USA > Delaware > Historical and biographical encyclopaedia of Delaware. V 1 > Part 28
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160
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
,
ating it and damages recovered from casual- | New Castle ; the tracks were joined and be- ties. fore the middle of September, trains were The rent to commence on opening the line through, and payable semi-annually on the first of January and July. running between Wilmington and Middletown. The Company had built a tank house at that station, and a depot for the accommodation of passengers and freight, and was erecting temporary structures both at Smyrna station and at Dover.
The Lessor was bound to have first obtained the consent of the Lessee before increasing the capital stock to an amount exceeding $300,000 over and above the collateral stock to be issued to the State, or before increasing their expenses of organization or indebtedness beyond the amount then authorized by the Board. The Lessee was required to equip, use, run and work the road and branches to the best advantage, and according to the require- ments of the charter, and to keep the road and its appendages in good repair." It was further agreed, "that all the rents paid on account of the State's stock should be set apart as a sinking fund, for the extinguishment of the principal of the State Bonds, which on redemption are to form no part of the capital of said Company."
The interest on the State's stock and bonds being thus secured by the execution of the lease, under instructions.of the Board, the President deposited with the State Treasurer the securities required by the act of February 28, 1855. And State Bonds to the full amount of $170,000 were received and deposited with the Treasurer of the Company.
PROGRESS OF CONSTRUCTION.
Some delay in the progress of the work had been caused, by the unforeseen demand on the funds of the Company for land "damages in New Castle County, and complaint was also made of the slow progress and inefficiency of several of the sub-contractors, whose engage- ment had not been assented to by the board.
To prevent further delay it was found nec- essary to offer a "bonus" to the principal contractors, as an inducement to take the work in their own hands and push it forward more rapidly.
The draw bridge at the crossing of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, the most important on the line of the road, was at length completed, and the track laid to Mid- dletown by the last of August. A formal and satisfactory agreement had been made with the New Castle and French Town Turn- pike and Railroad Company, for a junction of the two roads at a point about 7 miles from
The citizens of Dover, where the enterprise took its start, felt a peculiar interest in the progress of the road, and its completion to their town was, perhaps, the most important event that had happened in its history, since it was selected to be the Capital of the State. The first train of general merchandise arrived at the Dover station on the 23rd of January, 1856, and was hailed with delight as the har- binger of a future business prosperity. Pas- senger and freight trains soon commenced running regularly, and though the business of the road was at first comparatively light, the structures erected at the way stations, which were of the roughest and simplest description, could not accommodate it, and box cars were used frequently for storing freight.
Having progressed thus far successfully with their work the directors did not relax their efforts, but renewed their exertions that the road might be opened to Seaford by the mid- dle of summer.
Steps were also taken to secure connections with the railroads projected on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and to extend the Dela- ware Railroad to other important points by branch lines. A survey for a branch to Mil- ford had been made, and the cost of the eight miles of road required was estimated at about $80,000. Negotiations were also pending for a steamboat line from Seaford to Norfolk. A railroad line had been surveyed from Oxford, near the mouth of the Choptank River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, by way of Easton and Greensboro, to Smyrna station. And other roads were in contemplation on the Eastern Shore to connect with the Delaware Road, which would bring to it, as a trunk line, the business of a large territory embracing immense tracts of woodland and a soil of al- most unequaled fertility; since found to be adapted to the growth and perfect ripening of fruits of every variety produced in this climate. With fairer prospects in view, the Company entered vigorously upon the last
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
161
year of its labors in the construction of the | the Board. These drafts were pledged for Road.
At the Stockholders' meeting in January, 1856, the report of Mr. Allee, Treasurer, shows the aggregate amount expended to January Ist as $870,623.60. Of this amount,
Received from capital stock. $144,458.02
from bonds,including State
bonds 655,700.00 Received from donations, (lottery grant ) 25,000.00
Received balance, consisting of bills
payable and other items 45,465.58
$870,623.60
"Less than $15,000 of the mortgage and State bonds, and but little over $9,000 of cash remained in the hands of the Treasurer, and over two-thirds of the cash would be required to finish up the work above Dover."
