USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > The history of Medway, Mass., 1713-1885 > Part 20
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The next year, in 1837, the financial affairs of the country were in such a disturbed state that little was thought of any new railroad schemes or anything else that required much outlay.
Thus the matter remained until the autumn of 1844, when my mind was called to the numerous railroad charters that had been granted the past session of the Legisla- ture - I thought it a proper time to renew the old project.
After a consultation with some of the former friends of the enterprise a second meeting was held at Medway Village and measures adopted to carry out the original plan.
LUTHER METCALF."
The surveys of Messrs. Cushing and Scott were not concluded till February 17, 1845. The first line surveyed commenced at Woonsocket Falls, running up the valley of Peters River, through Bellingham, and down the valley of the Charles River to Medway Village. From this place two routes were sur- veyed, one passing near Rockville, Medfield Village, and West Dedham ; the other passing through a part of Franklin, North Wrentham, now Norfolk, and Walpole ; each route terminating at the depot of the Dedham Branch Railroad.
E. S. Chesborough, Esq., surveyed the route from Walpole to Dedham. It was found that the distance by way of Medfield, from Woonsocket to Dedham was 25.85 miles, and the estimated cost, $500,299; and that the route via Walpole was 28.38 miles, and estimated cost, $553,689. A subsequent survey of a part of the route from Medfield to Dedham was found to increase the distance only 12% of a mile, and to diminish the cost $42,766.49.
This was the beginning of surveys to give railroad facilities to any portion of the great triangle, and was supported by petition to the Legislature by persons resident in Woonsocket, Blackstone, Bellingham, Franklin, Medway, Medfield, Walpole, South Dedham, West Dedham, and Dedham. Dr. Nathaniel Miller, of " River End," in Franklin, was the first petitioner and it was called the Miller Route, in distinction from others that were soon afterward developed. A large committee of one or more from each locality was chosen to appear before the Legislative Committee and present the statistics of business, which had been very fully obtained and tabulated. The Hon. Luther Metcalf and the Hon. Warren Lovering went from Medway, and this petition, with others, was presented to the Legislature whose session began in January, 1846. At this session of the Legislature no less than ten petitions were presented for railroads, in some aspects distinct from each other, over portions of this triangular territory, including a Milford route which, it was foreshadowed that the Boston and Worcester Corporation would build as far as that town. These routes were designated by the name of their first petitioner. Beginning on the west there were the S. D. Armdown Route, F. Deane, Jr., Route, C. C. P. Hastings, or the Milford Route, the N. Dana Route, the Otis Pettee, or Central Air Line Route. The Nathaniel Miller Route, the G. R. Russell Route, the Willis Fisher Route, I. A. Gould Route, and the Martin Torrey Route.
The claims of these several routes were urged before the Railroad Committee of the Legislature of 1846. The statistics of business by freight and passengers and the feasibility and distances from Boston to and from other places were exhibited by the several petitioners and experts and by civil engineers, and the outcome and results of the whole examination which occupied several weeks appear to have been an agree- ment by the Railroad Committee to report unanimously in favor of the petition of I. A. Gould for the extension of the Dedham Branch to Walpole, and of Otis Pettee
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from Newton to Woonsocket, leaving Milford to be accommodated by a branch from Framingham, and of the Martin Torrey Route from Mansfield to Woonsocket which met with no opposition, was of no general importance, and never was built.
It was the understanding that the reports on the Pettee and Gould routes should be taken up and put along together, through the two Houses. In the Senate they both passed in due course of business, but, as it was said by many at the time, the bills were kept apart in the House by the skillful management of " Bird, of Walpole, and Bragg, of Milford," so that the Walpole Bill passed and the Woonsocket and New- ton bill, or the Pettee Route, was defeated by a small majority of nineteen votes.
So this skillful adjustment of the competing schemes was defeated and all parties began at once to buckle on the armor for a decisive contest the next year.
In the contest of 1846, the project of a through line of railroad to New York, which had been incorporated in Connecticut and projected in Rhode Island, was but little mooted before the Massachusetts Legislature, although it was potent in the minds of leading men. Otis Pettee, Esq., of Newton, had more fully espoused this idea than other leaders, and openly adopted it as a part of his plan of operations for 1847. While the leaders in the Gould and Fisher routes put forward publicly only a road for local business.
