3°* 32 20 53 1876.. 30 35* 3« 15* 35 39 20 20 21 21 20 2.3 20 20 16 16 16 17) 16 39 1877.. 26 3° 20 26J 20 =3 ■7 22* 21* 26 22* 28S 28 33* 23 29) 26} 1-i 20 30* 27* 3" 21* 28) >7 33+ 1878.. 22 22 22 22 21* 24} 23+ 27* 26* 32 3° 33 3° 35 29} 14* 28 28 22* 28 31 32 29 33 22 35 1S79.. 37 ) Sit 43* 50 42* 46J 45 49* 4b 54 49i 52* 5-i 53 44 53 45* 60 S 6* 67* 60 78* t>5* 72 42} 78* iS8}.. 67 i 73l 7° 73* 68 i 72! 63} 70+ 47 65* 47 7°J" 04J 72* 6.5 73 66 71} 7° 76 72 82 1 77 91* 47 93* 1881 . . 88 95 82, 92 * 84 9°t 84 8 Q 88 92} 86 91* 8o.j 88) 81* 88 82 9' 84.! 88] 881 96) 89 94* 82 96* 1882.. 79 8s 73 80} e? 77* 78 72 74 69* 75 73 81} 77 81} 80 87} 834 87* 80} 85* 82} 88} 67 88* 1883.. 79* 8l 75 80 80} 8ij 78 79* 79 81J 76 80 72 76 75* 7«1 72 77 72* 78 77* 78 72 81* 1S84 . 66* 70 68i 7° .57* 7' 47) 581 32 50! 20 34! 25 34+ 33 39 25 34i 20 3° 25 32 27 35 20 £8* 1885.. 23 3° 20 30 24 29 21 23+ 19 23 18 22 22 3' 3i 39 34 38) 37 46 44 57 46} 54* 18 54+ 1886.. 50J 58 ii* 63* 57 64 54 61* 52* 60 59* 65 62S 78 72* 78* 73* 811 75 78* 76 79* 70 7«1 .50* 78* 1887.. 65+ 71* 6st 74+ 70J 734 72 J 74+ 72 76 68 74+ 66* 7i! 64 71* 61} 7°< 59 67 62 68) 63* 67 i 59 74+ 1888 .. 6: 6s* 57 62} 53 58» 51* 60} 54 61 52 56 55+ 62} 61I 65* 65 J 67! 64* 67+ 60 66} 59 63* 52 67+ 1889.. 61 66 66 70 66 70* 67 7if 68} 7if 67 7°i 62 67 62} 69 68* 7-i 68 70 65 67} 62 674 61 7iJ 1890.. 60 65* 60 64 59 63* 60 1 67 65 69* 65 66 64 65 60 65 55 65 47 5i* 46 51* 46 69+ 1891 . . 4»» 52 5.1 54* 50 52* 5i! 50* 49* 55* 47+ 53 48* 50 49 6 4 t 62} 72* 66 1 71 64I 7°t 69 77* 47* 77* 1892.. 70} 75! 7.* 76J 73 77S 7 1 75? 65 73 63J 67 62* 68* 64i 69 61 63! 61 64 56 6.1} 53* S6* 53) 77+ 189,.. 53 58 47* 56* 43* 49* 46 49 36* 42 33 .38* 15 34 21 + 29} 26} 34 29 32 28) 32 Hi 33* ■5 ss 1894.. 29 1 13* 32* 38* 37* 39* 33! 35 254 3 1 27* 29* 27} 29 26) 3' 29 3" 26 28 28} 31 23 24 21 19* 1895.- 2°» 23 l6 21! 16 20 21! 25 25 3° 22 325 23* 23* 2r 27 20* 26 2 4 i 26} 20 1 23I 20 21* 16 32* 1896 . . 37 4'! 38 41 35* 39 33 38 27 34* 28 28J 27! Hi 31 14* 31* 38! 33* 16 27 41} 1897.. 33 IS* 33i 35* 27} 34* 27 29* 29J 31 Hi 34* 11* 38 37* 43* 4°4 465 15* 42* 11} 37 35* 19* 27 46* 18 98.. 37 39* 38 4ll 11+ 39» 29} 34* 13* 36* 35* 37* 33* 36* 35 39* 35 38S 31* 15* 31} 37* 35+ 39* 31* 39* 1896.. 22} 25 21} 24 20 i 21* '9 21* 17 20* '3 16 17* .8} 18 19} 20 21} 20 20} ■3 25 1897.. 23 21 19} 19} 18 19: 17 '7 15+ 15 + 181 20 ■9* 20S 205 25S 21} 25) 19! 23J I8J 20± ■9 20 1 15) 25* 1898 . . i8i 20} ■8* 21S 16 188 ■5* Id* 16} 19* '7 19* ■7* 17* 18* 20 .7; 18* 16* 17* 16 ■8* 18 20 15+ 21* The original preferred stock of the Erie Railway Company was $8,831,500, and was the result of the reorganization in 1861 (see Chapter XIII.). From March, 1806. the above figures represent the quotations of the first and second preferred stock, the three last rows of figures being the quotations of the second preferred. These two classes of stock were the result of the reorganization in 1895 (see Chapter XX., page 279). Where there are blanks in the columns no quotations were reported. FAMOUS CHARACTERS IN ERIE. 1854-1868. Daniel Drew was born at Carmel, Putnam County, N.Y., Julv 29, 1797, the son of a poor farmer. At the age of fifteen he went as a substitute for a man who had been drafted in the array for the War of 181 2. He served his time in the D VN1EL DREW. army, and became a drover when he returned home. Ke was so successful that, in 1S29, he established himself as a wholesale dealer in cattle in New York, with headquarters at the old Bull's Head Tavern, which stood on the comer of Twenty-ninth Street and Third Avenue. His transactions were vast. One of them was the purchase of 2,000 head of cattle in Ohio and Kentucky, uniting them in one great drove, and having them driven to New York. They were the first cattle ever driven eastward across the Alleghany Mountains. They were two months on the way. Daniel Drew soon became the leading cattle dealer in the country, and the large sums of money he made enabled him to rapidly increase them by acting as banker for other drovers who needed capital. In 1834 Daniel Drew became interested in steamboats on the Hudson River. By 1836 he had established such a strong opposition to the old-estab- lished line to Albany, that the old company was com- pelled to divide its business with him. In 1839 he estab- lished the famous People's Line, and in 1S45 placed on the river two steamboats that were in that day looked upon as floating palaces — the " Isaac Newton " and the " New World." They were 300 feet long and had 500 sleeping-berths. Later he added the "Daniel Drew,'' the " Dean Richmond," and the "St. John." Commo- dore Yanderbilt, in 1850, joined Mr. Drew, and they purchased the Boston and Stonington Railroad, and put the steamboats "Commodore" and " C. Yanderbilt" on Long Island Sound, to run in connection with it from New York. It was about this time that Daniel Drew began to be felt as a power in Wall Street, which he had entered by establishing a brokerage house in which Nelson Robin- son and R. W. Kelley, Drew's son-in-law, were partners. He subsequently took in as his partner E. D. Stanton, a confidential clerk of his, but retired from the firm a few years later, after which all his transactions were con- ducted by brokers. In 1S54 Daniel Drew became prominently interested in the Erie as a director. He was elected treasurer. He and Commodore Yanderbilt worked together in their speculations for years. In 1857 Drew resigned as treasurer of Erie, but continued a power in its affairs. In 1S63 he became acquainted with Tames Fisk, Jr., who had just come to New York from Boston, to try his luck in Wall Street. Drew was anxious to dispose of his Stonington line of steamers, and Fisk undertook their sale. He nego- tiated a sale that was so favorable to Drew that the latter became Fisk's backer in establishing the house of Fisk & Belden, brokers, and in 1867, having in the meantime also become impressed with the capacity of Jay Gould, who was also doing business as a broker in Wall Street. Drew made both Fisk and Gould members of the Board of Directors of the Erie, at the annual election. The result of this was un- fortunate for Daniel Drew, for it was the beginning of his decline and downfall as a Wall Street dictator, and the con- 4SS BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES icnt loss of the great f< »rtune he had accumulated. (" Ad- ministration of John S. Eldrid . pages 147-160; " Admin- ] !-. I iould," pages 161-167 ; "Administration o£ : 11. Watson/' pages 209-213.) 1 (aniel 1 »re\v retired from Wall Street in March, T875, af ter heavy losses. It was believed, however, that he was still many times a millionaire, hut March nth, following, he filed an application in involuntary bankruptcy. His liabilities were swum at £1,093, 524.82, to meet which he had assets of only ,.,459.46, so that the once king of Wall Street, and flayer of Vanderbilt in many bouts, was nearly §350,000 worse off thin nothing. He died a pensioner on his family, although he had never given up the thought that he would yet repair his lost fortune and reestablish his name among financiers. Daniel Drew joined the Methodist Church early in life, and was conspicuous for his outward expressions of piety. He erected a S2o,ooo church in his native village, and gave $50,- 000 to the New York church of which he was a member. He endowed what was intended to be a great theological seminary at Morristown, N. J., and a Wesleyan University at Middle- town, Conn., and took great pride in them; but the expecta- tions from Mr. Drew were in notes, in one case for $250,000, and in the other for $100,000. These became of no value after his failure. Daniel Drew made millions out of his specu- lations in Erie stock, while a director and nominally controller of its management, and many of the subsequent ills of Erie were sequences of his operations and plans. Daniel Drew was buried in the family burying ground at Carmel, Tuesday, September 23, 1S79. 1S67-1S72. James Fisk, Jr. — At the age of five years, James Fisk, Jr., who was born among the hills of Vermont, near Brattleboro, was placed by his father to be reared by a neighboring farmer. The farmer was kind and sent him to the district school. One day the teacher whipped him for some boyish prank. The farmer thereupon would not let him return to tool, he was so indignant, and so at the age of ten the boy could scarcely read or write. There is much of vagueness about the records of Fisk's early life. It is said that he pissed some years of it as an attach^ of Van Amburgh's circus, rising from "super" to ticket seller. It is certain, however, that as a young man he was a travelling salesman, or 1 in Idler, making the rounds of New England and Eastern New York towns with his wagon, and doing a prosperous business. The Fishkill Journal, of December 12, 1869, contains this item: "The old registry books of the Union Hotel, in this village, contain the names of the Erie Railroad in ignite. James Fisk, Jr., and his father, who, while engaged in peddling silks and other fine drygoods, stopped here no longer ago than in 1858. Mr. H. F. Walcott, who kept the hotel, remembers well the advent of Fisk into the place with a caravan of several fine wagons, drawn by about twenty horses. Some eight or ten salesmen were included in this splendid itinerant mercantile establishment. They staid here several days, making the hotel their headquarters, in the meantime sending out among the surrounding villages their wagons and salesmen, like raiding or foraging parties from an encampment. Everything was done in the most business-like manner, the salesmen making their returns regularly at the counting-room, which was held in the hotel." It is among the traditions of New England to-day that of all the peddlers who ever perambulated (hat land of notions, this particular youth was the most brilliant, the wittiest and most humorous, the most unscrupulous, and the most success- ful, and that it was his fashion to astound the unsophisticated folk of that division of the country by the splendor of his four- in-hand, the lustre of his bright red van, and the beauty of the lady who accompanied him, seated high in air, upon the box of his magnificent vehicle. His father had founded the business in which he thus won his first laurels. An old resi- dent of Connecticut, recalling some of the earlier days of Fisk's career as a peddler, says that one day a customer took him to ado, saying that Fisk had misrepresented the price of certain goods, whereby the customer had paid a shilling more than was right. " What ! " said Fisk. " Do you think I would tell a lie for a shilling? Ridiculous ! I might tell eight lies for a dollar, but one lie for a shilling ! Pooh ! That would be petty larceny ! " About the time of the breaking out of the Civil War Fisk became connected with the large drygoods house of Jordan, Marsh & Co., of Boston, as a junior partner. Having broader aspirations, he disposed of his interest in that establishment and went to New York, where he entered Wall Street. The tradition is that he was quickly relieved of the $50,000 or $60,000 with which he began his career as a financial specu- lator, and was in straits, when, in 1863, he fell in with Daniel Drew. Drew had an unprofitable line of steamboats on his hands — the Stonington line — and wanted to get rid of it without too much of a sacrifice. Fisk found a purchaser, and negotiated the sale so skillfully that Drew was more than pleased. He became Fisk's backer, established him as the senior partner of the Wall Street firm of Fisk & Belden, and in 1S67 brought him, with Gould, into the Erie directory, and the career of Fisk as the most spectacular and audacious figure in the public life of the time began. (Administrations of John S. Eldridge and Jay Gould.) When Fisk had found himself "broke" by Wall Street, he had declared, " Wall Street ruined me ; Wall Street shall pay for it ! " As head of the house of Fisk & Belden he at once set to work to keep his vow, and the result proved that he did so with a vengeance, as witness the gold corner of 1869, and many other comers from which he managed to escape, if not entirely unscathed, yet leaving the Street clamorous with the cries of plucked and ruined victims. When the Erie management lied to Jersey City in March, 1868, Fisk was asked how he thought the matter would end. "Can't tell just yet," he replied, "but it'll either be inside of marble halls in New York or stone walls in Sing Sing." THE STORY OF ERIE 489 Knowing the value of notoriety to one whose public character was always tinged by a certain degree of charlatan- ism, Fisk did much to keep himself in the public eye. His stout figure, his attractive, if not handsome, face, his elaborate costume, his enormous diamonds, his carefully waxed moustaches, his high-stepping horses, his coachmen in glittering livery, his showy drags and dog-carts, were familiar sights in New York thirty years ago. He lavished Erie's money on the fitting up and decoration of the Grand Opera House in New York, and made it a meritorious place of amusement. Its inner history can never be written, but many were the strange and bizarre scenes enacted within the privacy of its splendid apartments. No drama ever repre- sented on its boards approached the unspeakable realities of its off-the-stage life. It was his lavish display and expendi- ture in this and other ways that gave Fisk the title of Prince of Erie. Besides managing the Opera House, Fisk was also the manager, at the time he was one of Erie's dictators, of the old Fifth Avenue Theatre, and concerned in other places of amusement. Speculation in gold was then one of the diversions of Wall Street. Gould and Fisk, aided by Erie funds, and abetted by high officers of the Government, so planned that in September, rS69, gold — specie payments not yet having been resumed after the war — was locked up to such an extent bv their manoeuvres that the price of it ran to 160 on September 24th. When that great premium was reached, men were crazed and men were ruined. That day has passed into history as Black Friday. While many were ruined, none made money from the bold and gigantic scheme. The Government ordered the release of the gold in its treasury, the holding of which was part of the understanding between the man- ipulators and the agents of the Government who were indi- rectly abetting the scheme. But the awful result of further holding the gold appalled them, and an order came from Washington to open the treasury vaults. Thus the corner in gold was broken, and the tide turned against Fisk and his associates. All Wall Street rushed upon them, but they escaped, and not one dollar of their loans was ever paid by them. This was accomplished by Fisk's partner, Broker Belden — through whom the plans had been engineered — denying, in all suits that were brought to compel an account- ing, that there had been any such transaction authorized by Fisk or Gould. It was in his testimony before the Congres- sional Committee appointed to investigate the gold corner that Fisk made his famous reply to a question, a reply that became the catch phrase of the day, and is still a pat ex- pression on occasion. Fisk was asked what had become of all the money that was involved in that gigantic transaction. " It has gone," said Fisk, " where the woodbine twineth." There never was another just such character as James Fisk, Jr. He had no moral sense, so far as he cared for the public estimation of him. Privately, few men did more to help the cause of works that had for their purpose the advancement of morality. He posed as the personification of social uncon- ventionality. He maintained a shameless wanton in luxuii- ousness, and boasted of it. lie habitually exhibited himself publicly in showy and vulgar garb, driven aboul in goi equipages. He shocked the country by the enormity and number of his transgressions against propriety. He hi gay women in splendid apartments, furnished and decorated to their desire, lie was known as the one great prin all that went to make of life an incessant round of ribald pleasure, and yet he himself lived in two small second-story . in a modest and ordinarily-furnished house, wherein he maintained his aged father and mother, casting aside en- tirely the mockery and hypocrisy of his public life to become the loving, doting, considerate son. To Daniel Drew he owed the circumstance of his beginning the career that made him powerful and famous. Later, when one word of his would have saved Daniel Drew from misery, shame, and loss, he refused to say the word, although Drew begged on his knees for it. A man to whom he had refused to give a place in the Company's employ -the man being an entire stranger to him — threatened his life, and annoyed him at every opportunity. The man died. Fisk sent his widow ;l check for >2oo, and free transportation for herself and three children to Chicago, where her parents lived. Every scheme that was planned for getting money out of Erie in the years he was in the management had Fisk in it as an ai tive fai toi to its success, and he had the handling of millions of the money. Not a dollar of it clung to his estate, and he left his widow poor so far as his connection with Erie went. When the unspeakable catastrophe of fire swept Chicago in 1871, and left hundreds homeless, penniless, and suffering for the common necessaries of life, James Fisk, Jr., was the first to hasten to their aid by dispatching a special train, laden with needed supplies, to speed which on its way all regular traffic on the Erie was held aside until this great messenger of mercy might pass on its flight toward its destination. He was entirely a man of contraries. He knew no fear, he stopped at no obstacle; he defied law, he scouted public opinion. The more he was adversely criticised the bettei he was pleased. He lived on notoriety. The gorgeous trap- pings of a colonel of militia swelled him as with the pride of a conquering hero, and radiant in his uniform as '•admiral" of a line of local steamboats, he seemed to feel that Farragut in the smoke of battle was an insignificant figure compared with him. His intrigues he delighted in having made public in minutest detail. The fact that half a score or more of needy families, and hosts of unfortunate men and women, were pensioners on his unstinted bounty, he would hai his hind off rather than to have made known. He was the idol of the Company's employees, particularly along the line of the railroad, yet he did not hesitate, one time during a strike of brakemen, to dispatch to the scene a gang of New York toughs, led by "Tommy" Lynch, with ordi shoot down any striker who offered any resistance to the gang — an order that filled the men with utmost indignation. On the heeJs of it came Fisk himself, and his very appeal ance was greeted with shouts and heart] and expres- 49Q BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES sions of delight from the very men he had ordered shot — such was the magnetism, the personal power, of this inex- plicable man. He so dominated Erie affairs in the public mind that his name invariably was mentioned first in the i .I dilation. It was always " Fisk and Gould," never "Gould and Fisk." Yet Fisk was not the planner. He was but the executor of the plans, anil the work laid out for him to do he did without fear, favor, or affection. Fisk was murdered, premeditatedly and deliberately, and in a cowardly manner. When Frank Lawler, of California, divorced his wife Josephine for cause, she took up her resi- dence at New York, where she became known as Josie Mansfield. Having failed as an actress, she, at her own solicitation, was introduced to Fisk. He became her " pro- tector." He fitted up for her in most luxurious style one of his houses in West Twenty-third Street, and installed her there. He gave her points and information on which she made money in Wall Street. She became deep in the secrets of Erie, and her house was the place where the de- tails of more than one Erie scheme were planned. Then the Mansfield met Edward S. Stokes, a young, handsome, socially-superior man, and married. The woman broke with Fisk. This was not the direct cause of the tragedy that followed, but it was an impelling cause toward it. Stokes's mother owned an extensive oil refinery on Long Island. It was managed and controlled by the son. At the suggestion of Fisk, a stock company was formed, and he and friends of his became financially interested in it. Stokes was made secretary of the company. One day he withdrew $250,000 from the treasury, and announced that he intended to retain it, because " the treasurer had done the same." Stokes was arrested at the suit of the company, and lodged in jail on a charge of embezzlement. He was discharged at the hearing next day by Justice Dowling, who decided that the oil company was not legally organized, and was simply a common partnership, from which any member of it had a right to draw funds. Stokes sued Fisk to recover damages on a charge of malicious prosecution, but the matter was compromised by Fisk buying out the Stokes interest in the refinery. In all the proceedings in court the Mansfield woman was a witness against Fisk, her testimony tending to show that Fisk had planned the ruin of Stokes. The trouble over the refinery transaction was revived again by Stokes renewing his suit against Fisk for malicious prosecution, claiming that it had not been satisfactorily settled. This, and all other matters in dispute between Fisk and Stokes, were referred to Clarence A. Seward. He decided that Stokes had no claim on Fisk except in the matter of the imprisonment of Stokes in the embezzlement proceedings, and for that Referee Seward awarded Stokes $10,000. He took the money, and signed a release. He subsequently brought suit to reopen the matter and to have the release set aside, on the ground of fraud on the part of Fisk. In this suit strenuous efforts were made by Stokes to have letters and telegrams from Fisk to Josie Mansfield introduced as evidence. These letters were of a nature that would have compromised many people and revealed important Erie secrets, besides making public many of Fisk's