1
During the preceding year nearly all the State bonds had been sold at their par value, but large drafts on the treasury which had to be promptly met, obliged the finance commit- tee to dispose of the residue, about $22,000, at a slight discount, and a few of the bonds of the Company at 75 per cent. of their face value. The first issue of the first mortgage bonds were accepted at their par value by the "Montour Iron Company" for railway iron as delivered under the contract, at $77 per ton, and the Board was averse to disposing of the remainder at so heavy a discount. It now became nec- essary to raise money promptly and by means of temporary loans. In December, (1855,) the President was authorized to borrow $50,000, and to pledge as collateral the Company's bonds, and again in February, 1856, the Finance Committee (Messrs. Felton, Sharpe, Gray and the President) waited upon the Banks of the State to obtain accommodations on the pledge of the Company's guaranteed bonds. It was also found expedient to anticipate the pay- ments on the State's subscription, and in March the Treasurer was directed to confer with the State Treasurer and obtain drafts on the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company, for the payments coming due on the Ist of July and January. The holders of the lottery grant responded promptly to a similar request and anticipated the payment of $10,000 falling due January, 1857, for which they received the thanks of
loans from the Banks. A committee was ap- pointed to meet in conference a committee of the Philadelphia Board of Trade, on the sub- ject of obtaining subscriptions to the stock of the Company. This conference seems not to have brought the desired aid; but the personal solicitations of Messrs. DuPont, Gray and other members of the committee were atten- ded with better success, and liberal subscrip- tions were made by many of the merchants and other business men of Philadelphia and Wilmington. It was during this period, that several of the members of the committee were said to have gone from house to house, soliciting subscriptions to stock, and some of the Directors in their anxiety to save the credit of the Company lent their individual names as endorsers upon its paper at the State Banks. The Board was forced by its necessi- ties to consider the expediency of pledging all the rents to be received of the Lessee for the payment of loans to complete the road, but this expedient was dropped and other means resorted to for raising funds. Drafts on the State Treasurer anticipating the semi- annual payment of the "bonus" applied to the State's subscriptions had, as before stated, been pledged for loans, but up to this time no bonds had been issued as contemplated by the "Act of February 28, 1852." The Board now found it necessary to avail itself of the author- ity given by the "Act," the Lessee consenting to pay the interest on the loan contemplated, and by resolution of September 4th, and sub- sequently of December 18th, 1856, bonds were authorized to the amount of $91,000 and were issued in sums of $3,250, payable semi-annually, with interest at 6 per cent., for which the "bonus" derived from the State in like amount, semi-annually, was pledged. These bonds were issued without other guarantee than the resolutions of the Board, but the pledge was inserted in the bonds, and their dates of maturity corresponded with the semi- annual payments by the State until January Ist, 1872, when the "Act" from which this revenue was derived would expire. The bonds were sold at 60@70 per cent. of their face, and were largely used in the liquidation of the Company's debts.
By the means thus resorted to, the Company was in a good degree relieved from its financial
2I
162
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
difficulties. In the mean time the contractors had pushed forward the work with commenda- ble zeal and energy, and by the first of De- cember the rails were laid to the Nanticoke River, at Seaford. A formal opening of the Delaware Railroad in its whole length was appointed for the IIth of the month ! Unfortu- nately the weather was stormy, and a day less favorable could not have been set for the cele- bration of so grand an event, yet it is said by the reporter of the proceedings that all partici- pating seemed to enjoy themselves to the ut- most. Two trains of cars laden with guests arrived at "Nanticoke Station," passing under an arch handsomely decorated and inscribed with appropriate mottoes. Their arrival was greeted by a salute of 13 guns, and the guests were met by a large concourse of the citizens of Seaford and the surrounding country.
OPENING CEREMONIES AT SEAFORD.