In preparation for this great struggle, as reported in the Boston Atlas : " A large and highly spirited meeting of the friends of the proposed Boston and Woonsocket Railroad was held in Medway Village, on Wednesday the 17th inst.," i. e., June 17, 1846. The object of the meeting was to combine the original friends of the Pettee and Miller routes and obtain the passage of the bill for the Boston and Woonsocket Road, defeated by the House in 1846. Otis Pettee, Esq., of Newton, was chairman and E. K. Whitaker, secretary.
The following gentlemen were chosen a committee to devise a plan of coopera- tion : Messrs. Sanger, of Dover, Arnold, of Bellingham, Wheeler, of Newton, Cook and Sprague, of Woonsocket, Whitaker, of Needham, Metcalf, Lovering, Holbrook, and Fisher, of Medway. The first resolution, by Mr. Fisher, of Medway, shows the animus and scope of the meeting :
" Resolved, That we hail, as an omen of triumphant success in this enterprise, the cordial union and effective cooperation of the leading friends of the 'Pettee and Miller routes,' both in the Blackstone Valley and along the whole line of towns in the western part of Norfolk County."
There were present, twenty-one delegates from Newton, thirty-eight from East Needham, twenty from Dover, twenty from Medfield, sixty-three from Medway, five from Bellingham, and twenty-four from Woonsocket. There were no delegates pres- ent from Franklin, as, on that day, June 17, 1846, the Emmons Monument was erected, with public ceremony.
The union, on the part of Dr. Miller and some others, was not completed, as the original Miller Route had an alternate route,. between Medfield and Walpole, and Dr. Miller and his friends upon the latter line joined with the Willis Fisher Route in their petition for 1847. Similar meetings were subsequently held in Woonsocket and Newton Upper Falls, in the furtherance of the enterprise.
A large committee from the several towns was designated to sign the principal petition, and to prosecute the same before the legislature and its committee, consist- ing of the following gentlemen, whose names are attached to the general petition :
" To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in General Court assembled :
T "HE subscribers, legal voters, a committee of other legal voters, residing in the towns and places below named, respectfully represent, that the public conven- ience and necessity demand the construction of a railroad from the city of Boston, in said Commonwealth, to the State line near to and in the direction of the village of Woonsocket, in the State of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, to the city of New York. And they earnestly request of your honorable body an act of incorpora- tion for constructing and operating a railroad commencing from some convenient point in the said State line, near to Woonsocket, thence running through the towns
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of Blackstone, Bellingham, Franklin, Medway, Medfield, Dover, Needham, Newton, Brighton, and Brookline, entering said Medway by the valley of Charles River, thence passing down the banks of said river through Medway Village and through East Med- way, Medfield, near to Dover Mills, East Needham, Newton Upper Falls, Newton Centre, and Brighton Centre, and near Corey's Hill in Brookline, to some convenient point in said city of Boston, with all the powers and facilities for constructing and operating a railroad upon improvements combining the greatest speed, safety, and public convenience ; together with the right of constructing a branch road from some convenient point on said principal road, in Dover or Needham, to Dedham Village in the county of Norfolk.
October 20th, 1846.
Of Newton.
Calvin Richards, Luther Eastman.
Of Medfield.
Nathan Jones, John P. Jones, Jos. L. Richardson, Julius C. Hurd.
Of Franklin.
Of Brookline.
Edgar K. Whitaker, William M. Stedman,
Of Medway.
Of Bellingham.
George Revere,
Luther Metcalf, Warren Lovering,
Noah J. Arnold,
James M. Freeman,
Edward H. Sprague, David Daniels, Willis Cook, Oren A. Ballou,
Of Dover.
Wm. H. Cary,
Ralph Sanger,
M. M. Fisher,
Elijah Perry,
William B. Boyd,
John C. Scammel, Ellery Thayer, John Bates.
Of Boston.
Otis Pettee,
Loring Wheeler, Joseph L. Ellis, Marshall L. Rice, Samuel Langley.
Of Needham.
Samuel Johnson.
Erastus Rockwood, S. W. Richardson, Joel P. Adams.
Samuel A. Walker.
Of Woonsocket.
Daniel Kimball,
Thomas Kingsbury. Geo. H. Holbrook,
Joseph C. Lovering, Asa Pickering,
Edward Harris,
Geo. C. Ballou.
The above is a true copy of the original petition to be presented to the General Court of Massachusetts to commence in January, A. D. 1847.
OTIS PETTEE."