personal affairs that he did not care to have paraded. The letters were not admitted, and the suit was decided against Stokes. While these proceedings were pending, Fisk had Stokes arrested on a charge of blackmail. The decision adverse to Stokes in his case against Fisk was rendered on Saturday, January 6, 1872. After the proceed- ings in the case terminated, a number of the lawyers con- cerned in it went to Delmonico's, then on the northwest corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. Stokes also went there to lunch, and joined them. While they were eating, Judge Barnard came in. During a conversation that ensued, involv- ing matters concerned in the Fisk-Stokes litigation, Judge Barnard remarked that the Grand Jury had found an indict- ment against Stokes on Fisk's charge of blackmail. Without a word Stokes rose hurriedly and left the restaurant. Later in the afternoon he was seen at the Grand Central Hotel by acquaintances, lounging about and chatting. Fisk had an engagement at that hotel that afternoon, and he drove up about a quarter past four o'clock. He went in at the ladies' entrance, and was on his way upstairs, when he was con- fronted by Stokes, who was at the head of the stairs. Stokes drew a revolver and fired twice at Fisk. The first shot missed. The second bullet entered Fisk's abdomen. Fisk retreated down-stairs, but turned again, when Stokes fired a third time, this bullet striking Fisk in the arm. Fisk fell. The reports of the pistol had collected a crowd, which rushed on the scene from different parts of the hotel, and Fisk was carried upstairs and placed in a private reception-room, No. 251. Dr. Fisher, the house physician, was called, and messengers were dispatched for a number of eminent doctors. Stokes, meantime, had gone through to the main stairs of the hotel and down to the office. His revolver was found under a sofa in the parlor. At the office he announced that he had shot a man who had insulted him, and advised that a doctor be sent for. He made no move to get away. The police were notified, and Captain Byrnes — afterward the famous Superintendent Byrnes — accompanied by Officer Mc- Cadden, took Stokes into custody. He w-as taken up-stairs, where Fisk identified him as the man who shot him. Coroner Young was notified, and he impanelled a jury to take Fisk's ante-mortem statement, which Fisk signed with a firm hand. When asked by the Coroner the formal question : " Do you believe you are about to die?" he replied : " I believe I am in a critical condition." In reply to the question, " Have you any hope of recovery?" he replied: "I hope so." It was curiously characteristic of the man that his sanguine disposition to never believe himself beaten, whether by human law or the law of nature, should have led him, by making those reservations as to the expectation of his immediate death, totally to invalidate his ante-mortem statement as evidence against his assassin. THE STORY OF ERIE 49; Mrs. Fisk arrived from Boston at 7.30 Sunday morning, January 7 th. Her husband was then unconscious, and died at a quarter of n, without having recognized his wife, whose grief was overwhelming. The murdered Prince of Erie died without a groan or a murmur. Fisk's body was taken from the Grand Central Hotel on Monday, January 8th, to his residence, 313 West Twenty- third Street, and from there to the Grand Opera House, where it lay in state, from 1 1 o'clock. Hours before the opening of the Opera House, thousands of people had congregated in Twenty-third Street, and up and down Eighth Avenue for blocks, putting a stop to all traffic in that part of the city. The body was in a casket covered with black velvet, and was dressed in the full uniform of colonel of the Ninth Regiment, which Fisk had long commanded. The remains were reviewed by ten thou- sand people between n o'clock a.m. and 1.45 p.m., at which time the coffin was closed and carried out. The pallbearers were : Col. Emmons Clark of the Sev- enth Regiment; Col. Scott of the Eighth Regiment; Col. Allen of the Fifty-fifth Regiment ; Col. Storey of the Sixth Regiment ; Col. Porter of the Twenty-second Regiment ; and Lieut.-Col. Webster of the First Regi- ment. The Xinth Regiment and a band of 200 pieces escorted the remains to the Grand Central Depot, whence a special train was to convey the remains to Brattleboro. The magnificent black horse Fisk was wont to ride at the head of the regiment was led rider- less behind the hearse. The streets all along the route were crowded with people gathered to witness this last appearance of the Prince of Erie in a New York thoroughfare. The engine of the special train was draped in black and white cloth. The officers and Directors of the Erie and of the Narragansett Steamship Company, and many friends of the deceased, accompanied the remains to Brattleboro, where they were buried in the ■cemetery. The citizens of Brattleboro erected a striking monu- ment over the grave of Fisk. It is of Italian marble, and was carved at Florence, Italy, at a cost of §25,000. About the base of the shaft are four figures of women. One, with a steam engine carved on the chaplet around her brow, represents the Erie Railway ; another is Com- merce, a symbol for the Fall River line of steamboats; a third is the Muse of Music, emblematic of the Grand Opera House, and the fourth is typical of Commerce in its broadest sense. The sculptor of the monument was Larkin Mead, whose statue of " Ethan Allen " is at Montpelier. Relic hunters have sub- jected the Fisk monument to much mutilation. A few years before Colonel Fisk's death an effort was made by residents of Brattleboro to build a fence around the ceme- tery in which his monument now stands, and a committee was sent to New York to solicit funds from former Brattleboro boys. Among those called upon was Colonel Fisk, and to .the committee's solicitation he replied : " Yes, I will give something ; but I do not see any need of a fence around the cemetery. The fellows who are in cannot get out, and those who are out do not want to get in." The members of the coroner's jury that held the inquest on the death of Fisk were ex-Mayor George Opdyke, M. 1). Field, A. V. Stout, Henry ( Hews, Alexander McKenzie, Will- iam M. Bliss, James R. Edwards, Lowell Lincoln, John J. Gorman, William H. L » k, 1 >avid Dows, Jesse Hoyt. January 9th they returned a verdict charging Stokes with deliberate JAMES FISK, JR. murder. Stokes was represented at the inquest by the famous criminal lawyers, John Graham and John McKeon, and by Willard Bartlett. Ex-Judges William A. Beach and William Fullerton appeared for the people. The family of Stokes was influential and wealthy, and nothing was left undone to save him. He was tried for the murder of Fisk in July, 1S72, and the jury disagreed, July 15th. He was retried, and January, 1873, was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced, January 6th, by Tudge Boardman, to be hanged February 28th. A new trial was obtained, and it resulted in a verdict of manslaughter in the third degree, October 29, 1873. Stokes was sentenced to four years in Sing Sing prison, and served his time. In- 492 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES fluence and money had won. White-haired, bul still youthful- looking, Stokes lias prospered in later years, and "walks the streets of New York, wealthy, but a social nondescript." The woman he made a widow is passing her declining years in a humble home in Xew England, virtually penniless. Josie Mansfield has been but little in evidence since the wretched fate of Fisk, and has made her home abroad, chiefly in Paris. Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow, who was the dominant figure in the Watson administration, and in the measures that led to the entanglement of the Company with the Atlantic and Great Western difficulties in 1872, was born at Granville, Mass., June 5, 1826, the son of Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, physician. Young Barlow began the study of the law at the age of sixteen, and at twenty-three was so proficient that he was placed in charge of the settlement of claims resulting from the Mexican War, in one of which cases he received a fee, or commission, of $25,000 for half an hour's work. In 1852 he became a member of a law- firm that gained celebrity under the name of Bowdoin, I.arocque and Barlow, and, on the death of his two partners, formed the partnership that became still more famous as that of Shipman, Barlow, Larocque (Joseph) and Mac Far- land, which conducted some of the most important and costly of the Erie litigation from 1872 to 1884. Mr. Barlow controlled the policy of the New York II 'orlii from 1864 to 1869. His fine residence at Glen Cove, L. I., was a gift to him from James McHenry, the Atlantic and Great Western magnate. Mr. Barlow died at Glen Cove July 10, 18S9. He was one of the founders of the Manhattan Club, and a member of the Union Club, New York. (" Administration of Jay Gould," pages 190-199; "Administration of John A. Dix," pages 201-214; "Administration of Peter H. Watson," pages 212,220, 223, 225, 226; "Administration of Hugh J. Jewett," pages 237, 240, 242, 248.) ERIE GRADUATES OF NOTE. Hugh Riddle. — As a rodman with the Erie engineer corps of 1846 was the youth, Hugh Riddle. He remained in the corps in various capacities until the railroad was com- pleted to Dunkirk in 185 1. In that year he left the Erie service for a time to aid in the construction of the Buffalo and State Line Railroad, and later of the Canandaigua and HUGH RIDDLE. Niagara Falls Railroad. In 1S53 he returned to the service of Erie, and had advanced so in the science of railroading that he was placed in charge of track over the line, with head- quarters at Binghamton. Two years later he was appointed superintendent of the Delaware Division, being the second person to fill the place, his predecessor being William H. Power. In 1 85 7, the railroad having been separated into two divisions, Mr. Riddle's authority was extended to the Eastern Division also, Homer Ramsdell, president of the Company, acting as general superintendent. In 1859, the old four-division system was reestablished, and Mr. Riddle was continued as superintendent of the Delaware Division, which place he held until January, 1865, when he was ap- pointed general superintendent. In 1869 he resigned, his resignation going into effect May 1 1. The following November Mr. Riddle was offered and ac- cepted the general superintendency of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, with headquarters at Chicago. His services in that great company were such that in the fall of r 87 1 he was elected vice-president, still retaining his office of general superintendent. He continued to fill those places with such benefit to the road and the company that in Jan- uary, 1878, he was elevated to the ottit e of president. Mr. Riddle had already become a power among the great railroad managers of the country, and the position the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific occupies as a far-reaching and potent system to-day is due to the bold, firm, and wise medio ■•> Hugh Riddle as head of the corporation. The railroad his- tory of the time will bear ample testimony to this fa< t. Mr. Riddle continued as president of the company until 1 when he declined a reelection. He remained, however, as chairman of the executive committee of the board of di- rectors, and held that responsible post until his death in 1892. He was seventy years old. Such a man as Hugh Riddle needs no words of fulsome praise or flattery to emphasize what he was. Beginning in one of the humblest places in railroad life, he rose rapidly, by his own exertion and merit alone, until he filled with supe- rior ability the highest office that railroad service can offer. He died honored and full of honors. John N. Abbott. — Mr. Abbott, as boy and man, was for over a quarter of a century in the service of the Erie, lb- was born in New York City in 1845. He was educated in the public schools of that city, graduating at the age of fifteen. A year later, in 1861, lie became a clerk in the office of Gen- eral Superintendent Minot. Within one year he rose the lowest clerkship in that office to be acting chief clerk, and other railway companies had already noticed his ability and were bidding for his services. In 1865 he was trans- ferred to the passenger department as chief clerk. In 1 no.j he was appointed assistant general passengei agent. He held this place during the stormy times of the Gould and Fisk r/gime, and so sati 1 u tor) did his p it ppeal to the management of Erie which succeeded the Could control that, while most of those prominent in all branches of the Com- pany's employ were replaced by new men. Mr. Abbott was 494 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES by a unanimous vote of the new directory appointed general passenger agent, succeeding William R. Barr. Mr. Abbott soon took front rank among the passenger managers of the country, and was, by common consent, acknowledged to be a master in the handling of that branch of railroad traffic. He was, in fact, the first actual passen- ger traffic manager in the United States. He served through Gen. Dix's administration, through the exciting years of the Watson management, continuing at the head of his depart- ment under the Jewett administration, and until 1886 under JOHN N. ABBOTT. President John King, when he resigned to accept the chair- manship of the Western Passenger Association. He assumed that responsible post at the unanimous request of the lead- ing railroad magnates of the West and Southwest, and held it until the association was abolished. Mr. Abbott then became assistant to the president of the Great Northern Railway system, which office he resigned in 1891 to engage in private business enterprises. The story of the passenger traffic of the Erie, during John N. Abbott's incumbency as head of the department, may truly be said to be the story of the passenger traffic development of the country, so original and practical were his ideas, and so promptly were they applied to the advancement of the in- terests of that traffic. Mr. Abbott had for years advocated the importance of devoting more attention to the develop- ment of local traffic on the Erie than any management of the Company had ever given it, and had the satisfaction of seeing that policy adopted two years before he left the Erie. Mr. Abbott achieved an enviable reputation while general passenger agent by his loyalty to the interests of the port of New York, and distinguished himself many times in protect- ing these interests when questions had arisen tending to sub- vert them. The immigrant-carrying business from this port to the West was brought to excellent proficiency, in the way of safeguards and other protections for immigrants on arrival, chiefly through his interest in their behalf, and the Erie held for several years almost the entire control of that great traffic. In 1869 Mr. Abbott married Miss Violet Gardner, daugh- ter of the late Hugh Gardner, who was Police Commissioner of New York City. Two children, John Jay, and Gardner, both grown to manhood and engaged prosperously in busi- ness, were the fruit of this marriage. In 18S6 Mr. Abbott was president of the General Passenger and Ticket Agent's Association of the United States, and was for twelve years an inspector of public schools in New York. Benjamin Thomas. — Benjamin Thomas was born at Towanda, Bradford County, Pa., October 28, 1841. His father, whose ancestors came from Wales, was born in Coop- erstown, N. Y., in 1810, and died in 1884 at Waverly, N. Y. His mother, whose ancestors were from the north of Ireland, were born at Shoreham, Yt., in 1804, and died in 1873, at Newark, N. J. His parents removed from Towanda to New- ark, N. J., about the year 1854, his father being a hat manu- facturer. Young Thomas attended school at Towanda until he was thirteen years of age, and later attended public school at Newark. While attending night school at Newark he entered the employ of the American Printing Telegraph Company. Shortly after he had become a telegraph operator, the Com- pany was absorbed by the Morse Magnetic Telegraph Com- pany (now the Western Union), and the American printing instruments were abandoned. Thus he had to learn the new system, which he mastered in a short time. He then became a pupil at the Lyceum at Jersey City. He paid for his tui- tion and board by teaching. He prepared himself for higher education so well that he was able to enter Brown College at Schenectady, N. Y., as a sophomore, but he was unable to enter for the college course because the expense was more than his meagre resources would warrant. While preparing himself for college at the Lyceum, he became a good Latin scholar and mathematician, and he was a teacher of those branches successfully for a long time. So fond was he of them that his study of them has never been entirely discon- tinued, and to-day, in the fulness of his material success and prosperity, one of his principal recreations is the reading of the masterpieces of French and Latin literature. Soon after leaving the Lyceum, Mr. Thomas went to Port THE STORY OF ERIE 495 Jervis, N. Y., where he entered the sen-ice of the Erie as a telegraph operator. He was promoted in a short time to the position of division operator, having charge of all the operators on the Delaware Division and branches. Then, in rapid succession, he was appointed to the important and responsible positions of night train despatcher, day train despatcher, and train master. In August, 1S75, he was made acting superintendent, where his ability was so apparent that in December of the same year he was pro- moted to the place of division superintendent, which place he held for eight years. June 1, 1 88 1, he was promoted to be super- intendent of transportation, with headquarters at New York, and later assistant general super- intendent, from which place he was promoted to the general superintendem y. filling the last- named place four years. In August, 1887, he resigned, and soon afterward was appointed general superintendent of the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad, with headquarters at Chi- cago, and at the same time was elected a director of the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad Company, and of the Belt Railway Company of Chicago. September r5, 1888, he was elected vice-president and general manager of the Chicago and 'Western Indiana and Belt Railway companies, and in June, 1S90, was elected president of the same com- panies, which position he now occupies. Mr. Thomas is, in every sense of the word, a clear-headed and capable railroad man. His experience with the property of which he is now president shows this. When he took charge of it, it was scarcely paying operating expenses. Under his management it is now paying large annual dividends on several mil- lions of dollars. Mr. Thomas is a great reader, a hard student, and a lover of old and rare books, with which his library, at his elegant residence in Kenwood, 111., is well stocked. He is a man of many accomplishments. He is fond of social life, and is an agreeable com- panion and a courteous gentleman. vate, and, owing to his conspicuous gallantry, was promoted to the rank of captain when but twenty years of age. In 1864 Captain Van Etten retired from the army, and had charge of a large tannery in Wayne County, Pa. Shortly alter this he secured a position as < lerk in tin- pay- is office of the Delaware Division of the Erie Railway. In speaking of the manner of his taking this position, an index is afforded of the entire absence of all pretext and (JCtu* E^tZZ^ Edgar Van Etten — Edgar Van Etten was born in Milford, Pike County, Pa., April 15, 1S44. When he was quite young his father moved to Sussex County, X. J., where young Van Etten attended the public schools. At the break- ing out of the Civil War in 1S61, Edgar Van Etten, though then only seventeen years old, at once offered his services to his country. Fort Sumter was fired upon April 12th. On the 15th, his seventeenth birthday, young Van Etten enlisted in the Second New Jersey Volunteers, and went with them to the front. He served in that regiment three years, taking part in all the momentous engagements that have made it famous in the nation's history. He entered the war a pri- sham in his moral make-up. Most men say that such ami such a position was offered to them ; but in narrating the 01 currence, he states plainly that he worked hard to gi the Erie, and finally secured the position ; but the clerkship in the paymaster's office was not a position suitable for one who had led such an active life as Mr. Van Etten, and he, therefore, left this indoor work and went out as a flagman on the Erie Railway. This was in 1866, in his twenty-second year. The flagman's post was scarcely a position from which one would expect to see a man rise to so high a position in life : but Mr. Van Etten had the true metal in him, and even 496 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES as flagman his work attracted the attention of his superiors, and in a year's lime he was appointed a conductor, in which m he continued to serve, both on freight and passenger trains, until 1873. In that year, so faithful had been his e as conductor, he wis promoted to the position of tcher on the Delaware Division of the Erie, and he continued as special, and afterwards as chief, despatcher until 1877, when he was made the superintendent of the Delaware Division. Here he remained a little over two years, when he was sent as superintendent to the Buffalo Division of the Erie, a much more important division. For two years lie managed this division with signal ability and marked success. Then 1 ontinuing t<> advance steadily in his ion, he went to the Western Division of the Rome, town ani' Ogdensburg Railroad as superintendent, where he remained but a few months, as he was offered, by the railroads centring at Buffalo, the managership of their Car Service Association, just then organized. Mr. Van Etten I manager of this service two years, when he was oii rj tlie position of superintendent