A meeting was organized with Governor Peter F. Cansey as chairman, and after appro- priate ceremonies, the President of the Com- pany (Chief Justice Harrington) delivered an eloquent address, congratulating the stock- holders and all who felt an interest in the pros- perity of the State, upon " the achievement of the enterprise through many difficulties and embarrassments." He gave a short account of the origin, progress, present condition, and future prospects of the work, and dwelt espe- cially on the effect it had already produced in appreciating the value of real estate. "The in- crease of assessable wealth," he estimated, " had been already equal to the cost of build- ing the road." Hon. Morton McMichael, the late Mayor of Philadelphia, an invited guest, expressed his great satisfaction in being pres- ent, both, because of the event intended to be celebrated, and of the interest he felt in every thing relating to the welfare of Delaware. "He believed this improvement was destined to be- come one of the chief sources of its pros- perity ; he was impressed with the rare adap- tation of the country for the neighborhood of a great commercial and manufacturing city, whose wants it would, very soon in a large measure, supply and he felt certain that before many years the stately forests of oak through which they had traveled, would yield to the woodman's axe and the land be brought into cultivation, and the whole region bordering
the iron track, over which they had passed, would teem with cereal products, fruits and vegetables intended for the exhaustless markets to which access had been given." In referring to the importance of this traffic to the City of Philadelphia, he remarked that, "it would be imputing to her a criminal want of energy to suppose that she would fail to secure the boun- ties that Providence had thus, as it were, cast into her lap by means of this road, and the enlarged intercourse which it would give with Delaware and places further south." At the close of his address Mr. McMichael paid an earnest tribute to President Harrington and the Directors who were associated with him, and especially to President Felton, of the Phil- adelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, "whose co-operation, he knew, had been of great service in surmounting the difficulties the work had encountered in the early stages of its progress." Addresses were also delivered by his excellency Gov. Causey, President S. M. Felton. Hons. Charles I. DuPont. John W. Houston, W. G. Whiteley, and by Willard Saulsbury, Esq .: the last in behalf of the cit- izens of Seaford, welcomed to their town the stockholders and invited guests. The pro- ceedings of this meeting were afterward pub- lished in pamphlet form for circulation. The Delaware Railroad was now open for travel and the transportation of freight to Seaford; but it would require a considerable outlay to com- plete it, and erect the necessary buildings and fixtures for the accommodation of business.
At the Stockholders' annual meeting, Janu- ary 8th, 1857, Mr. Allee, the Treasurer, sub- mitted his annual statement by which it ap- pears the cost of the work to January Ist was $1, 146,310.57, on a stock subscription paid in of $252,560.94. The entire subscription when paid would amount to $317,375, as follows :
Subscribed by the State of Delaware. $130,000 " corporations. 62,500
contractors 10,000
" citizens of other States 6,525 " Wilmington and New Castle Co. 27,725
" citizens of Kent Co ... 44,750
" Sussex Co. 35,875
The bonds issued by the Company, including the State bonds of $170,000, amounted to $759,000. Of these bonds $500,000 were se- cured by a first mortgage, $65,000 were guar-
163
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
anteed by the Lessee, and $24,000 were of the | loan anticipating the funds of the State.
Changes had frequently taken place in the Engineers' department during the progress of the work. Major Isaac Trimble was appointed Chief Engineer in 1853, immediately after the new organization of the Board, but resigned January, 1854, before the road was definitely located. He was succeeded by his assistant, David Kennedy, Esq., who soon after resigned, and in March, 1854, E. Q. Sewall, Esq., was appointed Chief Engineer and continued in charge of the work until November, 1855. leaving the road to be completed by John Dale, Esq., who had been his assistant and more recently his associate engineer. The fol- lowing are the chief characteristics of the road, given in Mr. Sewall's report submitted to the Board of Directors in September, 1854, to which I have added a further description of the railroad from other reports : "The length of the road from its junction with the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad to Sea- ford, 70,88 miles ; Grades -~ Level, 1995 miles.
Grade from 216 to 5 feet per mile, 11 88-100 miles } 28 per cent. of the
7% to :t feet per mile, 13 miles road level.
= 211/8 feet per mile, 16 41-100 :niles
= 36 7-10 feet per mile, 95-100 miles
13 to 181% feet per mile, 8 64-100 miles ) 62 per cent. level or of grades less than 11 feet per mile.