This petition was supported by others from all the towns interested, and by more than six hundred of the leading merchants and business men of Boston. No matter, probably, ever engrossed the attention of the people nor required or exacted so much time and means from the men appointed to take charge of the petition as this question, upon which seemed to depend the future growth and prosperity of the whole town.
Some of the Medway committee were in Boston nearly all winter, and others were there much of the time. Nine of the eleven members in 1885 had passed away.
The result of the New York feature of the Pettee Route, afterwards adopted, and in competition with it, by the friends of the Russell Route, was to bring out the older railroad corporations having connections with New York by rail, wholly or in part, into strong and powerful opposition to both the Russell and Pettee routes.
Charles G. Loring, Esq., in his powerful argument before the committee for the Pettee Route, says : " But while sustained and encouraged by the vast numbers of pe- titioners and memorialists whom it is my honor to represent, and the great extent of commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural interests which I advocate, I am not unmindful of the formidable, and, seemingly, almost overwhelming opposition with which I have to contend. The united energies of the Western, Boston and Worcester, Boston and Providence, Norwich and Worcester Railroad Corporations, and numbers of wealthy capitalists in this state, and occupants of the palaces of the city, are ar- rayed against the project before the committee."
There was never before, and probably never has been since, so great an array of corporation influence combined, or so large a number of influential citizens and of pro- fessional men, lawyers, and civil engineers, engaged and interested in railroad legisla- tion as on this occasion. A large delegation of leading men interested in the Pettee Route were present from Middletown, Conn.
No expenditure of money was spared by the " old corporations " to defeat the " Air Line " to New York. The highest professional talent was employed before the
Jabez Ellis, Francis D. Ellis, Samuel Wales, Jr.
Joseph Miller, Charles Harding, Isaac Fiske,
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committee, and a large lobby influence maintained. The Hon. Rufus Choate, whose figures of rhetoric were more vivid, if not more accurate, than the statistics of the party he served, belittled on the one hand and exaggerated on the other, and if not convincing,
" Led to bewilder, and dazzled to blind."
Instead of the ten routes and petitions of 1846 they had been simmered down to four; two looking to New York connections, both coming through Medway, viz., the Pettee, and Old Russell, or Perkins, routes ; two, viz., the Hastings, or the Mil- ford and Framingham Route, strictly local, and the Norfolk County, or the Miller Route remodeled, nominally local, but with a concealed squinting at New York, with Blackstone as their western terminus.
After many and prolonged hearings before the committee, and much conference with each other, the committee reported in favor of the Norfolk County Route, with only one dissenting member, who favored the Perkins Route.
The legislature adopted the report of the committee, and Messrs. Welcome Farnum, Willis Fisher, Shadrach Atwood, and Jeremiah Blake were named as corporators.
If the rejoicings were great with the old railroad corporations and among the citi- zens of one tier of towns in Norfolk County over the success of their strenuous labors, the grief and disappointment among those who had originated the whole movement can hardly be described. There were charges of treachery to pledges and obligations, of weakness and want of tact and skill in the management of the case which embit- tered many minds, and continued for years afterwards. Although the friends of the " Pettee Route " were " cast down," they were not destroyed, as subsequent events proved.
In 1848 they came again with the same facts before the legislature, and the commit- tee reported the withdrawal of the petition, one member only reported a bill in favor of a local road as far as Bellingham on the Pettee Route. But his report was not sus- tained. In 1849, not discouraged, Mr. Pettee presented a petition for a branch road, which was granted from Brookline to Dover, called the Charles River Branch Rail- road. The corporators named were Messrs. Otis Pettee, Edgar K. Whitaker, and Elijah Perry.
In the same year the Southbridge and Blackstone Railroad was chartered as an ex- tension of the Norfolk County and the Medway Branch to North Wrentham, as a sop to pacify the " original " promoters of the " Dedham Route," and the corporators named were Messrs. Samuel Frothingham, Eliab Gilmore, and Julius C. Hurd, of Medway.
The Norfolk County Railroad was opened for travel April 23, 1850. That year another off-shoot of the Norfolk County Road was incorporated, looking to an inde- pendent entrance into Boston, preparatory to their New York project, called the Mid- land Railroad, from the Norfolk County Road in South Dedham, to the foot of Sum- mer Street, in Boston. The corporators named were Messrs. Marshall P. Wilder, Robert Codman, Welcome Farnum, and H. K. Horton.