of the western end of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. So signally did he meet all the requirements of this position that lie was soon offered the superintendency of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdens- burg Railroad. Owing to the marked ability which he dis- played in this, Mr. Van Etten was, in February, 1893, appointed general superintendent of the wealthiest railroad on the American continent — the New Vork Central and Hudson River, an exalted position which he still holds. Frank S. Gannon. — Mr. Gannon, Third Vice-Presi- dent and General Manager of the Southern Railway Company, began in a most humble place with the Erie, entering its service thirty years ago. He be- came a telegraph operator, and in 1S71, when he left the Company's employ, he was operator at Co- checton, on the Delaware Division. After leaving the Erie, Mr. Gannon went with the New Jersey Midland Railroad Company, now the New Vork, Susquehanna and Western, where he remained five, years as clerk in the president's office, terminal agent,- superintendent's clerk, and train despatcher, succes-- sively. He then entered the service of the Long Island Railroad Company as train despatcher, and was promoted to the position of master of trans- portation. He left that company in January, iSS'i, to become supervisor of trains on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He remained with that company until April, 1 88 1, when he was appointed general superintendent of the New Vork City and Northern Railroad. In 1086 the Baltimore and Ohio acquired control of the Staten Island Rapid Transit Company, and Mr. Gannon's successful management of the Northern road having established his reputation for skill and wise judgment in railroad matters, he was offered the place of general superintendent of the Rapid Transit Company, and he accepted it. This busy system obtained more than local fame, for it was the link by which the Baltimore and Ohio sys- tem was "to be brought into close touch with New York City. In the discussion of the interests of the company in and around New Vork, Mr. Gannon came into contact with leading railroad minds of the country, and his ideas and opinions on railroad management impressed them with his ability and originality. Lie was general superintendent of the Rapid Transit Company (in the meantime having been elected president of the Staten Island Railway Company also) from August, 1886, until November, 1894, when he was made general manager. He was also appointed general superintendent of the New York Division of the Bal- timore and Ohio in 188S. He was now recognized in the railroad world as one of the ablest of managers, which fact was demonstrated January 1, 1897, when he was appointed third vice-president and general manager of the great South- ern Railway system. In their younger days Mr. Gannon and Mr. Samuel Spen- THE STORY OF ERIE 49; cer were together on the Long Is'and Road, and they are to-day cooperating in building up and harmonizing the South- ern Road and the various industries along its lines. Frank S. Gannon was born at Spring Valley, Rockland County, N..Y., September 16, 1851. His education was ob- tained in the country schools and in the school of experi- ence. He was married at Jersey City, September 24, 1874, to Miss Marietta Burrows, of that city. His family con- sists of seven sons and one daughter : J. Walter, Frank S., Jr., Anna B., James B., Greg. F., Edward E., T. Albert, and Robert. William J. Murphy. — Mr. Murphy began with the Erie as telegraph messenger at Susquehanna, Pa., in April, 1S62, when he was fourteen, and he was in the continuous service of the Erie until March, 1890, twenty- eight years. During that time he rose to the highest office in the operating department, that of general superin- tendent. In 1864, young Murphy was appointed tele- graph operator and ticket clerk at Deposit, N. Y. Dur- ing 1865 he was consecutively train flagman, station agent, and yardmaster at Deposit. In 1866 he was placed in the train despatcher's office at Port Jervis as operator, and continued as such until 1870, when he was promoted to be train despatcher of the Delaware Division, and in 1S72 to be chief train despatcher and division operator of that division. He performed the duties of those responsible places ten years, when he was appointed superintendent of the Delaware Division, August 22, 1882. In November, 1884, Superintendent Murphy was transferred to the still more responsible post of super- intendent of the Buffalo and Rochester divisions, with headquarters at Buffalo. Three years later, August 22, 1887, he was made general superintendent of the Erie system. Mr. Murphy was at the head of the Erie oper- ative department until March 26, 1890, when he resigned, broken in health. He travelled a year abroad and at home for the benefit of his health, which being restored, he accepted, March, 1891, the superintendence- of the Brunswick Division of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, with headquarters at Macon, Ga., where he remained two years, when he resigned to take the office of superintendent of the Cincinnati Division of the New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (the Queen and Crescent Route), with headquarters at Lexington, K\ .. which office he continues to hold. In May, 1898, during the war with Spain, as recogni- tion of Superintendent Murphy's efforts by which the large movement of troops over his line was handled with surprising facility and smoothness, Governor Bradley, of Kentucky, ap- pointed him to the military service of the State, with the rank of colonel, and directed him to superintend the trans- portation of Kentucky troops. William J. Murphy was bom at Greenfield, Mass., August 23, 1848. His early preceptors in the science of railroad- ing were Charles Minot and Hugh Riddle. That he learned well, his career amply proves. Mr. Murphy was married, Feb- ruary 23, 1870, to Miss Maria T. A. Yogel, of Zanesville, Ohio. James H. Rutter began life as a clerk in the freight office at Elmira. In 1866 he had risen tc be assistant general freight agent of the Company, and his ability be- came so conspicuous in transportation circles that he was personally solicited by Cornelius Vanderbilt to enter the service of the New York Central as general freight which he did. In 1877 he was made general traffic manager of that system. In 1880, his services in the Vanderbilt interest had proved so valuable, the office of third vice- president was created for him. He held that office until 1883, when William H. Vanderbilt resigned as president of the Company in favor of Mr. Rutter. He remained at the head of the great Central system until 1S85, when his health 49« BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES broke down. lie died June 27th of that year, his death being Eollowed next day by that of his wife. They were buried in the same grave. Jun\ Baird Morford. — John B. Morford began as " water-boy " and newsboy on the Erie at the age of twelve. This generation of railroad travellers does not know what water-boys were. In the early days of railroading there were no ice-water tinks in the cars, but the Erie was so solicitous for the welfare and comfort of its passengers that it provided boys to go through the cars at intervals, carrying a pail of fresh water and a cup, so that thirsty travellers might quench their thirst. In 1852 one of those boys was John B. Morford, who was born at Warwick, X. Y., July 16, 1836. From water-boy he was promoted to be despatch messenger between New York and Dunkirk, and in 1853 he became brakeman on a freight train on the Eastern Division, subsequently being transferred to a passenger train. He "broke "on passenger and freight trains on Eastern trains until November, 1857, when he was promoted to the conductorship of a freight train, and subsequently to a passenger train, in which capacity he served the Erie until September, 1866, when he went to the Morris and Essex Railroad (now Delaware, Lackawanna and Western) as chief train despatcher at Hoboken, and superintendent of Boonton Branch. He remained in that place until 1870, in December of which year he became general agent of the Hudson River Railroad, at Thirtieth Street, New York, and subsequently station master at the Grand Central Depot. In January, 1872, he becams general su- perintendent of the Long Island Railroad, where he remained three years, when, in February, 1875, he took charge as su- perintendent of the Sandy Hook Steamboat Company, filling successively that place and the posts of superintendent of ferries and lighterage of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, until January, 1882. From the latter date until April, 1883, he wis superintendent of construction of the Sabine and East Texas Railroad. He was then appointed by the Michigan Central Railroad Company assistant superintendent of its Eastern and Toledo divisions. In December of that year he was transferred to the more important position of superin- tendent of the "Canada Division," with headquarters at St. Thomas, which place Mr. Morford continues to hold. Super- intendent Morford always refers proudly to the time when he was a water-boy and newsboy on the Erie. GiOVANi P. Morosini. — d'here is nothing in fiction more dramatic and romantic than the incidents that led to Giovani 1'. Morosmi's ciming into the service of the Erie. In 1855 he was a sailor, and had been a sailor five years. He was the son of I'aul P. Morosini, a scion of pure old Venetian stock. He was born at Yenice June 24, 1834, and was educated as a soldier as well as a civilian. During the war between Italy and Austria misfortune overtook the family, and upon the capitulation of Venice in 1849, young Morosini resolved to seek his fortune in other lands. In 1850 he foun 1 himself at Smyrna. An American vessel was prepar- ing for her homeward voyage. Filled with the spirit of adventure, Morosini shipped as a sailor upon her. A sea- faring life seemed to fill his longing for a time, but at last he wearied of it, and in 1S55, being then at a sailors' boarding- house in New York, he resolved to quit his roving life if he could find something better to turn his hands to. It happened that one day he visited Staten Island with nothing in view except diversion. While walking along a road he came upon a number of half-grown boys who had set upon and were beating a boy much smaller than they. This at once aroused his ire, and he instantly hurried to the aid of the boy thus overmatched. His attack amazed the young ruffians at first, but they rallied ami turned upon him. He drew his sailor's knife, and brandishing it, rushed to meet them, but at the sight of the knife and the determination of the one who wielded it, the gang fled. The boy informed his rescuer that he lived not far from the spot, and Morosini helped him home, where he met the boy's father, who on being told what had occurred, was warm in his expression of thanks to the champion of his son, and offered him a sum of money. This Morosini declined to accept. " Is there anything, then, that I can do for you? " asked the grateful father. " I am a sailor," replied Morosini, " but am tired of the sea. If I could obtain employment ashore I should be pleased to accept it." The father of the boy whom Morosini had befriended was Nathaniel Marsh, then secretary of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. He interested himself in the sailor, and obtained for him a place as office-boy for the president of the Company, Homer Ramsdell. That discerning man soon discovered that his office-boy was a lad much above the average in intelligence and ability, and Morosini was pro- moted to a clerkship in the auditor's office. Promotion followed promotion there, until the whilom sailor was chief clerk of the audit department. Jay Gould came into the direction of Erie affairs in 1S68, and that master of human nature quickly became aware of the unusual value of .Morosini, and in 1869 the chief clerk of the audit office was advanced to the head of that most im- portant department, and became Jay Gould's confidential secretary in 1872. In 1879 Mr. Gould took Morosini into partnership with him, a partnership that continued until 1885, when Morosini, Mr. Gould having retired from active individual participation in Wall Street affairs, continued business for himself, and made a great fortune, which he fully and rationally enjoys. Augustus Sherili. Whiton. — Augustus Sherill Whiton died in New York City Monday, February 7, 1898, in his seventy-eighth year. Mr. Whiton, when but eighteen years of age, was a member of the engineer corps that finally located the route for the New York and Erie Railroad be- tween Piermont and Goshen, in 1838. Young Whiton was promoted to be assistant engineer to H. C. Seymour in 1S39. In 1840 he was appointed superin- THE STORY OF ERIE 499 tendentof superstructure and bridges of the Eastern Divis- Virginia. He retired from active railroad service in iS 5 S, ion, and had charge of that work in the building of the road and established at New York a depot for railroad supplies! between Piermont and Goshen. In 185 1 he was appointed He conducted the business for nearly forty years, and ac- engineerand superintendent of the Xewburgh Branch and cumulated a large fortune from it. AUGUSTUS SHERII.L WHITON. superintendent of the Eastern Division. He resigned in 1852 to go to Kentucky to take charge of the construction as chief engineer of the Maysville and Lexington Railroad. In 1854 he again became Erie's superintendent of the East- ern Division and branches. 1857 he resigned to become chief engineer and manager of a railroad and coal mines in In 1S43 Mr. Whiton was married to Caroline, daughter of Thomas Ward, the Ramapo ironmaster and landed pro prietor. He was born at Binghamton, X. V., on Christmas, 1820. He was a graduate of the old Ithaca Academy. He was an elder in the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Chun h 1 if Xew York. GAZETTEER OF CITIES AND VILLAGES ON THE LINE OF THE ORIGINAL ERIE AND ITS BRANCHES NEW YORK (EASTERN) DIVISION. JERSEY CITY, Hudson Co., N. J. From New York, i mile; Buffalo, 424 miles; Dunkirk, 459. Eastern ter- minus of the Erie since 185 1. Second city of New Jersey and capital of Hudson County. Population, 200,000. On the west bank of the Hudson River, one mile from New York, connecting with five lines of ferry-boats. Also the ter- minus of twelve other lines of railroad. Site originally called Paulus Hook. Chartered, 1820, as "the City of Jersey"; name changed to present one, 183S. Population when it be- came Erie terminus, 7,000. RUTHERFORD, Bergen Co., N. J. From New York, 10 miles. From an early day known as Boiling Spring neigh- borhood. Farm and farm-gardening community. Laid out in town plots in 1S66. Settled rapidly. Named Ruther- ford Park. Changed to Rutherford, 1875. Incorporated a borough, 1S81. Population, 189S, 3,900. Residential. 7 churches : 1 high school, 3 district schools ; 2 banks ; 2 newspapers : 2 hotels. (CARLTON HILL, important as the site of great bleach- ing works ; station for East Rutherford.) PASSAIC, Passaic Co., N.J. From New York, 12 miles; Buffalo, 413 ; I Dunkirk, 44S. First settlement in 1678, when site near Passaic city was bought by Hartman Michielson from the Indians. He got a perfect title to it in 1685 for " one fat henne." In 1678 Christopher Hoogland bought ■; m res of the present site of Passaic and sold it to Michiel- son. The tract was called Acquackanonk. A settlement of industrious Dutch soon grew up. Acquackanonk was the if navigation on the Passaic River. It was called " the Landing," and was the shipping and receiving point for sup- plies for the country as far away as Orange County, N. Y. For a century Acquackanonk had this commercial supremacy. Then the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad was built, and ed the importance of river navigation. Dundee Water Power Company incorporated, 1S32. In 1861 built the dam which conserved the great water-power of the Passaic and insured the future of Passaic. The Dundee Railroad was built, which is now part of the valuable local possessions of the Erie. Incorporated as a village, 1871 ; city, 1873. Re- formed Dutch Church, 1686. Part of present church build- ing built, 1 761. 12 churches; high school; 6 ward schools; 2 banks ; 4 newspapers ; 2 hotels. Passaic a place of marvel- lous growth. Population, rSgS, r 2,000. Manufacturing in- terests large. One of the wealthiest places on line of Erie. Four Erie stations in Passaic. Beautiful and costly residences. (CLIFTON and LAKE VIEW. Residential localities between Passaic and Paterson ; Lake View part of Paterson.) PATERSON, Passaic Co., N.J. From New York, 17 miles; Buffalo, 40S ; Dunkirk, 443. Site, owing to water- power of the Passaic River, chosen in 1791 by Alexander Hamilton and others for the uses of the " Society for Estab- lishing Useful Manufactures," which was chartered in that year. Place named for the then Governor of New Jersey. Township government until 185 1; then incorporated as city; population, 11,000. Ex-Governor Philemon Dicker- son first President City Council. Limits enlarged 1854, and present city incorporated under new charter, 187 1. Popu- lation, 1S98, (estimated) 90,000. Third city in New Jersey. Centre of silk manufacturing in United States. 72 churches; 4 synagogues ; 6 missions; high school; 19 ward schools; 1 normal training and model school ; 1 manual training school; 6 banks (3 national, 1 savings, 2 safe deposit and trust companies) ; 15 newspapers (5 daily, 7 weekly, 3 monthly) ; 109 incorporated companies (39 silk, silk fabric, and allied branches of silk manufacture) ; 2 hospitals ; 2 orphan asylums. Electric lighting and gas ; electric street railways, and connecting with Hoboken and intermediate points. Fine parks. Public buildings and residences archi- tecturally elegant. Paterson and Hudson River Railroad, one of the first in the country, opened in 1833 ; now part of Erie main line. Manufacturing began in 1792 with cotton print works, one of the first in the country. During the war of 181 2 Paterson was one of the largest producers of cotton goods. This industry was followed by other special enter- prises, notably the manufacture of silk and locomotives. The silk factories and locomotive works of Paterson alone have made its fame world-wide. The manufacture of silk was started about three-quarters of a century ago by John Ryle, a weaver from Macclesfield, England. He struggled long with misfortune, but the interest he awakened in this branch of trade brought capital into it, until to-day not less than $8, 000,000 are invested in the silk business of the city, giving employment to thousands of hands, ami turning out every variety of silk fabric, from a thread to the costliest dress- THE STORY OF ERIE 501 goods. The rolling-mills, iron-bridge works, and hundreds of other factories give employment to other thousands. Pre- eminence in the silk industry has given Paterson the name of " Lyons of America." Erie, Susquehanna and Western, and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroads. County seat of Passaic Count v. (HAWTHORNE, suburb of Paterson, across the Passaic River. Pastoral and historic.) RIDGEWOOD, Bergen Co., N.J. From New York, 22 miles. Settled, 1853. Formerly Godwinville. Incor- porated. Population, 2,500. In historic Paramus Valley. Hume of prominent professional and business men of New York City. 3 churches ; public schools ; 1 newspaper. (UNDERCLIFF, HOHOKUS, WALDWICK, ALLEN- DALE, RAMSEY'S, and MAHWAH, Bergen Co., N. J. From Xew York respectively 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, and 30 miles. Small stations in historical and pastoral communities. Near Ridgewood, Undercliff, and Hohokus is the old stone man- sion, " The Hermitage," in which Aaron Burr wooed, won, and married Thebdosia Provost. The Dutch Church, turned by the British into a prison-house for soldiers of the Revolution- ary army, is also nearby. Waldwick is the outgrowth of ex- cessive water and other taxes on the Erie at Paterson, owing to which the Company changed the housing of the rolling stock of its frequent " shuttle " trains between Paterson and Jersey City from Paterson to the site of Waldwick, estab- lishing an extensive switch yard and engine and car houses, and bringing a lively village into existence. Allendale and Ramsey's, extensive small-fruit growing. Chun lies and public schools, hotels. Newspaper at Ramsey's.) SUFFERN, Rockland Co., N. Y. From New York, 32 miles: Dunkirk, 428 ; Buffalo, 393. Settled, 1 773. Name originally New Antrim, from Antrim, Ireland, native place of John SulTern, first settler. Name changed to Suffern on opening railroad in 1841. Population, 1,100. 3 churches; public schools; 1 newspaper; 3 hotels. Original line of Erie runs from- Piermont to Suffern, now called Piermont Branch. Here is the historic Ramapo Pass. The present road through the pass was an old Indian trail, and the settlers found it the nearest and best road between the northern colonies and the southern, when the Hudson River was blockaded — hence during the Revolutionary war it was early watched and fortified. The centre of military operations was about a mile within the gorge. Military was stationed here all through the war to guard the pass and to stop intruders. Col. Malcolm's regiment was here in 1777. and Aaron Burr was assigned to it for duty. It was from this command that Burr won his military reputation by daring exploits in the Paramus Valley and about Hackensack, N.J. Washington had his headquarters in the old Suffern house, now torn down, near Suffern village. On the hills east of Suffern the French army encamped on its way to Yorktown. (Note. — For Piermont Branch references see "The Turn- ing of Its Wheels," pages 390-391.) (HILBURN, Rockland Co., N. Y. From New York, 33 miles. Hamlet due to Ramapo Iron Works. In the Ramapo Pass. Population, 300.) RAMAPO, Rockland Co., N. Y. From New York, 34 miles. Settled, 1795. Population, 300. 