The specified width for embankments was 16 feet, for cuts 20 feet .. The track was laid with white oak cross ties 2 feet apart, and iron rails 50 lbs. to the yard, fastened with Trimble joint blocks and ballasted with gravel.
Of the whole length of road 67-0% 5.7 miles are of straight, and 31206% of curved, lines ; and no curve except at the junction with the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad of less radius than half a mile. Nearly 94 per cent. of straight line in 71 miles of road, free from heavy grades, shows it to be eminently favora- ble for the cheap and easy transportation of passengers and freight.
In the annual report of 1857 the President deemed it a proper occasion to refer to the early history of the Delaware Railroad. Still clinging to the first design, he dwelt upon its importance as the shortest and most direct line of travel between the North and South. The policy of starting the road from Dona is admirably expressed in the following extract from this report :
"The practical movement of starting this road on the line of the old coach route ; con-
necting the Bays by the nearest travel, on the shortest railroad that could effect this ; putting under contract the middle link, and beginning the work where it afforded the best prospect of success ; and where, if successful, it would, be dangerous to other and powerful interests, is the policy which has made the Delaware Railroad. Whatever may be said of the per- severing, self-sacrificing efforts of its Mana- gers in carrying out this improvement, it owes its existence to a line of policy which was contemplated in the movement of 1849, which was expressed in the first contracts, by reserv- ing the right to abandon the Dona terminus, and which was adopted as soon as parties interested were willing to meet the additional cost of a connection with them. This was desirable as a thoroughfare railroad between Philadelphia and Seaford ; as connecting the lower with the upper part of our State, and as giving us access to our own city of Wilming- ton and to Philadelphia, where were most of our business transactions : but it was more than double the cost of a road terminating at Dona, which, though less desirable as leading us away from our accustomed markets, was yet attainable, and would have been made through other combinations of interest, which were aroused by the importance of the work itself.
The second great cause of the successful accomplishment of this road is the policy which, at the right time, and on fair terms, changed its direction so as to connect it with the Phila- delphia, Wilmington and Baltimore road. Un- der this arrangement a direction has been given to this improvement beneficial to all,ex- cept those locally interested in the Dona terminus. The road, though increased in cost, has been made much more available for gen- eral travel, and this travel, already considera- ble, soon to be very great, is kept in the line of the cities, and carried, to a large extent, over existing roads now to be benefited, in- stead of injured. By the same means the public advantages of the road became general instead of local; it being made part of a sys- tem of internalimprovements in which all the railroads of the State have a common interest, and to which public patronage might be ex- tended without injury to others ; becoming in its turn the trunk from which other branches might be fostered for the common good."
164
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
The time had now arrived for the Lessee to! established line to Philadelphia, and gave the to take charge of the road, and a committee Company the control of a landing on the Dela- ware, which (in the words of the committee) "might be used greatly to the disadvantage of the interests of the Delaware Railroad and its Lessee." was appointed at this meeting to settle the accounts between the two Companies to the 30th of November 1856, and to arrange for the transfer of the Railroad to the Lessee. The settlement left a balance due the Phila- BRANCH RAILROAD delphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad The 21st Section of the Charter imposed on the "President and Directors the duty of inviting the co-operation of the States of Maryland and Virginia in the construction of Railroads for the improvement of the Penin- sula." Company of $54,929.46, and the note of the Company was accepted for this amount of in- debtedness. The transfer of the Delaware Railroad was effected on the following terms : The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company "assumed the payment of the rent from January Ist, 1857, under the lease, except, in consideration of the imperfect and unfinished state of the road, the Delaware Railroad Company was to be at the expense of repairs of road and fixtures for six months, and to assume and also pay after the said six months, any item of expenditure fairly chargeable to construction."
PURCHASE OF DONA LANDING, AND STEAMER ZEPHYR.
Soon after the road was opened for travel to Dover, the Steamboat, "Zephyr," which had continued her regular trips between Dona Landing and Philadelphia, was bought by the Company. Seventeen thousand five hundred dollars was paid for the Steamer, her furniture and fixtures in stock of the Company at par; she was sold soon afterward to the Philadelphia Wilmington & Baltimore Company, and, as elsewhere stated, was withdrawn from the line.
Under a resolution of the Board, negotia- tions were at once opened by a committee , Messrs. Du Pont, Ridgely, and Gray, for the purchase of the capital stock of the Dona Steamboat and Transporation Company. Chancellor Harrington and the writer were the sole owners of this property, (the shares formerly held by Mr. C. S. Sipple then de- ceased, having been bought by the Chancellor.) There was some delay in effecting this pur- chase on satisfactory terms, but, finally, the owners accepted an offer of four hundred shares of the stock of the Delaware Railroad Company, as in full payment of their entire interest in the property, and executed to the purchasers a release of all claims against the Lessee of their wharf and buildings. These transactions resulted in breaking up a well
The State of Maryland had, in 1835, made a liberal appropriation amounting to $1,000,000 for internal improvement on the Eastern Shore. As elsewhere stated, a part of this fund was expended in the surveys of 1836, and some work on the line between Elkton and the Annamessex River ; after this work was aban- doned, the balance, nearly $850,000, was de- vided among the several counties of the East- ern Shore. insuring to each a sum quite suffi- cient to induce its citizens to unite with others in organizing companies with chartered privil- eges to build railroads to the State line, and the Delaware Legislature was petitioned for the further right to connect with the Delaware Railroad at the nearest points practicable. Every encouragement was given to the pro- moters of these improvements to carry out the general system of Peninsular Roads by which the Delaware Railroad would become the main or trunk of the lateral lines projected ; but the Company watched with jealous care, and opposed, strenuously, any attempt on the part of a Maryland branch road to obtain by legislation in Delaware, the right to cross the Delaware Railroad and extend its line to the Bay shore. The Delaware Railroad Company was, in fact, under obligations to the Lessee, to guard against the opening of any opposi- tion or rival line, " and in accordance with this, a restriction was embodied in the proposed agreement with the Maryland & Delaware Railroad for connecting the two railroads at Smyrna Station," that, the "Maryland & Dela- ware Company should not apply for legislation from the State of Delaware, authorizing the said Company to extend the line of its road eastwardly of the line of the Delaware Rail- road, nor countenance or encourage any rival line." The fears entertained by the Dela-
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
ware Railroad Company, at that period, of a [ and a counter; proposition made on the part dangerous interference with the business of of the Company; (i. e.) to guarantee the owners the road, have since vanished ; the Company from loss to the extent of $2,000, if they would consent to run the boat in connection no longer apprehends any danger to its traffic from cross lines, and would place no obstacle | with the railroad from Seaford to Norfolk un- in the way of any other Company disposed to risk its money in such an enterprise.
The Delaware Railroad Company pledged to the building of a branch to Milford, and as before stated, a survey and estimate of its cost was made by E. Q. Sewell Esq., at the Company's expense; but their finances were not in a condition to promise the speedy prosecu- tion of this work, and the Company was hap- pily relieved from further expense by the ac- tion of the friends of the enterprise, living in Milford. Hon. J. W. Houston, Gov. Peter F. Causey, Bethuel Watson Esq., and Col. H. B. Fiddeman (the last also a Director of the Dela- ware Railroad Company) having determined that it would be better to construct this sec- tion of the road in connection with the exten- sion from Milford to Lewes under a separate Railroad. organization, obtained a charter from the Legislature of 1857, and raised by sub- scription a sufficient amount, with the addition of a small loan, to build the 83 miles from Clark's Corner, (now Harrington station,) to Milford. This section was completed in 1859, and was operated in connection with the Dela- ware Railroad under an agreement with the Lessee.
The Delaware Railroad having been success- fully opened to Seaford, the Directors, in pur- suance of the original plan of connecting the line by means of steamboats to Norfolk with the Seaboard, Roanoke and other Southern Railroads terminating at that seaport, had soundings taken of their river front on the Nanticoke and materials were purchased for the wharf. Measures were also taken for the removal of a bridge at Vienna, about 20 miles below Seaford, and to cut off such points and projections of the river shore as would ob- struct its navigation by boats of a large class.
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