2 churches : pub- lic school. Formerly nail works, rolling mill, cotton mill, steel furnace, wire works, hoe factor)-, saw and grist mills. First train on Erie ran to Ramapo June 30, 1841. History of Pierson family is the history of Ramapo. Josiah ( ).. Jeremiah H., and Isaac Pierson, brothers, established nail works and rolling mill here in 1783. In 1X07 added manu- facture of hoops for whale-oil casks. Product of industries, 1,000,000 pounds of iron annually. Established cotton mill in 1816, looms of J. H. Pierson's own invention, to make striped shirting. In 1820 began manufacture of spring steel ; 1830 manufacture of blister steel ; 1S35 manu- facture of screws by machinery, invented at Ramapo bj a Pierson workman. At that time 300 men employed by Piersons. J. H. Pierson and his son Henry L. leading spirits in the history of the Erie. In 1850 Piersons retired from business at Ramapo. Family large proprietors of the place to-day. Now only car- wheel works and foundry there. Terminus of Krie from July 1, 1S41, until September 23. 1S41 ("The Building of It," page 331). (STERLINGTON, junction of the Sterling Mountain Railroad, running to Sterling Lake and mines; SLOATS- BURG, a small hamlet, formerly of some industrial im- portance. From New York, 35 and 36 miles respectively.) TUXEDO, Rockland Co., N.Y. From New York, 38^ miles. Formerly Lorillard's. Population, 300. Station for Tux- edo Park. Tuxedo, according to the researches of William Wal- dorf Astor, is from the Vlgonquin P° tauk-sut-iough, meaning " Home of the Bear." According to local tradition Tuxedo is a corruption of " Duck Cedar," the lake having been once alive with wild ducks and surrounded by cedars. Tuxedo Park was originally the wilderness tract of 13,000 acres belonging to the original Peter Lorillard. At an early day there were iron works on the outlet of the lake on the tract. They were aban- doned years ago, and the estate lay idle. Ground was broken in November, 1885, for the Tuxedo Club; June 1, 1886, the club-house was opened. In the club grounds to-day are about 100 houses, ranging from the romantic chalet to the sub tial and ornate chateau, church, schools, fish hatchery, game preserves. Within the park enclosure forty miles of drives, twenty-five miles macadamized. Complete police servii e, fire brigade. I^ast Erie station in Rockland County, N. Y. (SOUTHFIELDS and ARDEN, Orange Co., N. Y. Hamlets ; from New York, 42 and 44 miles. Arden, formerly Greenwood, noted for the iron works belonging to Peter P. !. of Parrott gun fame. Abandoned \ Pic- turesque ruins of works near the station. E. II. Harriman, the millionaire New York banker and I; at Arden.) II RNER'S, Orange Co., N.Y. From New York, 17 miles; Dunkirk, 412 miles; Buffalo, 377: Newburgh, r6. Came into existence with the Erie. First railroad dining- saloon on the Erie, established by Peter Turner, 184 1, 502 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES its. Original building still standing. The Frie erected an immense brick hotel and dining-room at Turner's in [865. It was ran in luxurious style during the Gould and Fisk regime. Destroyed by lire December 26, [873. Cost, $300,000; never rebuilt. Eastern extremity of Orange County dairy region. Trains for Newburgh Short- cut. I M( >NROE and OXFORD, Or \nge Co., N. V., 50 and 52 miles from New York. Milk-shipping stations ; summer visitors. Newspaper at Monroe ; 4 churches ; 2 hotels. Pop- ulation, 700. Brie cheese factories.) GREYCOURT, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 54 miles ; Dunkirk, 406 ; Buffalo, 371 ; Newburgh, 19. Junc- tion ot Newburgh Branch, Lehigh and Hudson, and Orange Count\' railroads. School; hotel. CHESTER, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 55 miles; Dunkirk, 405; Buffalo, 370. Settled, 1751, at the old town, three-quarters of a mile from station ; village about the station grew from the coming of Erie in 1S41. Incorporated, 1892. Population, 1,200. Agricul- tural and dairy ; business of milk transportation by rail originated here spring of 1842 ("The Turning of Its Wheels," pages 406-409). Chief agricultural pursuit, onion- growing on "black dirt" meadow area, 700 acres in extent, between Chester and Greycourt, reclaimed from almost bottomless marsh. Cheese factory, making Neufchatel, Brie, cream, and other fancy brands ; uses 10,000 quarts of milk a day. Home of Hambletonian, father of the American trotter; born, 1848; sired 1,200 colts; died, 1876; costly monument marks his grave. Famous trotters bred and owned here. 4 churches ; high school ; district schools ; newspaper ; bank ; 3 hotels ; opera house ; gravity water system ; pre- paring (1898) for gas or electric lighting; fire department. Chester was one of the two original stations of the Erie to have an agent, Goshen being the other. GOSHEN, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 60 miles; Buffalo, 364 ; Dunkirk, 399. Settled, 17 12. Incor- porated, 1843. Population, 3,000. 6 churches ; academy ; schools ; 2 newspapers ; 2 national banks ; 1 savings bank ; 4 hotels. Well organized fire department ; electric light and gas. Centre of greatest dairy and stock-raising region in State. County seat of Orange County since 1728. Nursery of blooded horses. Some of the greatest horses in the rec- ords of the turf or stud were either sired, born, or bred here. Trotters representing a value of $300,000 are (1898) owned in Ooshen; among them Stamboul, the champion trotting stallion (2.071/,), and John R. Gentry, the great pacer (2.00^), of E. H. Harriman's Goshen stables, alone repre- sent $70,000. $10,000 horses are numerous ; $5,000 horses common. Goldsmith Maid, the queen of the turf in her day, was sired here by a Ooshen horse, and broken and trained for the turf near by. The Goshen stock farms and race track are historical, the ( loshen Driving Park Association being one of the crack turf organizations of the United States. Until the farmers adopted the plan of selling their milk in the New York market instead of making it into butter, " Goshen but- ter " was famous the country over. The monument in the public square commemorates the men who fell fighting the noted Indian leader Brant, in 1779, in the Delaware High- lands, most of them being from Goshen and vicinity. The monument was erected in 1822, the bones of the men having been collected from the old battle-field in that year and buried in the public park. Goshen abounds in Revolutionary lore. January 22, 1779, Claudius Smith, the notorious Tory "Cow Boy " of the Revolution, was hanged at Goshen. The Goshen Academy was established in 1790. Noah Webster, the great lexicographer, was a teacher in it, and was preparing his great work at that time. The Goshen Independent Republican is one of the oldest papers in the State, established 1S12. The first official printing office of the Erie was that of the Goshen Democrat, where the Company's printing was done from 1 84 1 to 1 85 1. Goshen was the western terminus of the rail- road from September, 1S41, until June, 1843. When the railroad was opened, all the present main business part of the place was a vast common, known as Fiddler's Green. The population was 400. Goshen, besides being one of the old- est, is one of the wealthiest villages in the State. Gas and electric light ; water works ; electric railroad to Middletown. Junction of Pine Island and Montgomery branches of Erie. Henry Fitch, first general passenger agent of Erie, resigned as teacher in Goshen Academy, 1846, to take the office. (MONTGOMERY, ten miles from Goshen, on Montgom- ery Branch, and FLORIDA, on the Pine Island Branch, vil- lages in the dairy regions of Orange County, N. Y. Mont- gomery originally W r ard's Bridge. Settled in last century. Incorporated as village, 1806. Manufacturing as well as agri- cultural. 4 churches; 2 schools; 1 newspaper; 4 hotels. Florida settled in last century. 3 churches ; graded school ; 2 hotels. Birthplace of William H. Seward, the great Ameri- can statesman.) (NEW HAMPTON, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 64 miles. Important only as milk-shipping station.) MIDDLETOWN, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 67 miles ; Buffalo, 358 ; Dunkirk, 393. Agricultural, dairy, and industrial. Citizens paid for finishing railroad from Goshen, 1843. Terminus of Erie until 1S46. Incor- porated village, 1848; city, 1892. Population, 1898, 14,000. 10 churches; 1 high school ; 5 ward schools ; 8 newspapers (3 daily, 5 weekly) ; 4 banks : 4 hotels ; theatre ; Thrall Hos- pital ; public library. Extensive saw, file, hat, nail, carpet- bag, and wood-type factories; milk condensery, iron fur- nace, and brewery. Paved streets, electric street railroad and lights, superior fire department, gravity water system. Soldiers' monument. State Homceopathic Insane Asylum (only one in State), incorporated 1870. Erie, New York, Ontario and Western, and New York, Susquehanna and Western railroads, and Crawford Branch of the Erie. 4 railroad stations. Orange County Agricultural Society's fair grounds. Middletown began on the lowland by a settlement as long ago as 1778. Here was then a frontier land. The courageous pioneers who preempted the wilderness shared with those of the settlements about them in the bloody scenes THE STORY OF ERIE 503 evoked by the vengeance of the red men, who struggled long to hold their ancient hills and valleys against the usurping pale-face. At the beginning of the present century development of the splendid agricultural district began in earnest, and the clustering farms grew into a village and an important centre for the surrounding country. It was not until the completion of the Erie to the place in 1843, however, that its era of greatest usefulness and importance was inaugurated. Its growth has been rapid ever since. No place on the Erie between Paterson and Binghamton exceeds Middletown in the extent, importance, and reputation of its manufacturing interests. The disposition of the citizens of this place toward proposed enterprises of every kind in its precincts has been uniformly generous and encouraging. Its hat factories, saw factories, file works, milk condenseries, and carpet factories are among the leading ones of their class in the country. Trade centre of the rich dairy region of Orange, Sullivan, and Sussex counties. (HOWELLS, OTISVILLE, GUYMARD, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 71, 76, So miles respectively. Neat villages in dairy region. Important as milk-shipping stations. Churches and public schools. Otisville was ter- minus of Erie 1S46 to 1848. Summit of Shawangunk Moun- tains. Settled, 1 816, by Isaac Otis, subsequently president of Hanover Bank, New York, and founder of Atlantic Bank. 3 churches. From 1863 to 1870 10 mining companies had headquarters hereabout to mine supposed rich lead deposits in Shawangunk Mountains, chiefly about Guymard. Many shafts sunk ; all abandoned. Remains of a huge mastodon exhumed near Otisville in 1871.) DELAWARE DIVISION. PORT JERVIS, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 88 miles; Buffalo, 337: Dunkirk, 372. Terminus New York and Delaware Division of Erie. Settlements made near, in the Neversink Valley, 1690, by Hollanders and refu- gee Huguenots. Port Jervis settlement due to Delaware and Hudson Canal, 1827. Named for John B. Jervis, chief en- gineer of the canal. Hamlet until coming of Erie, 1S48. Incorporated as village, 1853. Population, 1898, 10,000. 6 churches ; Catholic Orphan Asylum ; 1 high school, 3 dis- trict schools ; 2 national banks ; 5 newspapers (2 daily, 3 weekly) ; 5 hotels ; theatre ; hospital ; public library : Young Men's Christian Association (railroad branch). Electric and gas lighting ; electric street railway. Excellent fire depart- ment; gravity water system. Erie round-houses and re- pair shops. Suburbs, Sparrowbush, Tri-States, Matamoras, Pa., latter connected by wire suspension bridge across the Delaware. Tri-States formerly Carpenter's Point, at junc- tion of Neversink River with Delaware River. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania lines meet here. Monu- ment marks the spot, which stands in three States and in three counties. Port Jervis is the outlet of the lower Delaware Valley for twenty miles, and large portion of Sulli- van County, N. Y. Port Jervis and Monticello Railroad. Milford, Matamoras and New York Railroad (building, 1898). When the Erie was opened to Port Jervis none of the present business and residential part of the place was in existence. All between the hamlet and the canal and the Delaware River was a swampy waste. The village now occupies that area. To the railroad it owes its growth and existence. No place in Orange County is more delightfully located. The neighborhood is rich in historic and anti- quarian lore. The road that runs on the outskirts of the village, through the Neversink Valley and on down the 1 )e la- ware, is believed to be the oldest passable road of any length ever constructed in the United States. It is mentioned in very old records as being in existence between Esopus (Kingston) on the Hudson and a point near the Delaware Water Gap, as long ago as 1690. It has always been known as the "mine road," and tradition says it was constructed by people from Holland, who sought mines of gold or copper along the Lower Delaware River mountains. (MILL RIFT, POND EDDY, PARKER'S GLEN, Pike Co., Pa. From Port Jervis, 4, n, 15 miles. Bluestone quarrying, shipping, and manufacturing centres. Parker's Glen, formerly Carr's Rock, scene of the terrible raiiroad dis- aster of February, 1868. See pages 443-444.) SHOHOLA, Pike Co., Pa. From New York, 103 miles. Famous for its Glen, and station for summer visitors to the adjacent resorts in Pike and Sullivan counties. Also blue- stone quarrying and shipping point. LACKAWAXEN, Pike Co., Pa. From New York, in miles; Buffalo, 314; Dunkirk, 349. Quarrying; bluestone shipping ; summer resort. Junction of Honesdale Branch. Delaware and Hudson Canal crossed Lac kawaxen and Dela- ware rivers here by aqueducts, built by John A. Roebling in 1848, until 1898, when canal was abandoned. Five miles back of Lackawaxen is the spot where Horace Greeley attempted, in 1843, to found a Social Community, after the manner of Fourier, and failed. (WESTCOLANV, PARK, MAST HOPE, TUSTEN, Pike Co., Pa. From Port Jervis, 26, 28, 31 miles respectively. Stations for summer visitors. Bluestone quarrying. Milk.) NARROWSBUR< :, Si 1 1.1 van Ci >., N. Y. From New York, 122 miles; Port Jervis, 34: Buffalo, 303: Dunkirk, 338. Originally important lumbering centre. First circular-saw- mill in Delaware Valley built near by, on Pennsylvania side. Named from narrows in the river, head of Big Eddy, deepest and widest place in the river above tide. Narrows spanned by wooden bridge erected in 1846 — last of its kind the entire length of the river. Famous 40 years as railroad dining station. From coming of Erie in 1848 until 1856, nearest railroad station for passengers and freight to Scranton, 50 miles ; Wilkesbarre, 70 miles, and intermediate country. Con- nected with Erie by stage-coaches and freight-wagons. Thomas Dunn and wife, refugees from Wyoming massacre, 1778, buried here. Population, 1898, 300. 2 churches; district school ; newspaper. Bluestone ; milk ; summer visitors. BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES C0< HECTON, Sullivan Co., X. V. From New York, 131 miles; Port Jervis, 43; Buffalo, 294; Dunkirk, 329. Settlements near, 1757. From [806 until coming of Erie all travel to Susquehanna Valley near Binghamton from Hudson River at Newburgh passed through Cochecton by Newburgh and Cochecton turnpike and extension through Pennsylvania. 2 churches: district schools; 1 hotel; bridge , ross Delaware. Milk: summer visitors. CAL1 [COON, Si llivan Co., X. V. From New York, 136 miles; from Port Jervis, 48; Buffalo, 289: Dunkirk, 329. At mouth of Callicoon Creek. Eastern end of 40- niile section of original contract for work on Erie, 1835 (page 36, General History). Population, 600. Agricultural and dairy. Important water station on Erie. Station for summer visitors. 3 churches; 2 schools ; 2 newspapers; 52 hotels and boarding-houses. Largely German population. Bridge across Delaware to Wayne County, Pa. (HAXKIX'S, LONG EDDY, LORDVILLE, STOCK- PORT, Delaware Co., X. Y. Hamlets, formerly impor- tant centres of lumber and tanning business. Schools, churches, hotels. Milk, bluestone ; summer visitors. Long Eddy, also known as Basket. Laid out in 1870 for specula- tive city named Douglas City. Failed. Lordville, station for Equinunk, Pa., where the last extensive lumbering and tanning in the valley were done. Stockport is the station for an interesting region on the Pennsylvania side of the river, in Preston township, Wayne Co., named for Samuel Preston, the pioneer settler of that part of the valley. The settlement was made in the interests of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and other noted Pennsylvanians, who had purchased immense tracts of wild land in that part of the State.) HANCOCK, Delaware Co., X. Y. From New York, 164 miles ; Port Jervis, 76 ; Susquehanna, 28 ; Buffalo, 261 ; 1 lunkirk, 296. At junction of East and West branches of Delaware, forming the main stream. Formerly great lumber ni 1 tanning centre and gathering place of raftmen, and home of heavy lumber operators and timber-land owners. Popu- lation, 1898, 1,200. Churches, schools, newspaper, 3 hotels. Bluestone quarrying. Milk. Scran ton Division of New York, Ontario and Western Railroad crosses Delaware to main line of that railroad. (HALE'S EDDY, Delaware Co., N.Y., hamlet, midway between Hancock and Deposit.) DEPOSIT, Delaware Co., N. Y. From Xew York, 177 miles; Port Jervis, 89; Susquehanna, 15; Buffalo, 248; 1 lunkirk, 283. Old settlement, originally known as Cookaus. Created by the lumber and tanning business. Last Erie sta- tion in 1 >elaware Valley. Historic as point where first ground was broken for grading of Erie, 1835 ("Administration James Gore King," pages 36, 37). Growth due to railroad. Popu- lation, 1898, 1,800. 6 churches, 1 school, 2 newspapers, 1 bank, 7 hotels. Large dairy interests. Extensive milk con- densery. Bluestone. Pearl button, malleable iron, hand-sled manufactories. Paul Devereaux Hospital. (OQUAGA, GULF SUMMIT, midway between Deposit and Susquehanna. Creameries, and milk and bluestone ship- ping points.) SUSQUEHANNA DIVISION. SUSQUEHANNA, Pa. From Xew York, 192 miles: Buf- falo, 233 ; Dunkirk, 268. Population, 4,000. Settled in 1830 ; incorporated in 1853; 6 churches, 2 schools, 2 newspapers, 2 banks, 9 hotels. Terminus of the Delaware and the Sus- quehanna divisions. The great Erie machine and repair shops are located here. They were established in 1864, and employ 1,000 hands. Agricultural and manufacturing com- munity. Steamboat on the Susquehanna River. Electric lights and gravity system of water-works. Among the moun- tains of northeastern Pennsylvania. GREAT BEND, Susquehanna Co., Pa. From Xew York, 201 miles; Dunkirk, 259; Buffalo, 224. Settled, 1787 ; incorporated, 1861. Population, r,2oo. Agricultural and manufacturing. Tannery, silk mill, creamery, broom factory ; 3 churches, 1 school, 1 newspaper, 3 hotels. Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was born near Great Bend. Electric lights, fire department. (KIRKWOOD, small station named for former Superin- tendent James P. Kirkwood.) BINGHAMTON, Broome Co., N.Y. From Xew York, 216 miles; Buffalo, 209 ; Dunkirk, 244. Settled in 1800 ; in- corporated as a city in 1867. Erie opened January 8, [849. Population then, 2,100. Population, 1S98 40,000. Manu- facturing. Extensive cigar, shoe, wagon, and other factories ; breweries, tanneries, pulp mill, etc.; 40 churches, 19 schools, 7 newspapers, 35 hotels, 6 banks (2 savings), State Hospital for the Insane, St. Mary's Home, Susquehanna Valley Home, Commercial Travellers' Home (now building). Birthplai e of Major-General John C. Robinson. United States Senator Daniel S. Dickinson had his home and was buried here. Junc- tion of the Chenango and Susquehanna rivers. Also on Al- bany and Susquehanna, and Delaware, Lackawanna and West- ern railroads. The site of Binghamton was a wilderness when certain land-holders in the Southern Tier, having ob- tained State aid to extend the Cochecton and Great Bend Turnpike from the latter place to Bath, X. Y., its course was laid through this part of Broome County. Leave was ob- tained from the Legislature to build a toll-bridge across the Chenango River, and its site was selected at what was known as the lower ferry. The importance of the location led Joshua Whitney and other residents of Chenango village, two miles above the present city of Binghamton, to make a clear- ing for a settlement which they called Binghamton. This clearing occupied much of the present business site of the . ity. (HOOPER and UNION, Broome Co.: and CA.MP- VILLE, Tioga Co., N. Y., flourishing centres of agricultural and manufacturing communities; in Chemung dairy region.) OWEGO, Tioga Co., N. Y. From Xew York, 237 miles; Dunkirk, 223; Buffalo, 188. Settled early in the century; original Indian name of region, Ah-wa-ga. Incorporated THE STORY OF ERIE 5' '5 village. Population, 9,000. 7 churches ; graded schools ; 3 newspapers; 2 banks; 4 hotels. At junction of Owego Creek and Susquehanna River. Manufacturing and agricul- tural. Centre of famous dairy region. Owego was the birth- place of the Erie, the convention which led to the chartering of the Company having been held there, December 20, 1831. (See pages 11- 14.) County seat of Tioga County. Birth- place of the noted politician, Hon. Thomas C. Piatt, United States Senator. John D. Rockefeller, the great Standard Oil Company magnate, was born near, and got his early education at, Owego. Once the home of N. P. Willis, the poet. No place in the Southern Tier has wielded nor does wield a greater influence in affairs of the State than Owego. Terminus of the second railroad chartered in New York — the Ithaca and Owego Railroad, now- Cayuga Division of the D., L. and W. Electric lights, gas. Famous for its fire department. Trade centre for wide and rich surrounding territory. (TIOGA CENTRE, SMITHBORO, and BARTON, Tioga Co., N. Y., in the Chemung dairy region; thrifty villages.) WAVERLY, Tioga Co., N. Y. From New York, 256 miles; Buffalo, 169; Dunkirk, 204. Settled, 1808; incorpo- rated, 1853. Agricultural and manufacturing. 5 churches, 5 schools, 2 newspapers, 2 banks, 9 hotels. Electric lights and railway. Waverly extends across the Pennsylvania State line. When the Erie was opened in 1851, the present thriv- ing village was a hamlet known as Factoryville. The place owes its rise and prosperity entirely to the railroad. Also on Delaware, Lackawanna and Western and Lehigh Valley railroads. Electric railroad connecting with Sayre, Pa., and other railroads. (CHEMUNG, WELLSBURG, and SOUTHPORT, Che- mung Co, N. Y. Thriving suburbs of Waverly and Elmira. Centres of rich farming community.) ELMIRA, Chemung Co., N. Y. From New York, 274 miles; Buffalo, 151 ; Dunkirk, 186. Settled in 1784; incor- porated as village, 1828 ; as city, 1S64. Erie opened, Octo- ber 1, 1849. Population then, 3,000. Population, 1S98, esti- mated at 45,000. Manufacturing. Fire-engines, bicycles, boots and shoes, glass, silk, cigars, portable and stationary engines, brass goods, etc. ; 40 churches, 20 schools, 6 news- papers, 15 hotels, 3 banks, State Reformatory, State Armory. Amot-Ogden Memorial Hospital. Female College, first one founded in the United States. Home of ex-Governor Lucius Robinson. Residence of ex-Governor and ex-United States Senator David B. Hill. Summer home of Mark Twain, who married Miss Langdon of Elmira. During the Civil War the barracks, where thousands of Confederate prisoners were con- fined, were located here. During the Revolutionary War the battle of Baldwin's Creek was fought near Elmira, between the American troops under Gen. Sullivan, and the Indians and Tories under Brant and Col. Butler. An appropriate monument marks the site of this battle, which was a derisive one in Sullivan's campaign against the Indians. Erie, Tioga Division of Erie, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, North- ern Central, Utica, Ithaca and Elmira, and Lehigh Valley railroads. Electric street railroad-, and to North Elmira and other suburbs. Gas ami electric lights. Capital of Chemung County. North ELMIRA, Chemung Co., N. V. From New York, 278 miles; Buffalo, 147 ; Dunkirk, 182. Station for the village of Horseheads, which was settled in 17S9 ; incor- • porated, 1837. Population, 2,500. Agricultural and manu- facturing; 5 churches, Union Free High School, 1 newspa- per, 1 bank, 3 hotels. The location of the camp of Gen. Sullivan here in 1779, and the slaying of a number of his wom-out horses, and the finding of their bones by the first settlers, is alleged as the origin of the name of Horseheads for the village. Electric street railway to Elmira. Also on Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, Northern Central, and Lehigh Valley railroads. (BIG FLATS, Chemung Co., N. Y., near the Steuben County line, is the centre of the great tobacco growing region of the Chemung Valley.) CORNING, Steuben Co., N. Y. From New York, 291 miles; Buffalo, 134; Dunkirk, 169. Settled, 1830; named for Erastus Corning, one of its founders; incorporated as village, 1851; city, 1886. Erie opened, January 1, 1X50. Population then, 1,200. Population, 1S98, 10,000. Manu- facturing and agricultural. Flint-glass works, glass-cutting factory, stove and furnace works; 14 churches, 4 schools, 2 newspapers, 6 hotels, 2 banks, 1 savings and loan asso. ia- tion. Half-shire town of Steuben County. Terminus of the Rochester Division. Electric railroad, electric lights. Also on Delaware, Lackawanna and Western and Fall Brook riil- r< lads. (For Painted Post, see Rochester Division.) ADDISON, Steuben Co., N. Y. From New York, 302 miles; from Buffalo, 123; from Dunkirk, 15S. Settled early in the century. Population, 2,100. Agricultural and manufacturing. 6 churches; 2 newspapers; 1 bank: 2 hotels; 2 schools. At the mouth of Tuscarora Creek. Formerly a prominent lumbering centre in the days of raft- ing on the Susquehanna waters ; originally named Tusi from the Indian name of the creek. Outlet of the tobacco region of Tioga County, Pa. Addison and Pennsylvania Railroad, now property of Buffalo and Susquehanna Rail- road Company, extends from Addison to Galeton, Pa. (RATHBONEVILLK, CAMERON MILLS, CAMERON, and ADRIAN, Steuben Co., N. Y. Thriving centres of a farming and lumbering region, between Addison and Can- isteo.) CANTSTEO, Steuben Co., N. Y. From New York, 32S miles; Buffalo, 97; Dunkirk, 132. Settled, 179S. Incor- porated, 1873. Population, 2,200. Agricultural and manu- facturing. Silk, lace, button, veneering, and other factories ; 2 tanneries ; creamery ; 5 churches ; 1 school ; 2 newspa- pers ; 1 bank; 4 hotels; free library. Academy with a staff of thirteen teachers. Fire department ; gravity water-works. Outlet for the lumbering and mining country of northern Pennsylvania. In the days of rafting and lumbering Canisteo was the most important point in that valley. 5o6 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES ALLEGANY (FORMERLY WESTERN) DIVISION. HORNELLSVILLE, Steuben Co., N. V. From New Nnik. 332 miles; Buffalo, 93 ; Dunkirk, 128. Settled, 1798, by ( leorge Hornell, who owned the entire township. Incor- porated as a village, 1852; as a city, 1888. Erie opened September 3, 1850. Population then, 900. Population now, 13,000. Agricultural and manufacturing; silk, glass, shoe, and other factories. 11 churches; 4 newspapers (2 daily) ; 5 schools; 2 hanks; 6 hotels; sanitarium. Hornells- ville is essentially a creation of the Erie. It is at junction of the Caneadea Creek and the Canisteo River ; 3 divisions of the Erie end and begin here : the Susquehanna, the Buffalo, and the Allegany, formerly the Western. Also on Central New York and Western Railroad. (ALMOND, ALFRED, ANDOVER, Allegany Co., X. Y. Miles from New York, 337, 341, 350; Hornellsville, 5, 9, iS; Dunkirk, 123, 119, no, respectively. Old settle- ments — Almond, 1796 ; Alfred, 1807 ; Andover, 1S24. Agri- cultural and local industries ; mills; creamery. Almond — 3 churches; 1 school; 2 hotels. Population, 1,500. Alfred (originally Baker's Bridge) is the station for Alfred Centre, 2 miles. 2 churches ; 2 schools ; 2 newspapers ; 2 hotels — no license ; 9 cheese factories in the locality. Alfred Univer- sity (Seventh Day Baptist). In one respect this pretty vil- lage, in the heart of the rich farming region of Allegany •County, is the oddest town in the State. At sundown every Friday evening work of every kind and description ceases. Saturday is the Sabbath of the people hereabout, and the •early Puritans of New England observed their Sabbath with no more severe reverence. When the sun sets on Saturday the village springs into busy life again. Stores are opened, promenaders appear, worldly affairs are resumed. Andover — Incorporated, 1893. Population, 1,000. 5 churches; r school ; 1 newspaper ; 4 hotels ; cheese factories.) WELLSVILLE, Allegany Co., N. Y. From New York, 359 miles; Hornellsville, 27; Dunkirk, 102. Incor- porated village, 1872. Population, 5,000. Agricultural and manufacturing. 9 churches ; schools ; 2 newspapers ; 6 hotels ; 2 banks ; free library ; machine works ; leather and furniture factories ; tanning. Formerly Genesee station. Outlet and inlet for all the region for 50 miles south in the lumber regions of Potter County for 25 years after coming of Erie. Also on Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad from 1 oudersport, Pa. (SCIO, Allegany Co., X. Y. From Hornellsville, 30 miles; Dunkirk, 98. Agricultural.) BELMONT, Allegany Co., N. Y. From New York, 366 miles; Hornellsville, 34; Dunkirk, 95. Settled, 1816. [ncorporated, 1856. County seat. Agricultural and manu- facturing. 6 churches; 1 school; 2 newspapers; 2 hotels; 1 bank ; free library ; county buildings. Was in the great pine belt of western New York; lumbering until 1856. Mill; machinery works ; pail factory. l:i LVIDERE, Allegany Co., X. Y. From Hornells- ■ville, 38 miles; Dunkirk, 90. Takes name from the late Philip Church's historic residence. Former station for Bel- fast, Oramel, Angelica. Agricultural. FRIEXDSHIP, Allegany Co., X. Y. From New- York, 374 miles ; Hornellsville, 42 ; Dunkirk, 86. Settled, 1807. Incorporated village, 1852. Population, 1898, 1,800. Agricultural and industrial. 6 churches ; 1 school ; 1 news- paper; 1 hotel; 2 banks. Important shipping point for dairy products, hay, grain, potatoes, live stock. Sash, door, and blind factories ; stove company. Prosperous and grow- ing. CFJBA, Allegany Co., N. Y. From New York, 383 miles; Hornellsville, 51 ; Dunkirk, 77. Agricultural. Pop- ulation, 1,400. 4 churches; 2 schools; 2 hotels; 1 bank. The last spike in the construction of the Erie was driven at Cuba, April 2r, 1851, by Silas Seymour, engineer in charge of that division. Cuba was the terminus of the Erie for five months pending the completion of the road from Dunkirk east. After the close of the War of 181 2, emigration became extensive from the Eastern States to Ohio. The direct route from the Hudson to the Allegany through Xew York State was from Al- bany to Utica, then to Canandaigua, and from that point to Angelica, or Cuba, thence to Olean Point, from which the Alle- gany River conveyed them to the Ohio. Oil Creek, a tributary of the Allegany River, rising in the historical oil spring near Cuba, was preferred by the emigrants to the wretched roads. They would come to Cuba in the fall or in the spring, where they would wait for the first freshet in the creek. To ac- commodate them, boats of logs and planks, 16 to 24 feet long, were made by local builders at Cuba, and sold for from $30 to $50 each. These boats would carry five persons each with their goods, and the emigrant would make the trip to the Allegany at Olean Point, and thence down the river. (HINSDALE, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., between Cuba and Olean. An old village, a relic of the Genesee Canal, now long since departed.) OLEAN, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. From New York, 396 miles; Dunkirk, 64 miles. Settled, 1803. Incorporated as a city, 1892. Erie opened, May 14, 185 1. Population then, 1,000; population, 1898, 15,000. 12 churches; S schools ; 4 newspapers ; 2 banks ; 10 hotels ; free library ; State armory. Acid, barrel, spring-beds, boilers, engines, glue, glass- ware, horseshoes, hubs, leather, mill machinery, oils, oil-well supply, soap, shoe-findings, stump machines, shirts, tanners' supplies, wagon, and many other factories. Olean is the largest petroleum storage-place in the world. The Standard Oil Company has scores of immense iron tanks here. From Olean the crude petroleum is started to the seaboard through the iron pipes that carry it to the refineries, a great part of the way along the route of the Erie. ALLEGANY, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. From New York, 399 miles; Dunkirk, 60. Came into existence with the Erie. The original route of the Erie ran two miles south of its present location, and there a city had been plotted, be- lieving that the railroad would bring to it great importance. The change in the route, however, destroyed that hope. The present village of Allegany sprang up instead. Population, THE STORY OF ERIE 50/ 1,500. Seat of a Franciscan college and convent and of St. Elizabeth's Academy under the charge of the Sisters of St. Francis. Four miles beyond Allegany the Indian Reserva- tion begins. (VANDALIA, CARROLLTON, and GREAT VALLEY, Cattaraugus Co., N. V. Stations between Allegany and Salamanca. Carrollton, junction of the Bradford Division. Great Valley, originally Killbuck station. Centre of an ex- tensive lumbering business.) SALAMANCA, Cattaraugus Co., N. V. From New York, 415 miles; Dunkirk, 45. Settled, 1865 ; incorporated, 1878. Population, 5,000. Manufacturing and railroad cen- tre. 7 churches ; 5 schools ; 3 newspapers ; 12 hotels ; 2 banks ; hospital ; building and loan association ; library : gymnasium. Named by James McHenry for the Marquis of Salamanca, Spain, a liberal contributor to the building of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. Salamanca is built entirely on the lands of the Indian Reservation, which are held under en- abling Congressional legislation by long tenure of leasehold. Salamanca came into existence with the building of the At- lantic and Great Western Railroad, now the Nypano Division of the Erie, which has its eastern terminus at this point. At that time the site of the present Salamanca was a tangled swamp. The settlement was a mile west of the present sta- tion, and known as Bucktooth, now West Salamanca. The first settlers in Salamanca were greatly hampered by the diffi- culty of securing satisfactory leases of ground to build upon, because of the lack of legal authority vested in the Indian proprietors to make them. After a long effort legislation was at last obtained doing away to a great extent with this difficulty, but it was not until a few years ago that the present beneficial legislation was procured through which the citizens were warranted in making such improvements as the impor- tance ami steady growth of the place demanded. Besides the Erie and its system, Salamanca is on the Buffalo, Roches- ter and Pittsburg and Western New York and Pennsylvania railroads. LITTLE VALLEY, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. From New York, 421 miles; from Dunkirk, 39. Settled early in the century. Population, 1,000. Became the county seat in 1868. Cattaraugus County Fair Grounds; 3 churches, 2 schools. Centre of rich dairy country. (CATTARAUGUS, DAYTON, PERRYSBURG, Catta- raugus Co., N. V.; SMITH'S MILLS and FOREST- YILLE, Chautauqua Co., N. Y. Original Erie stations and old villages on the elevated land between Little Valley and Dunkirk. At Dayton the Buffalo and Southwestern 1 >i- vision from Jamestown and Chautauqua Lake to Buffalo con- nects with main line. All these stations are thriving centres of the great Chautauqua and Cattaraugus dairy regions.) DUNKIRK, Chautauqua Co., N. Y. From New York, 460 miles. Settled in 1S10. Called Chadwick's Bay, after the original settler, Solomon Chadwick. The land now occu- pied by Dunkirk originally belonged to De Witt Clinton and Isaiah and John Thompson. In 181 7 Walter Smith bought half for Sio,ooo. In 1837 he sold it to New York men for double the price, and bought the other half for S7,ooo, and purchased 600 acres more. In 1838 he divided it into shares. One-quarter of it was to have been donated to the Erie if the railroad was completed in 1842. Dunkirk, incorporated a village in 1837. Population, 1898, 14,000. Manufacturing. 14 churches; 9 schools; 5 newspapers; 2 banks: 17 hotels. Young Men's Christian Association and Free Library. Port of entry on Lake Erie. Legal western terminus of the Erie. Electric railroads, electric lights. Extensive shops of the Erie were here until 1868 ; then abandoned and became the Brooks Locomotive Works. Besides the Erie, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, New York, Chicago and St. Louis, Dunkirk, Allegany Valley and Pittsburg, and Western New York and Pennsylvania railroads run through or terminate at Dunkirk. BUFFALO DIVISION - . {Fmm Hornellsville ; see Allegany Division.) ARKPORT, Steuben Co., N. Y. ; BERNE, CANASE- RAGA, (lARWOODS, and SWAINS, Allegany Co., N. Y. ; DALTON, HUNTS, and PORTAGE, Livingston Co., N. Y. ; CASTILE and SILVER SPRINGS, Wyoming Co., N. V. Thrifty villages between Hornellsville and War- saw. Dalton is the station for Nunda, a village of 1,000 popu- lation. At Portage is the great Erie Railroad bridge across the Genesee River at the Portage Falls. Silver Springs is the station to Silver Lake. WARSAW, Wyoming Co., N. Y. From New York, 375 miles; Buffalo, 48. Settled, 1803. Incorporated, 1843. Population, 3,000. Agricultural and manufacturing. On the Great Wyoming Salt Belt, some of the finest wells being here and in the vicinity. 7 churches ; high school ; 2 newspapers ; 2 banks ; 5 hotels. Also on the Rochester and Pittsburg Rail- road. (GALE, Wyoming Co., N. V. : LINDEN, Genesee Co., N. Y. Small places between Warsaw and Attica, in an agri- cultural region.) ATTICA, Wyoming Co., N. Y. From New York, 392 miles; Buffalo, 31. Settled early in century. Incorporated. 1837. Population, 2,000. 5 churches ; 1 newspaper ; union school ; 1 bank. At the junction of the Rochester and Buf- falo divisions, forming a single line to Buffalo. Also on a branch of the New York Central. (GRISWOLD and DARIEN, Genesee Co., N. Y. : AL- DEN, TOWN LINE, LANCASTER, CHEEKTOWAi \\. Erie Co., N. Y. Neat and thriving villages between Attica and Buffalo.) BUFFALO, Erie Co., N. Y. From New York, 425 miles. Village laid out by Holland Land Company in 1801. In 1S12 it was burned by the British. Congress voted $80,000 to compensate for the loss. Incorporated a city, April, 1832. Black Rock included in city limits, 1852, and new city charter went in force January 1, 1854. Population then, 45,000. Population, 1898, 300,000. Port of entry. Seat of justice of Erie County. Western terminus of Erie ;oS BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES Canal. Water-front of 5 miles : 2i on Lake Erie, 2I on Ni- agara River. Like-front gradually rises to an extended plain, 50 feet above the water. Portion of river-front a bold bluff, 60 feet above the water. City handsomely built. Streets broad and straight. Where the waters of the lake merge in the Niagara River, Buffalo Creek enters the lake from the east and the Erie Canal from the northwest. Over 100 miles of asphalt streets. 15 parks, one of 442 acres. Claims to be the cleanest, best-lighted, and healthiest city in the United States. Water supply obtained from Niagara River through a tunnel extending nearly to the middle of the river. Gas and electric lighting ; natural gas for fuel. Electric street railways. Public buildings include custom- house, post-office, State arsenal, State armory, city and county hall and jail, general hospital, insane asylum, four orphan asylums. Several private hospitals and asylums under church care. 167 churches; State Normal School; 50 pub- lic schools ; 2 medical colleges ; Buffalo Library ; Grosvenor Library. 7 English and 3 German dailies, and 20 weekly newspapers. Board of Trade organized in 1S44 ; incorpo- rated in 1857. Merchants' Exchange. Preeminent in the grain trade : 40 elevators, with storage capacity of 20,000,- 000 bushels ; transportation facility, 4,000,000 bushels a day. First elevator built in 1843 by Joseph Dart. In live-stock trade, second only to Chicago. In steel and iron, ranks next to Pittsburg, having nearly 2,000 manufactories. Annual lumber trade, 400,000,000 feet. Greatest Eastern railroad centre : Erie and branches, New York Central, Lake Shore system, Michigan Central, Grand Trunk, West Shore, Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western, Lehigh Valley, Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg, Western New York and Pennsyl- vania, and numerous local railroads. ROCHESTER DIVISION. {From Corning; see Susquehanna Division.) PAINTED POST, Steuben Co., N. Y. From New York, 293 miles; Dunkirk, 167; Buffalo, 132; Rochester, 93. Settled, 1786. Incorporated, 1893. Population, 1,000. Agricultural and manufacturing. On the Chemung tobacco belt. 3 churches ; 1 school ; 1 hotel ; 1 bank. The Seneca chief, Montour, mortally wounded at the battle of Hogback, August 29, 1779, died here. A bronze statue of an Indian is erected in the public square commemorating the event. Junction of main line of Erie. (COOPERS, CURTIS, CAMPBELL, and SAVONA, Steuben Co., N. Y. Thriving agricultural villages.) BATH, Steuben Co., N. Y. From NewYork,3ii miles; Rochester, 74. Settled, 1793 ; incorporated, r 816. Popula- tion, 3,000. Agricultural and manufacturing. 6 churches; 1 school ; 3 newspapers ; 6 hotels ; 2 banks. New York Sailors' and Soldiers' Home; Davenport Orphan Asylum. State fish hatchery near by. Admiral Howell, United States Navy, was born here. Bath was intended by its projectors to be the metropolis of the West. It was the headquarters of the Pult- ney estate, the proprietor of which was Sir William Pultney of England. His agent, Charles Williamson, founded the place. There was a theatre, a race-course, and a newspaper here as early as 1796. Steuben County fair-grounds, property of one of the oldest agricultural societies in the State, are here. Also on Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, and Bath and Hammondsport railroads, the latter one of the first rail- roads incorporated in the State of New York, having been chartered in 1831, under the name of the Bath and Crooked Lake Railroad. No railroad was built, however, until 1875, when the present Bath and Hammondsport Railroad was built as a three-foot gauge. It was made standard gauge in July, 1889. (KANONA, AVOCA, WALLACE'S, Steuben Co., N. V. Attractive villages in a picturesque region.) COHOCTON, Steuben Co., N. Y. From New York, 326 miles; Rochester, 59. Population, 1,200. Formerly great lumber centre. Agricultural and manufacturing. 6 churches ; union free school ; circulating library ; 2 newspa- pers ; opera-house ; 5 hotels ; agricultural society and fair- grounds ; water-works. Also on main line of Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. (BLOOD'S, WAYLAND, Steuben Co.; SPRINGWATER, WEBSTER, CONESUS, SOUTH LIVONIA, LIVONIA, and HAMILTON, Livingston Co. Stations for thrifty villages in a garden spot of Western New York.) AVON, Livingston Co., N. V. From New York, 367 miles; Rochester, 18. Population, 1,600. Farming com- munity. 4 churches ; 1 high school ; 1 parish school ; 1 newspaper ; 2 banks ; electric lights ; natural gas belt ; superior fire department ; gravity water system ; sewered ; cement sidewalks ; telephone, local and long distance ; vil- lage park ; soldiers' monument ; opera-house ; race-track. Famous health resort. Mineral springs : large hotels and sanitariums. A place of refinement and culture in the Gene- see Valley. Junction of Rochester, Buffalo, and Mount Morris branches of the Erie. The sulphur springs here were known and used by the Indians long before the first white settlers came in the Genesee Valley. Two hundred years ago De Nouville, the French explorer, fought a fierce battle with the Indians on the present site of Avon. General Sullivan, in 1779, also invaded the valley at this point, and drove the Indians from it forever. (RUSH, SCOTTSVILLE, HENRIETTA, and RED CREEK, Monroe Co., N. Y., are bustling stations between Avon and Rochester. Scottsville has 3 churches, a union school, and extensive mills a mile and a half west of the station.) ROCHESTER, Monroe Co., N. Y. From New York, 386 miles. First settler came in 1788, but first actual settle- ment began in 1S10, made by Col. Nathaniel Rochester. Incorporated as village of Rochesterville, 1S17 ; as city of Rochester, 1834. Population in 1817, 600; in 1834, 11,000 ; 1898, estimated, 175,000. Port of entry. Genesee River flows through centre of city. Unexcelled water-power ; river falls 226 feet within 3 miles ; 3 perpendicular falls, 96, 26, and 84 THE STORY OF ERIE 509 feet high. City covers area of 18 miles. Manufacturing. 90 churches; high school ; 16 ward schools ; Rochester Univer- sity (1846), Theological Seminary (1S50), both Baptist. 6 national banks ; 4 savings banks ; 6 private banks ; 7 daily, 16 weekly, 1 tri-weekly newspapers ; 15 monthlies. Chil- dren's Home, Old Woman's Home, State Industrial School. Hospitals and libraries. Famous for its great milling indus- try (once called the " Flour City") and for its nurseries of fruit trees and plants, and for flower and garden seed grow- ing. 16 flour mills, manufacturing 3,000,000 bushels of wheat annually. Largest carriage factory in United States. Annual manufacture of boots and shoes and clothing, §20,000,000. Rubber goods, furniture, steam engines, agricultural ma- chinery, tobacco, cigars, blast furnaces, breweries, iron bridge works. Erie Canal crosses Genesee River by cut-stone aqueduct, 848 feet long, 45 feet wide, supported by 9 arches. The architecture of Rochester is beautiful, imposing, costly. Wide, shaded streets, crossing at right angles. Electric rail- roads with all neighboring towns. Lake Ontario, 7 miles. Two water supplies : Hemlock Lake, 29 miles distant, eleva- tion 400 feet, and Genesee River (Holly system). Paid fire department. Noted buildings : Powers Block and the Arcade. "Spirit rappings " had their origin here, with the Fox sisters, in 1S50. Erie, New York Central, Western New York and Pennsylvania, Pittsburg, Buffalo and Rochester, and local railroads. NEWBURGH SHORT CUT AND BRANCH. CENTRAL YALLEY, HIGHLAND MILLS, WOOD- BURY, HOUGHTON FARM, MOUNTAINYILLE, CORNWALL, NEW WINDSOR, Orange Co., N. Y. Along Neiuburgh Short Cut, from Turner's, N. Y.; see New York Division. Milages among the Hudson Highlands. Dairy farming, manufacturing, fruit-growing, stock-raising. Important as summer resorts. New Windsor settlements early in last century. Revolutionary association. The El- lison House, built in 1735, where Washington had his head- quarters, is still standing. Society of the Cincinnati had its origin at New Windsor, in the "Temple of Virtue," a large frame building erected by order of Gen. Washington in 1782. NEWBURGH, Orange Co., N. Y. From New York, 63 miles. Settled 17 19, by Palatines from the Palatinate of Newburgh, Germany. A church settlement originally. In- corporated as village, 1S00 ; as city, 1865. Estimated population, 1898, 25,000. One of the capitals of Orange County. Situated on the plateau and high hills overlooking Newburgh Bay. Manufacturing, and centre of great dairy and fruit region. Coal storage depot and shipping point of Pennsylvania Coal Company. Shipyards, cotton and woollen factories. 32 churches; free academy; 5 grammar schools; private boarding schools; public library; children's home; Home for the Friendless ; State armory ; Academy of Music ; 4 daily, 5 weekly newspapers ; 3 banks ; 5 hotels. Rich in Revolutionary associations. Seat of military operations was in the Highlands, in 1782-83. Washington's headquarters in the Hasbrouck Mansion, built in 1750, and still standing in the condition it was left when the army was disbanded, June 23, 1783. Here Washington matured the plans which led to the final triumph of the American army. Newburgh particu- larly belongs to the history of Erie. ("Third Administration of Eleazar Lord," pages 76-84.) Also on West Shore Railroad, Albany and Troy lines of Hudson River steam- boats. Ferry to Fishkill Landing (New York Central Rail- road connection). Electric street railways and to suburbs. Electric and gas lighting. Hospital. CRAIGVILLE, BLOOMING GROVE, WASHING- TONVILLE, SALISBURY MILLS, VAIL'S GATE, Orange Co., N. Y. Along Xewhurgh Branch, from Greyeourl, N. Y. ; see Netv York Division. In the historic-valley of the Murdererskill. All ancient settlements. Dairy farming, manufacturing, fruit-growing, stock-raising. Famous summer resorts. At Yail's Gate, the Edmoston House, built in 1755, still standing, was the headquarters of Gen. St. Clair and Gen. Gates. At Washington Square Gen. Clinton's headquarters were in the Falls House, still intact. HONESDALE BRANCH. {From Lackatoaxen, Pa. : see Delaware Division.) HAWLEY, Wayne Co., Pa. From New York, 126 miles. Came into existence with the Pennsylvania Coal Company. Original settlement called Paupack Eddy. For years terminus of the Pennsylvania Coal Company's gravity railroad con- necting the mines of that company with the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and later with the Hawley Branch of the Erie. ( Gravity railroad was replaced by the Erie and Wyoming Rail- road in 1881. Population, 2,000. Incorporated, 1882. Manu- facturing. Silk mills, glass-cutting works, and glass factory; Milestone works. 4 churches ; graded school ; 1 newspaper ; 1 bank ; 4 hotels. (WHITE MILLS, Wayne Co., Pa., a neat village, owing its existence and sustenance to the famous Dorllinger glass- cutting works.) HONESDALE, Wayne Co., Pa. From New York, 135 miles. First settlement, 1823. Came into existence with the Delaware and Hudson Canal and its gravity railroad in 1826. Incorporated, 1 83 1. County seat. Farming, dairy, and manufacturing. Population, including part outside of corpo- ration limits, 6,000. Agricultural and manufacturing. 7 churches; 1 synagogue ; graded school : 2 weekly, 1 semi- weekly newspapers : 1 national bank ; 1 savings bank ; 5 hotels. The first locomotive that turned a wheel on the Am continent was run at Honesdale on the Delaware and Hud- son Canal Company's track, August 9, 1829, by Horatio Allen, who years afterward was President of the Erie. Jennie Brownscombe, the noted artist, and HomerGreen, the author and poet, are residents of Honesdale. The lofty cliff rising east of Honesdale, known as Irving Cliff, was named by Washington Irving. John Jacob Astor, Philip Hone, and other distinguished New York men visited Honesdale on the 5>o BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES opening of the canal, and climbed to the summit of the cliff. Honesdale was named for Philip Hone, an old-time mayor of New York City and a patron of the canal. Silk mill, glass- cutting works, iron foundry, woollen mills. Coal storage and shipping point of Delaware and Hudson and Erie. JEFFERSON DIVISION. (From Susquehanna, Pa. ; see Susquehanna Division?) FOREST CITY, Susquehanna Co., Pa. From Susque- hanna, 32 miles. Northern boundary of Lackawanna coal field. Settlement due to discovery of coal. Incorporated as borough, 1888. Population, estimated, 5,000. Coal mining. Erie's coal mine property hereabout. 8 churches, 1 graded school, 1 newspaper, 1 bank, 4 hotels. CARBONDALE, Lackawanna Co., Pa. From Susque- hanna, 39 miles. Settled, 1827, by beginning of coal mining by Delaware and Hudson Coal Company. Pioneer city of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Incorporated, 1850. Coal min- ing and manufacturing. Silk mill, iron foundry, machinerv. First coal marketed to tidewater on the Hudson mined here. 8 churches, 16 schools, 2 newspapers, 2 banks, 6 hotels. Free library ; emergency hospital ; opera-house. First great mine disaster here in 1845 ; 16 persons buried by falling roof of original mine. Gas and electric lighting. On Penn- sylvania Division of Delaware and Hudson Railroad and western terminus of Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad. Other stations on this division, small farming, lumber- ing, or mining centres. Lanesboro, Susquehanna Co., Pa. ; Starrucca, Wayne Co., Pa. ; Herrick Centre, Susquehanna Co., Pa., are old settlements. Starrucca once important in tanning industry. Herrick Centre, Uniondale, Stillwater, Thompson, agricultural. Lanesboro, legal terminus of Jeffer- son Railroad. Hallenback's and West Carbondale, mining and lumber. BRADFORD DIVISION. (From Carrollton, N. Y. ; see Allegany Division.) BRADFORD, McKean Co., Pa. From New York, 419 miles ; Buffalo, 97 ; Dunkirk, 63. Settled early. Originally Littleton, a lumbering hamlet. City had its rise in the discov- ery of petroleum. First practical development of the terri- tory, 1875. For many years the oil-producing centre of the world, the region producing 25,000 barrels a day. Manu- facturing. In a vast coal and lumber region. ("The Build- ing of It," pages 366-367.) Population, 1898, 14,000. 18 churches; 2 synagogues; 3 daily, 3 weekly newspapers; 3 banks ; 23 hotels ; 3 oil refineries ; 6 oil-well supply firms ; 3 pipe lines ; 47 miscellaneous manufactories; paved streets; electric lights and railways ; gravity water system ; natural gas; 2 parks ; 7 schools; 1 high school; 2 parochial schools; hook and ladder company, and 6 hose companies. Electric railways to Olean and Rock City. Besides Bradford, the oil business called into importance the stations of Limestone, Babcock, Kendal, De Golia, Lewis Run, Big Shanty, Crawford's, Alton, and Buttsville, along this division of Erie. NIAGARA FALLS BRANCH. (From Buffalo.) TONAWANDA, Erik Co., N.Y. From New York, 432 miles; Buffalo, 13. Early settlement. Population, 7,500. Lumber-trade centre and manufacturing. On Niagara River and at mouth of Tonawanda Creek. Opposite Grand Island. 1 1 churches ; high school ; 7 district schools ; 2 newspapers ; 2 banks. Terminus of Lockport Branch. Also on Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Branch of New York Central Railroad. NIAGARA FALLS, Niagara Co., N. Y. From New York, 442 miles; Buffalo, 24. Settled, 1806. Incorporated as village, 1847 ; as city, March 17, 1892. Population, 22,000. Manufacturing. Greatest chemical manufacturing city in the world. Greatest electrical centre in the United States ; the Niagara Falls Power Company developing nearly 50,- 000 horse-power, the Niagara Falls Hvdraulic Power and Manufacturing Company developing 30,000 horse-power. 15 churches ; 13 schools ; 4 newspapers ; 34 hotels ; 6 banks ; public library : Memorial Hospital. Many of the battles of the French and Indian War were fought along the Niagara River. At Youngstown the French made their last stand against the British. Descriptions of the grandeur of the great cataract that gives this place its name are household words. LOCKPORT BRANCH. (From Tonawanda.) LOCKPORT, Niagara Co., N. Y. From New York, 460 miles ; Buffalo, 25. Settled, 1S10. Incorporated as a village, 1S36; as a city, 1S68. Population, 20,000. On the rich fruit belt of western New York. Manufacturing. 16 churches ; 9 schools, including first union school in the State ; 3 daily, 3 semi-weekly, 1 weekly, and 2 monthly newspapers ; 4 banks ; opera-house. Brick, asphalt, and stone streets ; electric lights, electric railroad to Buffalo and Lake Ontario. Water and electric power. 5 hose companies, 1 hook and ladder company. Home of the Holly Water Works system. Upwards of 25 large manufactories of every variety of goods, machinery, and supplies. 20 miles of sewers. Lockport ship- ments of fruit in 1896 were equivalent to 1,200,000 barrels. Municipal hall, court-house, and jail. County seat of Niagara County. Lockport is named from having in its limits 10 locks on the Erie Canal, largest in the State. Governor Washington Hunt was born here. BUFFALO BRANCH OF ROCHESTER DIVISION. (From Avon j see Rochester Division.) CALEDONIA, Livingston Co., N.Y. From New York, 374 miles; Rochester, 25 ; Buffalo, 59. Settled, 1S05 ; incor- porated, 1890. Population, 1,100. Agricultural. 4 churches; THE STORY OF ERIE 5" i school ; i newspaper ; 2 banks ; 2 hotels ; Ladies' Library Association. Birthplace of the late United States Senator Angus Cameron. Originally settled by the Scotch, whose descendants are largely of the present population. The wonderful Caledonia Big Spring is here. This extraordi- nary spring was early a great rendezvous of the Indians. On its outlet was located the first fish hatchery in the United States, if not in the world. This was established by the late Seth Green, the father of practical fish culture. The hatch- ery is now the property of the State, and millions of brook- trout fry and fry of all other fresh-water game fish are hatched here, and annually distributed to the waters through- out the State. Also near the New York Central and Lehigh Valley railroads. LEROY, Livingston Co., X. V. From New York, 3S1 miles; Rochester, 33; Buffalo, 51. Settled, 1797; incor- porated, 1834. Agricultural and manufacturing. On the great salt belt of western New York. 8 churches ; union free school and annexes ; 2 newspapers ; 2 banks ; 4 hotels. Indian remains and relics found at Fort Hill, 2 miles north of the village ; gypsum and Onondaga limestone. Also near the New York Central and Lehigh Valley railroads. (STAFFORD, Genesee Co., N.Y. Station for the villages of Stafford and Morganville.) BATAVIA, Genesee Co., N. Y. From New York, 396 miles; Buffalo, 41 ; Rochester, 43. Settled, 1801 ; population, 8,500. Agricultural and manufacturing. Plough, wagon, and other factories. 8 churches; 6 schools; 2 newspapers (1 daily) ; 4 banks ; 3 hotels. State School for the Blind. Ba- tavia was the home of Dean Richmond, the famous railroad magnate, politician, and millionaire. It was the seat of the great Holland Land Company, which owned nearly all western New York in the early part of the century. The original land office of this company, a quaint and historical relic of the pioneer days, is still standing in Batavia. This place was the scene of the alleged abduction of Morgan by the Freemasons of 1S26 for exposures of that order which he was charged with having made. This event, whether true or false, led to the anti-Masonic excitement in New York and other States, the result of which was a great political revolu- tion. It was here that the first meeting to advocate the con- struction of the Erie Canal was held in 1S09. The Oak Orchard Acid Springs, a curious collection of bubbling fountains, nine in number, in no two of which the water is the same, are located near Batavia. ALEXANDER, Genesee Co., N. Y., 29 miles from Buf- falo. A small village, the seat of the Genesee and Wyoming Seminary, founded in 1S34. (For stations beyond Alexander, see Buffalo Division.) MOUNT MORRIS BRANCH. {From Avon ; see Rochester Division.) GENESEO, Livingston Co., N. Y. From New York, 375 miles; Rochester, 27. Settled, 1790; incorporated, 1832. County seat. Agricultural. Population, 3,500. 5 churches; 2 schools ; 2 newspapers ; 3 hotels : 1 bank. State Normal School and union school. Wadsworth Library. The first set- tlers were William and James Wadsworth, agents for the sale of immense tracts of land in the vicinity. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, who fell at the battle of the Wilderness in 1864, was a son of the original James. The historic home of the Wadsworths is here. Several descendants of the pioneers have seats in the village or vicinity. The Treaty of Big Tree between the Indians and the United States, the most impor- tant event in the history of Western New York, was signed here in 1797. MOUNT MORRIS, Livingston Co., N. Y. From New York, 382 miles ; Rochester, 34. Settled, 1 794. Incorpo- rated, 1835. Named for Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. Population, 2,400. Agricultural and manufac- turing. 5 churches ; 1 school : 2 newspapers : 4 hotels ; 3 banks. At Geneseo, Mount Morris, and vicinity, there exists a con- dition of things common enough abroad, but rarely found in America, a sort of enlightened feudal system, the land being almost exclusively owned by a few individuals, hereditary holders, who, instead of leaving its management in the hands of unscrupulous agents, and living elsewhere on the desired revenue, plant themselves squarely in the centre of their own acres and identify their interests with those of their tenants. The life of the people of this class is not unlike that of the English country gentleman ; their work consists in the man- agement and improvement of their land, the bettering of the condition of the farming population, and the breeding and maintaining of thoroughbred animals, preeminently the horse. Their relaxation is found in the entertainment of guests, the exchange of visits, and, more than all else, fox-hunting in its season. Once every year, lured by the Genesee Valley hunt, one of the most famous in the country, " society " comes farther westward than is its wont, and finds in the autumnal splendors of the valley a rival to its own Berkshire Hills. OX ERIE ROUTE THAT FAILED. JAMESTOWN, Chautauqua Co., N. Y. From New York, 449 miles; Buffalo, 54; Dunkirk, 40. Settled, 181 1. Incorporated as a village, 1827; as a city, 1S86. Popula- tion estimated, 35,000. Agricultural and manufacturing. 18 churches ; high school ; 2 daily, 4 weekly, 2 semi-weekly news- papers ; hospital ; Prendergast Free library. Jamestown is located at the foot of Chautauqua I.ake, on Chautauqua Out- let. Artesian water ; natural gas ; electric lights and railway. Junction of the Buffalo and Southwestern Division and of the Meadville Division of the Ohio Division (Nypano). Steam- boats run to and fro the entire length of the famous Chau- tauqua Lake. Jamestown was one of the first places con- nected with Erie history, ami the original route was to pass near it, but was changed to its present route from Salamanca through Cattaraugus County. (See Chapter III., page 28; "The Building of It," pages 356-363-) ADDENDA CHAPTER XXI {Continued). ADMINISTRATION OF EBEN B. THOMAS— 1899 TO 1901. CROWNING ACHIEVEMENTS: Threatened Difficulty Overcome by Heroic Measures — Purchase of the Great Properties of the Pennsylvania Coal Company at a Cost of Nearly Four Times the Original Capital of Erie — Continued Surplus Earnings and a Genuine Dividend — Retirement of Mr. Thomas as President — Important Changes in the Executive, Operating, and Traffic Departments — Coming in of President Underwood. A peculiar complication that was destined, if carried to the extent of its intention, to have a disturbing effect on the Erie's coal-traffic relations followed the abandonment of its canal and sale of it and its franchises to private parties by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in 1898. This was the incorporation in November, 1899, of the Delaware Valley and Kingston Railroad Company, with the avowed intention of constructing a railroad along the route of the canal from Kingston, N. V., to Lackawaxen, Pa., there to connect with the railroad known as the Honesdale Branch of the Erie, but in reality a part of the Pennsylvania Coal Company's Erie and Wyoming Valley Railroad. The mere fact of the new railroad company's project so far as it was confined to the powers and efforts of that company alone would have been no substantial cause for apprehension to the Erie, but the project had the avowed backing of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and was further sustained by the support of a large number of independent coal opera- tors in the northern anthracite field. The importance of the Erie in the traffic in anthracite coal, aside from its own individual mine holdings, was entirely due to its connection with the Pennsylvania Coal Company's lines in the coal regions ; and if this new railroad connection with the anthra- cite fields and tidewater were made, all that interest would be lost to the Erie on the expiration of its arrangement with the Pennsylvania Coal Company. The courts were resorted to to test the legal status of the new company and its proj- ect, and its rights as affecting those of the Erie, and a long, expensive, and uncertain course of litigation was inevi- table, when the progressive and aggressive genius of the later-day Erie management removed with one stroke even the appearance of trouble on Erie's horizon. This was the pur- chase outright of the Pennsylvania Coal Company's rights and franchises and property, and those of the Delaware Valley and Kingston Railroad Company, thus placing the Erie in entire and absolute possession and control of the situation. This coup was effected through J. P. Morgan & Company at the cost of §37,000,000, but it insured for all time Erie's prestige and tenure in the northern anthracite field as one of the largest producers and transporters of coal, and will stand forth not only as one of the great triumphs of Presi- dent Thomas's administration, but of Erie's entire career. The policy that came in with the Thomas administration has answered affirmatively each year the question as to whether the Erie could meet the vast sum of its fixed charges and live. In 1899 the charges were not only all earned and paid, but the earnings were sufficient to leave a surplus of $653,798.26 besides. The surplus over the charges of 1900 was §1,663,430.34. For 1901 the surplus is §2,823,156.34, and August 30, 1901, the Company paid a dividend of 1% per cent, on the first preferred stock, for the six months ending June 30, 1901, out of that surplus. The Jersey City terminals were all completed in 1900, and the four-track system finished as far as Suffern, X. X ., nearly 29 miles. Heavy grades on the Eastern and Allegheny divisions that have retarded the traffic and increased the cost of transportation have been greatly reduced. The abolishing of grade crossings, the importance of which has been a feature of the Thomas administration, is progressing with all possible facility. One particular policy which Presi- dent Thomas insisted on was the improvement of the char- acter of the refreshment sen-ice at depot dining stations. The improvement in all branches of the railroad service was so marked during this administration that it is without pre< e dent in Erie's history. Mr. Thomas resigned as president, May 1, rgoi, and was made chairman of the Board of Directors. He was suc- ceeded by F. D. Underwood, second vice-president and gen- eral manager of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. Early in rgoi James J. Hill, president of the Greal Northern Railroad Company, became allied with Erie in- terests, the result of which, it is anticipated, will be im- portant to the Erie as a factor in a great transcontinental transportation system. Following is the fine showing for Erie for the last year oi Mr. Thomas's administration : Gross Revenue from Operations Amounted to $39,102,302 42 Operating Expenses and Taxes 28 j ' 174 27 Net Income from Operations $K' Income from Securities Owned, etc 1,496,077 53 Total Income $12,1(31,405 6S Interest and Rentals 9,368,249 34 Leaving a Balance to Credit of Prolit and Ross of $2,823,156 \.\ 5'6 ADDENDA EARNINGS AND EXPENSES. Earnings $33,752,703 9- Expenses 25,169.926 2S Net Earnings $8,582,77764 1900 $38,293,031 S; 28,44s, 605 14 $9,844,426 73 At the beginning of the Thomas administration Erie com- mon stock was quoted at 8, the first preferred at 27, and the second preferred at 20. At the close of the Thomas administration Erie common was firm at 45)4, first pre- ferred at l$%, and second preferred at 58^. J. A. Middleton, long time secretary of the Company, was chosen second vice-president, May 1, 1901, retaining the secretaryship. A. Donaldson, third vice-president and treasurer, resigned April 23, 1901. He was succeeded as treasurer by J. W. Flatten, assistant purchasing agent. D. I. Roberts, general passenger agent, resigned June 22, 1901, and was succeeded by D. W. Cooke, assistant gen- eral passenger agent. July 1. 1901, Charles R. Fitch was appointed general manager of the entire Erie system. The advancement of Mr. Fitch from general superintend- ent to general manager was followed by many other changes in the operating department. The new office called for three assistants, one general and two division. J. C. Moor- head was made general assistant. George T. Slade was promoted from the superintendency of the Jefferson and Wyoming divisions to be assistant general manager for the New York Division, and H. E. Gilpin from the New York, Susquehanna and Western Division to be assistant general manager for the Ohio Division. Mr. Slade was succeeded in his former place by J. M. Davis, Mr. Gilpin being succeeded by George W. Dowe, who was transferred from the superin- tendency of the Allegany Division. Superintendent Dowe was succeeded there by C. S. Goldsborough. George Van Keuren, long assistant to General Superin- tendent Fitch, was appointed general superintendent of transportation, and J. F. Maguire, superintendent of the New York Division, was selected as assistant general super- intendent of transportation, his successor as division superin- tendent being W. L. Derr, who was transferred as head of the Susquehanna Division, where he was succeeded by George A. Coe. These were all advancements from the line, and well- merited recognition of faithful and valuable service by capable men, forming a corps and staff perhaps unequalled, and certainly not excelled, by those of any railroad com- pany in the world in their mastery of every problem that the genius of modern railroad management has brought to bear upon the science of transportation and operation. The office of general superintendent was transferred to Cleveland after the promotion of Mr. Fitch, and O. M. Mozier became general superintendent. In September, 1901, however, that office was abolished, and the incumbent assigned to special duties in the operating department, the duties of the office being assumed jointly by H. E. Gilpin, assistant general manager of the Ohio Division, and George Van Keuren, general superintendent of transportation at Jersey City. ^vo^^t^c^tr THE PRESIDENTS OF ERIE {Continued). 1 90 1. Frederick D. Underwood. — The beginning of the fiscal year of 1901-02 was marked by the presence of a new presi- dent in the Krie management— Frederick D. Underwood. Whatever of success and advancement in the company's affairs he is destined to command is, of course, for the future to show ; but the outcome of all his past endeavors in rail- road management is augury sufficient that in his hands Erie's future is secure and big with promise. Frederick D. Underwood was born at Milwaukee, Wis., and was educated at public and private schools and at Wayland University. Upon leaving school he entered the service of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Com- pany, at Green Bay, Wis., as a warehouse-man. At that time Angus Smith & Co. controlled, at Milwaukee, the larg- est grain elevator system in the world, and the future railroad manager, after a time, quit the railroad warehouse and be- came employed by the great elevator concern. Subsequently the system was purchased by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company. Mr. Underwood remained with that company as elevator superintendent, weigher of grain, brakeman, conductor, switchman in yards, yard master, assist- ant division superintendent, and division superintendent, a successive sen-ice of eighteen years. He was called to the Min- neapolis and Pacific Railway in 1886 as general superintendent of construction. That company had just been chartered, and after supervising the construction of its railroad he was for fourteen years its general manager in charge of its traffic and operation. In 1899 Mr. Underwood was asked to assume the duties of general manager of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in charge of the operating and engineering depart- ment of that great system. While filling that important post his genius as an effective and economical manager be- came known in still wider fields, with the result that when the Krie Railroad Company, with all its new and vastly increased importance and scope among the dominant rail- road systems of the country sought a successor to President Thomas to direct and utilize to the best results those in- creased facilities and responsibilities, Mr. Underwood was chosen. He came to the Erie May 1, 1901, at the request (if J. P. Morgan & Co., as president of the company and director in it and its constituent companies, a choice that only a manager of the very highest qualifications for the work could have commanded. President Underwood has risen from one of the humblest of beginnings in railroad service, by sheer force of character, to the proud position he now occupies, and is one more conspicuous example of what it is possible for an American youth to overcome and attain to in the battle for fame and fortune. President Underwood is a member of the Chicago Club, Chicago ; Union Club, Cleveland ; Duquesne Club, Pitts- burg; Maryland Club, Baltimore ; Metropolitan and Lawyers' Clubs of New York, and of the New York and Baltimore Yacht Clubs. OFFICIAL ROSTER, 1901. E. B. Thomas, Chairman of the Board ; F. D. Underwood, Presi- dent; Daniel Willard, Assistant to the President ; G. M. Cumming, First Vice-President ; J. A. Middleton, Second Vice-President and Secretary ; L. D. Smith, Assistant Secretary ; J. T. Wann, Auditor ; A. T. Cuddeback, Auditor of Traffic ; I). YV. Bigney, Auditor of Disbursements; J. W. Platten, Treasurer; W. D. Bancker, Assist- ant Treasurer; C. R. Fitch, General Manager, New Vork ; J. C. Moorhead, Assistant General Manager, Cleveland ; George T. Slade, Assistant General Manager, Erie Division, New Vork ; II. E. Gilpin, Assistant General Manager, Ohio Division and C. and E. K.R., Cleve- land; George Van Keuren, General Superintendent of Transportation. Jersey City ; T. F. Maguire, Assistant Superintendent of Trans- portation, Jersey City ; W. L. Derr, Superintendent New Vork Divi- sion, Jersey City ; T. H. Pindell, Superintendent Greenwood Lake Division, Northern Railroad of New Jersey and New Jersey and New York R. R., Jersey City ; G. W. Dowe, Superintendent N. V., S. and \V. R. R., Jersey City ; W. H. Barrett, Superintendent Delaware Divi- sion, Port Jervis, N. V. ; George A. Coe, Superintendent Susquehanna Division, Elmira, N V. ; J. M. Davis, Superintendent Wyoming and Jefferson Divisions, Dunmore, Pa. ; F. B. Lincoln, Superintendent Tioga Division, Arnot, Pa. ; J. C. Tucker, Superintendent Rochester Division, Rochester, N. V. ; C. A. Brunn, Superintendent Buffalo Di- vision, Buffalo, N. Y. ; O. S. Goldsborough, Superintendent Allegany Division, Ilomellsville, N. Y. ; C. V. Merrick, Superintendent Brad- ford Division, Bradford, Pa. ; I. Belnap, Superintendent Meadville Division, Meadville, Pa. ; C. A. Allen, Superintendent Cincinnati Division, Galion, O. ; H. N. Donaldson, Superintendent Mahoning Division, Y'oungstown, O. ; H. F. Coyle, Assistant Superintendent Mahoning Division, Y'oungstown, O. ; C. C. Reynolds, Superintend- ent Chicago and Lima Divisions, Chicago; James Corbett, Assistant Superintendent Chicago and Lima Divisions, Huntington, Ind. ; D. W. Cooke, General Passenger Agent, New Y'ork ; V. YV. Buskirk, Assistant General Passenger Agent, Chicago. Board of Dirf.ctors. — Robert Bacon, New York ; James J. Goodwin, New York ; Abram S. Hewitt, New Jersey ; James J. Hill, St. Paul, Minn. ; John G. McCullough, Vermont ; Darius O. Mills, New- York ; Alexander E. Orr, New York ; Norman II. Ream. Chicago, 111. ; Samuel Spencer, New Y'ork ; Charles Steele, New York ; Francis I.ynde Stetson, New Vork ; E. B. Thomas, New Vork; II. McK. Twnmbly, New Y'ork; F. D. Underwood, New Vork ; 1. I.owber Welsh, Philadelphia, Pa. INDEX Abbott, John X., biographical, 494 development of passenger service by, 42S, 430 Accidents, odd and fatal ones, 413, 423 some notable ones, 441-445 winter of, 113 Adams, Charles Francis, 150 Addison, N. Y., data of, 505 Albany and Susquehanna, Erie War, 370 Alfred, N. V., data of, 506 Allegany, N. V., data of, 506 Allen, Horatio, biographical, 462 election of as President of Erie, 68 engineer in charge of work, 107 first locomotive engineer, 71, 72 ■ failure of as President, 69-72 vicissitudes of as President, 506 Almond, N. Y. , data of, 506 Andover, X. Y., data of, 506 Arnot, John, connection of with Erie, 92 Arrest of directors, 150 Gould, 152, 153 Jewett, 251 Mcllenry, 269 Assignment, the first, queer making of, 65 lifting of the, 6S Astor, John Jacob, stock subscription of, 321 ■ William B., stock subscription of, 321 Atlantic and Great Western, entanglements of, with Erie, 173, 181, 182, 187, 193, 201, 220, 227, 228, 232, 237, 364, 365, 366 History of, 363-366 Attica and Hornellsville Railroad, as part of Erie, 361, 362 N. Y., data of, 507 Attorneys, the first Erie, 317, 322 Auditors, first, the, and subsequent, 479 Avon, X. Y., data of, 508 Ayers, Capt. Henry (Poppy), pioneer conductor, 98, 103, 399 anecdotes of, 400, 401 Babcock, investigating committee, the, 452-456 Balcom, Judge Ransom, proceedings before, 149, 150 Bankruptcy, 57, 63, 65, 129-136, 242-250, 273-281, 301, 302, 335 Barlow, S. L. M. {see also Watson, Peter H.), 2or, 203, 204, 210, 211, 223. 226, 237, 492 Batavia, X. Y., data of, 511 Bath, X. Y., data of, 508 Beginning of work, the, in Delaware Valley, 36, 312 at the Hudson River, 41 Belden, William, 148, 150 Belmont, X. Y., data of, 506 Belmont, August, 166 Belmont-Gould, Erie War, 166-171 rival receivers, the, 166-169 outwitting by Gould of August Belmont, 166, 167 Judge Barnard, change of attitude of, 167, 168 attempt to oust Gould, failure of the, 168, 169 Fisk, midnight mission of, 169, 170 complete victory in, of Gould, 169, 171 {See also Gould, J.) Bell-rope, origin of, the, 401 Belvidere, X. Y., data of, 506 Berdell, Robert H., biographical, 465 election to Presidency, how effected, 139 progressive and successful management of, 144-146 retirement of, 143 Bergen Tunnel, the, contract for, 120, 360 riots at, 120, 360 work suspended on, 129, 360 work resumed on, 360 completion of, 360 opening of, to traffic, 135, 360 Binghamton, X. Y., data of, 304 first appearance of locomotive at, 351 opening of railroad to, and celebration of, 91, 352, 353 preference of Chenango Canal by, 14 Block system, introduction of, 483 Bond issue, the first, 70 issues, description and history of, 2SS-293 Bonded debt, beginning of, 79, 92 growth of, 92, 93, in, 112, 113, 2S9, 292 present condition of, 2SS-292 showing of, year by year. 4*4 Bonding Act, the, 67, 79-S3, 304, 306 Bonus, the $10,000 annual, 100 Boston, Hartford and Krie R, R. Co., the, 142, 143, 149 Bowen, James, biographical. \< 1 election of, to Presidency, s2 folly of, 53-68 opening of railroad to ( ioshen by, 52, 57, 331, 332 company bankrupt through management of, 57, 63, 65 appointing of himself as assignee by, 6; retirement of, 6S Bradford Branch, the, history of, 366, 307 Bradford, Pa., data of, 511 Breaking ground, the, at Deposit, 36, 312 atTappan Slote, 41 Bribery of directors, 1S7, 190, 195, 196, 197, 199 legislators and lobbyists, 44S, 450, 451, 453, 454, 455 Attorney-General, alleged, 348 judges, alleged, 151 Bridges, the first, 348 Broad gauge, the, why adopted, 44, 45 father of, the, 314, 33S opposition to, 44, 46, 338 cost of, to change to standard, 45, 46 connection with Chicago, 147 Brown, Maj. Thompson S., biographical, 313, 314 Buffalo, efforts of, toward Erie connection, 360, 363 connection with, sought by Erie, 362, 363, 3S6, 389 and Cohocton Valley R. R. Co., 361 Corning and New York R. R. Co., 361, 362 and Xew York City R. K. Co., 362 Xew York and Erie R. R. Co., 362, 363 Bradford and Pittsburgh R. K., 145, 14S, 149 and State Line R. R., 112, 137, 138,371, 372 early Erie routes to, 3S8, 380 data of, 507 By-laws, first adoption of, 472 Caledonia, X. Y., data of, 510 Callicoon, X. Y., data of, 504 Camp & Co., rail laying, original contractors for, 321 collection of claim by, 333 Canisteo, X. Y., data of, 505 Carbondale, Pa., data of, 510 Car Trust of Xew York, 457 Carr's Rock, disaster at, 443, 444 Cascade Bridge, 135, 349, 350 Celebrations, railroad openings, of, at Binghamton, N. Y., 101, 102 Dunkirk, X. Y., icq-109 Elmira, X. Y., 101, 102 Goshen, N. Y., 332, 374 ■ Xewburgh, X. Y. 351, 370 Port Jervis, X. Y., too, 343. 344, 345, 382 Owego, V Y. 101, 354, 35S Changes of Routes {see also Sullivan County, X. Y.), 306 commission to determine, 349, 355 Chapin, W. C, pioneer conductor, 103 Charter, the, adoption of plan of, 13 applications for, 10, II original draft of, 14 legislative proceedings on, 295 as adopted, 296, 297 amendments to, 298, 299 Chester, X. Y., meadows, 318 donations of land at, 333 beginning of milk business at, 401 data of, 502 Chicago and Atlantic Railway Co., 204, 270-272 Church, Philip, 10. 13, 16, 310, 311 ;2o INDEX [amilton and Dayton R. R.. 271 1:11 (if Camp & Co., collection of how made, 333 Miller, G. C. & - Holbert, Adrian. ssification Act, the, origin of, 174 passing of in the legislature efforts for repeal of, 177, 179, 1S2 repeal of, 1 3g Clinton, Gov. I »e Witt, 2, 4 Col. De Witt, 5. 6 Coal traffic, the Erie, first predictions of, 322, 36S beginning of, 137 development of, 137, 145, 146, 175. _•( - burning locomotives, the tirst, 144 Cochecton, X. V. , data of, 504 Coe, George A., 516 Cohocton, N. V.. data of, 508 Completion of railroad, 94 celebration of, 94 Cook, Constant, 92 Cooke, D. W., 516 Conductors, some pioneer, 399, 400 Coney Island, first excursion to, 380 Connections, early Erie, 37S, 3S2, 385, 3S6 Contractors ami Slate stock, 317, 319, 323 pioneer, the, 312, 316, 317, 318, 321, 322, 325, 327, 353 Contracts, the first, for grading, 36, 312, 313, 315 ties, etc., 317 laying rails, 321 for piles for road-bed, 3 1 7 surrender of, 6S Corning, X. V., data of, 505 road opened to, 385 Cost of railroad, early estimates on, 49, or, 69, 75 actual outlay in, 1 1 1 showing of, year by year, 483 Crises, approaching of, 53-57, 122, 129, 232, 273 Crouch, George, 1S3, 195-197 originator of the Gould overthrow, 197 letters and telegrams of, 195—197 explanatory statement of, 197 Davis, J. C. Bancroft, 132, 134, 142, 150 Davis, J. M., 516 Debt, bonded, the, showing of, year by year, 4S4 floating, the, showing of, year by year, 4S4 Delaware Division, the, first train over, 351, 352 Delaware and Hudson Canal Co., opposition of, 368 ■ injunction of, 303 effect on Erie of closing of canal by, 515 Delaware Valley, the, beginning of work in, 36, 312 work in, suspension of, 42, 313 resumption of, 76 ■ seeking entry into by Erie. 5S, S7, 321, 322 opposition to entry into, S7-89, 321, 322 Denniston, Robert. 79 Deposit, X. V., data of, 504 breaking of ground at, 36, 312 change of route from, S7 Derr, W. L., 516 Diamond Cars, the, 398 Dining station, the first, 427, 428 '■rs, bribery of, 187, 190, 195, 196, 197, 199 first board of, 19 all subsequent boards of. 472-479 flight of, to Jersey City, 150, 152 arrest of, 150 fining of, 155 injunctions against, 150 Diven, Alexander S., coming of, into Erie, 68 devising by, of construction plan, 92 ' speech of, at Elmira celebration of opening, 102 withdrawal of candidacy for president by, 139 Vice-President and General Manager, 139 ——participation of. in active Erie affairs. 143-159 Dividends, Watson, the, 208, 209, 219, 229 payment 1 various, and nature of, 272, 273, 484, 515 Division Superintendents, 480 1-1 4-2, 516, 518 Dix, Gen. John A., biographical election of, a- President, 201 brief and unimportant management of, 201-207 Double track, the first, 112 1 louble track, issuing of bonds for, 112 and sidings, yearly growth of, 3S3 Douglas, Charles \\ . . coming of, into Erie, 421, 422 pioneer telegraphing of, 422 taking of first message by sound by, 422 Dowe, George W., 516 I 'rake, John R., 326 Drew, Daniel, biographical, 4S7, 4S8 first appearance of, in Erie, 115 developing of control by, 121-140, 159 conversions of bonds into stock by, 140-148 Wall street bouts of, with Vanderbilt, 140, 142, 149 declaring of war on, by Vanderbilt, 14S over-issuing of Erie stock by, 14s defying of court orders by, 148 flight of, to Jersey City, 150 secret settlement with Vanderbilt by, 155 retiring of, from Erie management, 155, 161 costly antagonizing of Gould and Fisk by, 163, 164 humiliation of, by Gould and Fisk, 165, 166 last disastrous bout of, with Gould, 210, 211 (See also Gould, Jay ; Vanderbilt-Drew Erie War ; Vanderbilt, Cornelius.) Duer, John, attorney, the first Erie, 322 drafting of charter by, 14 Duncan, W. Butler, advice of, to Jay Gould. 171, t8o Gould's letter to, 180 Gould's arrangement with, 180, 181 Dunkirk. X. V., data of, 507 western terminus of railroad fixed at, 313 land grants by, 313, 327 beginning of work at, 315 completion of railroad to and opening of, 94-109 grand celebration at, of opening of, 104-109 first trains from, 387 decline of, as terminus, 13S, 389 Early railroad building, crude ideas about, 13, 16, 38, 40, 310, 311 salaries, 311, 317, 372 Earnings, first report of, 61 freight, showing of, year by year, since 1841, the total. 4-4 passenger, showing of, year by year, since 1S41, the total, 4-4 Eldridge, John S., biographical, 465' election of, as President, 143 desertion of Vanderbilt by, 143 participation of, in Vanderbilt-Drew war, 149, 150 flight of, to Jersey City, 150 purpose of, accomplished, 156-160 (See also Drew, Daniel; Gould, Jay; Legislative Investigations; Vanderbilt-Drew Erie War.) F^lmira, N. V., data of , 505 opening of railroad to, ill, 354, 3S5 reception of Erie guests, 103 Emigrant train, mention of the first, 3S7 Employes, growth in number of, year by year, 483 fatality among, year by year, 483 Enabling act, vicissitudes of, 79-S3 legislation on, 306 Engine 100, and Gad Lyman, engineer of, 99, 100 71, and Josh. Martin, engineer of, 99, 100, 101, 393 Orange, curious career of, 301, 355, 362, 392, 393, 473 Engineers, early rivalry among, 98 pioneer, 391-395 memorable strikes of, 115, 119, 431, 434 Erie, the great development of, showing of the, 286, 287 cost of, the, 287-293 Erie and New York Central, early rivalry between, 149 Erie Railway Company, the, plan of organization of, the, 132- 1 ,4 articles of association of, the, 134 organization of, the, 134 prosperous years of, 137-140 managements of, the, 134-242 receivers appointed for, 129, 242 receivership of, the, 242-260 property of, selling of the, 254, 256, 257, 258 absorbing of the new company by, the, 260 retrospective recapitulation of career of, a, 260 (See also Berdett. Robert II.; Dix, Gen. John A.; Drew, Daniel ; El- dridge, John S.; Gould, Jay; Crouch, George; Jewett, Hugh J.; Vanderbilt. Cornelius; Watson, Peter II.; McHenrv, James.) Excursion train, the first Fourth of July, 376 Coney Island, 3S0 INDEX 5 21 Excursion train, the first through, 9S conductors and engineers of, gS, gg distinguished guests on, 96, gS fast time of, 100 grand reception of, en route, gS-105 Expenses, transportation, showing of, year by year, since 1S41. 434 Field, David Dudley, 155 Fillmore, President Millard, 94-97. toi, 102 Finch, Nathaniel, 354 First air brake, the trial and adoption of, 430, 4S3 bids for ties, etc., opening of, 317 board of directors, the, electing of, 19 bonds, the, issuing of, 70 carrying of mails on railroads, the, the suggesting of, 24 contracts for grading, the, making of, 36, 41, 44, 312, 333 for laying rails, making of, 321 charge of corrupt management, the, making of, 50 craze for railroad building, the, appearance of, 9 double track, the, preparations for, 112 employe, the, killing on the railroad, of, 403 express service, the, coming of, 483 freight shipment, the, carrying of, 406 ground, the breaking of, 36, 37, 483 gas-lighting of cars, the, trial and adoption of, 430, 4S3 ideas for a railroad over Erie route, the, expressing of, 4 iron bridge, the, fatal accident attending, 413 iron rails, the, contracting for and purchasing of, 32S-331 legislative investigation, the, ordering of and proceedings in. 50, 446, 447 lobbying, the calling into service of, 44 milk transportation, the, events leading to, 406 officers, the, electing of, 19 passenger, the, killing on the railroad of, 409 passenger train, the moving of, 52 Pullman coaches, the, adopting of, 430, 483 railroad tickets, the, character of, 413 receiver, the peculiar selection of, 333 report of earnings, the, making of, 61 of an accident by telegraph, the, sending of, 419 of receipts and expenses, the, making of, 3S salaries of officers, the, fixing of, 317 ■ sleeping cars, the, purchasing and use of, 39S spike, the driving of, 330 stock, the subscribing for, 18, 34, 36 strike, the, causes leading to, 115 ■ train order by telegraph, the, sending of, 420 train wreckers, the, appearing of, 430 Fisk, James, Jr., biographical, 4SS-4g2 coming of, into Erie, 488 career of, in Wall Street, 4SS, 489 show and notoriety loved by, 4Sg wit, humor, audacity, generosity of, 48S, 4S9. 491 interview of, with Vanderbilt, 171 suing of Vanderbilt by, 171 humiliation of Daniel Drew by, 165, 166 ■ fascination of, by Josie Mansfield, 490 experiences of, in the bluestone business, 216, 217 assassination of, by Ed. S. Stokes, 490 death and gorgeous funeral of, 491 Fitch, Charles R., 516 Henry, first general passenger agent, 379 Fixed charges, the, to be met, 292, 293 Floating debt, the, showing of, year by year, 4S4 Floods, some disastrous, 120, 125, 440, 441 Freighters, the occupation of, 378, 379 Freight cars, showing of equipment in, year by year, 4S3 Freight dock, first Erie, at New York, 403 Freight tonnage, showing of development of, 4S3 Gannon, Frank S., 496 Gauge, the broad, 44, 45, 46, T 47- 3*4. 33§ General Superintendents and General Managers, 4S0, 510, 51s General Freight Agents, chronology of the, 4S0 General Passenger Agent, the first, 379 successors to the office of, 4S0, 516 Geneseo, N. Y., data of, 511 Gilpin, H. E., 516 Glass Factory Rocks, the obstacle of the, 89 Goldsborough, C. S., 516 Goodliff, Allen A., 321 , . . „ . - r _, Gordon, Lord Gordon, gigantic bunco game of, in Erie, 184-160 Gordon, Lord Gordon, heroic recovery of funds from, [81 ■ resignation of Jay Gould from Erie obtained by. 1-5 obtaining of $700,000 from Gould by, 1S5 suit by, against Gould, 187 ■ tragic ending of, 187 Goshen, N. Y., data of, 502 first Erie printing office at, 373 citizens of, aiding company. 46 first time table to, 374 opening of railroad to, and celebration of, 332 Gould, Jay, biographical, 466-469 amazing genius, power, audacity of, 164, 172, 173. 467. 1 appointment of, as receiver, 166, 167, 169 affiliation of, with Tammany politicians in Erie, 162 aggressive policy of, in F>ie management, 175, 176, 177 arrest of, at Albany, 152, 153 in $10,000,000 suit, 211 beginning of efforts to overthrow, 177, I7g, 1S2 bribery of Attorney-General by, alleged, 454 change of attitude by Judge Barnard toward, 166 connection of, with stockyard company, 4 = 7 Atlantic and Great Western R. R., im closing interview of, with Daniel Drew, 165 conspiracy with banks charged, 162, 164 coalition of, with former foes, 209 Chicago and Northwestern corner of, by, 209, 211 results of, 2og, 219 "Classification Act" secured by, 176 death of, 46g efforts of, to check opposition, I7g, iSo, 1S1 election of, as President, 162 enormous conversion by, of bonds into stock, 163 experience of, with Lord Gordon Gordon, 1S4-1S6 expenses of, on Erie account, 455 first appearance of, in Erie, 144, 173 first great Wall Street battle, 163, 16s, 167 flight of, to New Jersey, 150 historic illness of, at Albany, 154 opposition of, to Drew- Vanderbilt settlement, 15; outwitting of Receiver Davies by, 168, 169 overthrow of, fight for, the, i82-i8g accomplished, 188, iSg virtually victory for Gould, 189, 199, 200 great profit of, to Gould, 190, 200 Wall Street's opinion of, 201 inside story of, 190-200 part taken by, in " Erie Wars," 150-154, 163-171 payment of money by, to secure legislation, 451, 454 part taken by, in Yanderbilt-Drew settlement, 172 ■ Pennsylvania Legislature balks great plans of, 173. 174 plans of, for new Erie control, 235, 249 force compromise. 242 proceedings against, in $10,000,000 suit, 2og-2ig the great $g, 000, 000 " Restitution " by. 211, 21S, 333 ■ ■ secret mission of, to Albany on Erie legislation, 152 story of overthrow, his, igg testimony of, before investigating committee. 154, 45° treachery to, of Daniel Drew, 155, 164 avenged, 163, 165, 167, 211 victory of, over Vanderbilt-Belmont clique, 166-171 transaction of, in Erie Bonds, a, 202 (See also Crouch, George ; Drew, Daniel ; Yanderbilt-Drew Erie War, Belmont-Gould Erie War ; Sickles Coup; Gordon, Lord Gor- don; Legislative Investigations; Watson, Peter II.; Jewett. Hugh J.) Gould, $9,000,000 restitution, the, inside showing of, 213-218 Grand Opera House, quarters removed to, 426 description of, 426 abandonment of. 427 excitement at, 16S-170, 1S7-1S9 ownership of, by Gould, 427 Grant and Ward, failure of, the, 204. 270 Great Bend, Pa., data of, 505 Greycourt, N. V.. data of, 502 Griffis, Abner, 330, 333 Gross earnings, showing ot, year by year, since 1841, 4*4 Hafner, Ben, pioneer engineer, 394, 3g5 Hale investigating committee, the, 449-45' Half rates to preachers, origin of, 412 Hall, William D., pioneer engineer, 104, 39? Hancock, N. Y., data of, 504 INDEX ■Hankins, N. V., data of, ;oq Hawley Branch, opening of, 371 Hawley, Pa., data of, 509 Hepburn investigating committee, the, 456, 457 Hill, Ja - I.. 515 1 . 330. 7,31, 397 Hohokus, N. J., data of. 501 t. A.Irian, collection of claim by, 336 Hone-dale Branch, opening of, 371 Pa., data ol sville, N. N .. data of, 506 opening "l railroad to, 386 dining station at. 428 memorable strike- at, 43 — 440 Investigating committees, 50, 44(1-451 Iron rails, the first, 328, 330 Jackson. Andrew, President U. S., stops survey, 16-1S Jamestown, N. V.. data, 511 first railroad meeting held at, 10 first charter application drafted at, 10 lefferson Railroad Co. and railroad, history of, 370 Jewett, Hugh J., biographical. 470, 471 selection of, a- President, 231 extraordinary salary of. 231, 232 pooling compact of, 232 disaster foreshadowed to, 232-242 selection of, as receiver, 242 three-years' struggle of, as receiver, 242-250 arrest of, on perjury charge, 251-253 treachery and disloyalty to charged by, 252-254 legal battles of, with James Mc Henry, 237. 239, 243, 249, 250, 251, 252, 254, 255-25S, 262, 269 election of, as President of the new company, 25S expansion and improvements effected by, 267-269 Grant and Ward failure, effect of on, 264, 270 retirement from Erie, 266 anti-Erie litigation of, 264, 270 Kilgour, John F., and the bluestone companies, 216, 217 King, James Gore, biographical, 460 election of, as President, 32 motives of, questioned, policy opposed, 34, 35, 317 ■ breaking of ground and beginning of work by, 36, 312 administration of, unpopular, 42 retirement of, 47. 317 King, John, biographical, 471 election of, as assistant to the President, 265 as President, 266, 267 retrenchment and reform policy of, 271, 279 ex-President Jewett's opposition to, 271, 273 selection of, as co-receiver, 274 retirement of, 471 Kirkwood, James I'., appointment of, as superintendent, 405 building of Starucca viaduct by, 350 Lackawaxen, Pa., data of, 513 Callaghan-Ksys tragedy at, 347 Land grants. 325, 326. 32S. 333 Lane, Frederick A., 150, 186, 187, 190, 192, 195 Last rail, spiking of the, 314 Legislative investigations, proceedings in, 446-457 1 eroy, N. Y.. data of, 511 Lighting of cars, evolution of, 4S3 Lockport, N. Y., data of, 510 Locomotive, the, first sight of, 348, 351 hunting and trapping lor, 34S, 349 Locomotive-, the first, 391, 394 odd early types <>f, 391, 397 first coal-burning experiments on, 391, 397 evolution in. 391, 397 early builders of, 9S, 99, 391, 396, 397 showing of increase in. year by year, since 1S41, 4S3 Loder, Benjamin, S6-1 14, 33S-358 biographical, 4'<; election of, as Pre- lent of Erie, S6 beginning of work in earnest by, S6, 87 obstacles overcome by, SS-91 opening of road to Binghamton by, 91 ■ confidence in, by investoi . 92, 93 rapid prosecution of work by, 93 completion of road to Lake Erie by, 93 Loder, Benjamin, resignation of, refused by company, 109 efforts of, for Jersey City terminus successful, 109-III Buffalo and other connections obtained by, m-113 main line from Jersey City secured by, 113 resignation of, 114 1 ong 1 lock Company, 119, 134, 135, 359, 360 Lord, Eleazar, biographical, 45S-460 original efforts of, toward a railroad, 7-13 participation of, in organization of the company, 13—19 selection of, as President, 19, 47, 72 policy of, criticised and suspected, 21, 50, 85 resignation of, from presidency, 32, 50, 85 investigation demanded by, 50, 446, 447 management of, exonerated, 50, 447 plan of, to expedite work, 43, 44, 46 insistence of, on six-foot gauge, 44, 45, 46 road-bed of wooden piles favored and fostered by, 4S, 323 permanent retirement of, from Erie affairs, S5 Lyman, Samuel P., 43,44, 316, 317 Lytle, James, career of, as pioneer conductor, 403 Magee, John, 92, 361 Maguire, J. F., 516 Mail, first Erie service, the, 426 Marsh, Luther R., 317 Marsh, Nathaniel, biographical, 464, 465 coming of, into Erie as secretary, 465 services of, as secretary, 465 appointment of, as receiver. 129 successful management of, as receiver, 130—136 ■ election of. as President, 136 successful and prosperous management of, 136-138 death of, 13S, 465 Marsh, Samuel, biographical. 464 election of, as Yice-President, 464 acting of, as President, 130, 464 Martin, Joshua R., career of, as pioneer engineer, 99, 100, 101, 393 Marvin, Richard P., 10, 13, 45S Mast Hope disaster, the. 444 Matamoras bridge, the history of, 345, 346 Maxwell, William, biographical, 461, 462 brief and unimportant management of, 67, 6S McCallum, Donald Craig, superintendency of, 115, 119, 120, 420, 421 biographical, 434 strikes following his policy, 115, 119, 431-434 ■ originating of telegraphic signals bv, 420, 421 resignation of, 120. 434 McCullough, John G., biographical, 471 selection of, as co-receiver, 274 connection of, with Erie management, 274, 472 McHenry, James, biographical, 498 Atlantic and Great Western entanglements of, 173, iSl, 182, 1S7, 193, 201, 220, 227, 22S, 232, 237, 364-366 Jewett litigation, 237, 239, 243, 249, 250, 251, 252. 254, 255. 256, 262, 269 arrest of and settlement of suits by, 264 Meginnes, Joseph W. ("Joe"), career of, pioneer engineer, 99, 100, 101, 393 Michigan Southern Railroad lease, 147, 14S, 149, 222 Middleton, J. A., 516 Middletown, N. Y., data of, 502 Association, the, 73 ■ railroad, the, how completed to, 335 opening of railroad to, 335 Mileage, showing of growth of, year by year, since 1841, 483 Milford and Matamoras Railroad, the, story of, 345, 346 Milk, transportation of, the origin of, 406 growth of, 406-409 Miller, G. C, 333 and S. G., contracting of, for laying first rails, 329 claim of, how collected, 333 Minot, Charles, superintendency of, 103, 115, 417, 419. 420, 430, 431 biographical, 430, 431 introduction of telegraph on railroads by, 417-420 issuing of first telegraph order by, 420 peculiarities of, 430. 431 refusal to enforce new rules, 115, 431 resignation of, 115, 431 recalling of, 4 ;i retirement of, 431 Montgomery, N. Y., data of, 502 Moorhead, I. C, 516 INDEX 523 Moran, Charles, biographical, 464 selection of, as President, 122 enormous salary of. 122. 127, 129 radical policy of, 124, 12b stocks and bonds, depreciation of, under, 129 management of, a failure, 129 bankruptcy following policy of , 129 resignation of, 129 Morford, John B., 494 Morgan, J. P. (Drexel, Morgan & Co.), 275, 276, 2S1 Morosini, Giovani, 49S Morton, Alvin C, 315 Morton, Hon. Levi P., Jay Gould's letter to, 1S0 Mount Morris, N. Y., data of, 511 Murphy, W. T., 497 Narrowsburg, N. Y., data of, 503 dining station at, 428 Net earnings, showing of, year by year, since 1S41, 4S4 Xewburgh, N. Y.,data of, 509 early efforts of, for a railroad, 36, 76, 77. 78 succeeding of, in efforts, 79 how branch railroad was secured by, 7'> celebrations of railroad openings by, 357, 371 Newburgh Branch, the, 79, 357 and N. V. R.R., building of the, 370 New Jersey route from Suffern, trouble over, 109-111 secured, 1 n New Vork Central, early rivalry of, with Erie, 149 New Vork and Erie R. R. Co., charter of, 296 — — incorporators of, first meeting of, 16 organization of, 19 opening by, of subscription books, 18 original subscribers to stock of, 18 managements of, 19—134 bankruptcy of, 57, 63, 65, 129, 134, 335 receivership of, 129-134 reorganization of, 130-134 absorption of, by Erie Railway Co., 134 New Vork, Lake Erie and Western R. R. Co., organization of, 259 years of struggling against fate by, 259-274 rate wars and other complications of, 261, 264, 271, 272 expansion and improvements accomplished by, 267, 269 managements of, 259-273 receivers appointed for, 274 plans submitted for reorganization of, 274-2S1 appearance of Morgan interest in Erie. 275-277 reorganization of, effected, 281 property of, the, sale of, 27S (See a ho Jewett, Hugh j. ; King, Tohn ; Thomas, E. B.) New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Co., 366 Newell. A. W., father of Bradford Branch, the, 367 Niagara Falls, data of, 510 Niven, Thornton M.. 79 North Elmira, N. Y., data of, 505 Officers, the first, and election of, 473 Olean, N. Y., data of , 506 Oliver, James A., and Jay Gould, 153, 154 Opening of railroad to Ramapo, N. V., 331 Goshen, N. Y., 111, 332, 374 Middletown, N. V., HI, 335, 377 Otisville, N. Y., HI, 380 Port Jervis, N. Y., Hi, 343, 344, 345, 382 Binghamton, N. V., in, 352, 353, 3S3 Owego, N. Y., in, 354, 385 Elmira, N. Y., Hi, 354, 3S5 Corning, N. Y., 3S5 Hornellsville, N. Y.. in, 355, 3S6 Cuba, N. Y., 356 Dunkirk, N. Y., 104 Newburgh Branch, 357 Short Cut, 370 Orange, the locomotive, curious career of, 351, 355, 362, 392, 393 Original road-bed and track, description of, 31S, 323 Osgood, George A., appointment of, as receiver, 151, 156 Owego, N. Y., data of. 504 birth of Erie at, 14 ' charter convention at, 11-14 driving of first pile at, 325 strife over depot site at, 326 disappointment of, 102 opening of railroad to, 354 Painted Tost. N. V., data of , 508 Passaic, N. J., data of, 500 Paterson, N. J., data of, 500 Paterson and Hudson River Railroad, 109, 35S, 359 Pavonia Ferry, history of, and opening, 135, 360 Pearson, Henry I.., 7, 329 Pennsylvania Coal Co., the history of. 369 purchase of, by Erie, 515 legislature, the, and Erie, SS, 89, 30S. counties, opposition of, S8, 89, 368 $10,000 annual bonus to, 89 Piermont (see also " Tappan Slote "). 97, 98, 135, 313, 315, 390, 391, 417-419 Pile road-bed, the, folly and extravagance of. 4S, 323 description of ami contrails for, 323-325 driving of the first pile for, 325 abandonment of, 328 Pioneer locomotive engineers, 391-395 Plan to expedite the work, 43, 4S Portage bridge, 314. - Port Jervis. N. V., data of, 503 opening of railroad to, 342, 345 dining station at, 42s strikes at, 436 Railroad, the, completed, 04 Ramapo ami Paterson Railroad, no, 359, 3S2 N. V., data of, 501 Ramsdell, Homer, biographical, 463, 464 first appearance of, in Erie. 70, 463 election of, as President, 114 origin by, of Long Dock Co., 119 Jersey City term mil- begun by, 119 vicissitudes of management of, 11 5-122 retirement of, as President, 122 connection of, with Jay Gould overthrow, 1-;. 17, [88, 191, 195, 196 Rate War, the first, 114 Receivers of Erie, 129, 151, 242 Receiverships of Erie, 129, 242 Redfield, William C, father of Erie, the, 4, 5, 45S Ridgewood. N. J., data of, 501 Riddle, Hugh, biographical, 493 first appearance of, in Erie, 493 appointment of. as superintendent, 493 reports of, to the company, 146, 150, 156, 157 resignation of, 422. 493 Right of way, obtaining of, 316, 338, 339, 356 Riots, 340, 343.355 Rochester, N. V., data of, 50S efforts of, toward Erie connection, 361 connection with, securing of, by Erie, 137. 362. 363 and Genesee Valley Railroad, 303 Branch, 363 Rolling stock, the first, 31S, 319, 397, 39S, 399 in pawn, 333 showing of increase in, year by year, since 1S41. 4S3 Route, the changes in (see also Sullivan County, N. Y.I, 306, 340, 555 Rutherford, N. J., data of, 500 Salamanca, N. Y., data of, 507 Scranton T rail, the, fortunate circumstance of, 90, 91 Secretary, the first. 373 successors to the office of, 474—479 Selleck. Thaddeus, originator of the milk traffic. 3 1 S, 406 Seward. W. H., (14. too, 102 Seymour. Hezekiah C, father of tin- bl 1 'he. 44. .5 ■ | first superintendent, etc., the. 315. -,17. ;;;. 334. 338, 405 James. 311, 322 Silas, biographical, 314 connection of. with Erie construction, 314, 343. 344 Shearman, Thomas G., t88, [89, 4^2 William l'itt, 253. 1 jg Sherman, Charles 11., 396 Shin Hollow War. the. 340 Shohola, Pa., terrible disaster at. the, 441. 442 data of, 503 Shortcut, the Newburgh, 370 celebrating the opening of, 370 Shultz, Capt. Alexander II.. 405. | ■> " Sickles coup, the," the popular fable of. 771) Sickles, Gen. Daniel E., appearing of , in Erie, 1S2 5=4 INDEX Sickles, Gen. Daniel P., agreement of, with Mc Henry, 182 plan of, to .ould, 1S2 failure of, joining of, with George Crouch, 1S2, 183 captun ci ,189 cost of , to Erie, [95 no thanks voted to, 204 .1 lenl .* nil 1 lould made by, 199 Signals, ori graphic, the, 421 Sinking fund, founding of, ri8 Skelly, " Billy," first railroad newsboy, the, 404 rge T., 516 Smith, < iould & ! 210, 219 Henry N., 209, 210, 219 itorms, some disastrous, 405, 406 rf trains, average of, lor 57 years, 4S3 B, W., 253, Spike, driving of the lust, 330 the last, ',14, 356 d u.l ( ill ( o., the, Erie connection with, 456, 457 Starucca viaduct, the, building of, 350 lid, requests for ami refusals of, 22, 23, 32, 33, 35, 39, 5S, 65 granting of, 47, 411. =0, 29S, 304 legislative proceedings on, 29S, 304 abstracts of bills granting, 299, 301, 304 stock, issue of, 40, 57, 59, 63, 64, 65, 31S, 319, 333, 335 work, efforts to make Erie a, 47, 4S, 317 Steel rails, the first, 483 Stewart, W. II., pioneer conductor, 98, 103, 401 - — - anecdotes of, 402 reminiscences of, 403, 405 Stock, Erie, market price of, year by year, common, 4S5 preferred, 486 beginning of real trading in, 4S6 over-issue of, 14^. 140, 150, 151, 152 exclusion of. from Stock Exchange, 140, (86 preferred, origin of. (86 lirst subscriptions to, iS, 34, 36, 316 first manipulation of, 319, 320 dissension over policy as to disposing of, 20, 21, 22 special, 319 State, 319 appreciation of, under President Thomas, 516 Stranahan, J. S. '1'., 02, 321 Strikes, some memorable and disastrous, 115, ng, 431, 434, 436, 444 Suffern, X. V., data of, 501 Sullivan County, X. V., change of route through, 5S, 84, 85, SS, 89, 502, 304, 307 he first, 2Sg, 304 Supet in general, 4S0 division, 480-482 Surveys, tin- 01 iginal, 24-31 supplementary to, 37, 41, 46, 49, 58, 313, 355 Susquehanna, Pa., data of, 504 reception of opening excursion at, 101 dining station at, 428 strikes at, 432, 437 , shops at, beginning of the, 144, 145 -v, I'eter E., 151, 155 Tammany King, the, 154, 162, 455 T rail, tile first, how obtained, 32S, 329, 330 laying of, 328 the Scranton, 90, 91 Tappan Slote, ground broken at, 41, 313 grading reported begun at, 46 construction of pier begun at, 41, 313 insuring of, as eastern terminus, 77 Piermont.) Telegraph, the, introduction of, 415-422 Ii. II Conklin, participation of, in, 417-419 Charles Minot, participation of, in, 415, 416, 417, 420 lirst tr.ii 1 11I by, 420 first railroad aCl idellt reported by, 419 application of, b) M it alliim, 419 first train order by, taken by sound, 419, 420 Termini, the fixing of, ;7. 77 Third rail, the, fit cy of, 206 ' report on cost, et< 207 laving of, 4S3 progress in laving of, 222, 483 Thomas, Benjamin, 494, 495 Thomas, Eben P.., biographical, 471 coming of, into Erie, 272 election of, as President, 282 wise, but undemonstrative policy of, 2S2-293 consolidation and expansion effected by, 2S2-285 resignation of, as President, 515 selection of, as chairman of the Board, 515 — ■ — many improvements in Erie under, 515 Ticket punch, coming of the, 413 Tickets, some early, 413 Time-table, the first, 373 pocket, the first, 389 Time-tables, the, early making of, 371 lirst printers of, 372 story of the development of, 371-3S9 Tonawanda, N. Y., data of, 510 Transportation, expenses of, year by year, since 1S41, 4S4 Treasurer, the first, 473 successors to the office of, 473, 479, 516 Turners, N. Y., data of, 510 dining stations at, 427 Tuxedo, N. Y., data of , 501 Tweed, William B., 154, 162, 167, 185, 455 Tyler, Asher, 354 Underwood, Frederick D., biographical, 518 election of, as President, 515, 518 Union Railroad, the, no, 359 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, appearing of, in Erie, 115, 125, 136 ambition of, to control, 139-144 worsting of, by Daniel Drew, 140 opening of " Erie war" by, 144 settlement of, with Drew, 155, 172 meeting of, with Eisk, 171 ■ — — suing of, by Eisk, 171-172 settlement with, by Jewett, 172, 249 (See also Drew, Daniel ; Eisk, James, jr. ; Gould, Jay; Yanderbill- Drew Erie war ; Belmont-Gould Erie war.) Yanderbilt-Drew, the, Erie war, 148-160 legal proceedings in, 148-156 flight of Erie officers, 150-152 arrest of directors, 150 Jay Gould, 152, 153 receivers appointed, 151 over-issues of stock, 148-152 injunctions in, disregarded, 151 investigation of, by legislature, 152 action of legislature on, 154 end of, under Drew settlement, 155, 160 testimony about, before committee, 451 (See also Drew, Daniel ; Gould, Jay ; Vanderbilt, Cornelius ; Legis- lative Investigating Committees.) Van Etten, Edgar, 495 Van Keuren, George, 516 War of the gauges, 114, 371, 372 Warsaw, N. Y., data of, 507 Watson, I'eter 11., biographical, 469 selection of, as President, 204 dividend-paying policy of, 208-229 prosecution of Jay Gould by, 210-212 acceptance of Gould's restitution by, 212-215 ■ dividends, the, declared by, 209, 219 legislative investigation of, 219-221, 452 revelations leading to downfall of, 223-229 retirement of, 229 Waverly, X. V., data of, 505 Webb, James Watson, 52, 331, 332 Webster, Daniel, 94, 95, 96, 98, 100, 101, 102, 108 Wellsville, X. Y. , data of, 506 Western terminus, mistake of, at Dunkirk, 138 efforts to make Buffalo the, 138 Whiton, A. S., 499 Worden, Eben B., first conductor, the, 399 Work, Erank, 143, 146, 149 Work, the, beginning of, 36, 41, 313 progress of, 313. 317-321, 326, 337-358 suspension of, 42, 313, 335 resumption of, 49, 76, SS, 337, 338 time for completion of, extended, 303 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 :■■ -•: jf.1*,) ^ D 000 331 853 2