In 1851, the Charles River Railroad was incorporated extending the Charles River Branch, from Dover, through Medway, to some convenient point in the northeasterly part of Bellingham, and the corporators named were Messrs. Luther Metcalf, Jonathan P. Bishop, and Noah J. Arnold. The Charles River Railroad was operated to Newton, December, 1852. The same year, the Bellingham Branch Railroad Company was in- corporated to connect the Norfolk County Road with Woonsocket from Mill River.
The Medway Branch, opened in January, 1853, was discontinued in 1864, and the rails were taken up and removed in the night.
In 1853 the Wrentham Branch Railroad was incorporated to connect Wrentham Centre with the Norfolk County Road at North Wrentham, now Norfolk. This was never constructed. The Charles River Road was completed to Needham, and a cele- bration of the event occurred in that town, June 1, 1853. The Charles River Branch was united with the Charles River Railroad November 1, 1853, and both were merged, in 1855, in the New York and Boston Railroad.
In 1854 the East Walpole Branch Railroad was incorporated to extend from East Walpole station to East Walpole post-office, near the paper mills of the Hon. Frank
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W. Bird. This line of road was a part of the original Walpole Branch, the first of the series incorporated in 1846, but which the Norfolk County Company refused to build, much to the regret of Mr. Bird.
Also, in 1854, the friends of the Pettee Route pressed their claims for the extension of their line to connect with the New York and Boston Route at the State line, in Bel- lingham. The railroad committee, reported a bill in favor of it. Pending this bill a large and enthusiastic meeting of its friends was held in West Medway. Appro- priate resolutions were adopted which, with an account of the meeting, appeared in the Boston Atlas. This bill, reported by the committee, was not adopted by the leg- islature.
A sufficient amount of stock having been subscribed for the extension of the Charles River Road to Medway, no more exciting or interesting event ever occurred in the town than the Railroad Jubilee, July 4, 1854, in Medway Village. A full account of the occasion was prepared by the Hon. M. M. Fisher, and published July 15, 1854, in the Dedham Gazette.
After the great victory of the old railroads having a New York connection either by rail or water, and the defeat of the " Air Line " project in 1847, it had not been deemed wise " to beard the lion in his den," and ask the legislature for authority to extend the Pettee Route, or Charles River Railroad, from Bellingham to meet and connect with the New York and Boston Railroad, chartered in the States of Rhode Island and Connecticut, until the year 1855. This was the great "Know Nothing" year in Massachusetts politics. A new party, at one bound, elected Henry J. Gardner, Gov- ernor, by a large majority. All the former political leaders of both the old parties in the legislature were left at home, and new men with new ideas filled their places. This change gave encouragement to the friends of the old Air Line project, and no pains were spared to obtain such an organization of the Railroad Committee as would compensate, as far as possible, for the errors of the past, and prominent members of the legislature were " button-holed " in advance. It will be recollected by some that this committee came over the line of the road and spent the night at Hathon's Hotel, visited the straw shop in the evening, and were entertained by the young ladies with songs suited to the occasion, and everything done to make a favorable impression upon them. They soon reported a bill which made the last link in a chartered railroad con- nection of Boston with New York shorter by some thirty miles than by any other ex- isting route. This closed the great struggle in the Massachusetts legislature to se- cure chartered rights to unite with the corporations in Rhode Island and Connecti- cut to construct this shortest line to New York.
As yet the road had only been constructed and opened to Needham. A large amount of stock must be subscribed and paid. The old Norfolk County Road had been built, and chartered extensions obtained, and financial circles had been thoroughly canvassed for sales of stock, and when calls were made for the construction of the Air . Line it was found that the financial field had been thoroughly explored, and the means were nearly exhausted by the great panic of 1857. Slow progress was made, and it was found that funds must be raised largely upon the line of the road, and meetings were held to obtain pledges for stock in Medway and elsewhere.
At one of these meetings the Rev. Dr. Ide made a very effective speech, demonstrat- ing his public spirit. He said in effect that the town better subscribe $100,000 and lose it all, if need be, rather than that the road should not be built, and then made a liberal subscription for the stock.
The following persons were original subscribers to the stock of the New York and Boston Railroad in Medway, or aided by the purchase of bonds for its construction, and probably there were others whose names are not known : Luther Metcalf and the Medway Cotton Manufacturing Company, William H. Cary, M. H. Sanford, M. M. Fisher, Allen Partridge, Joseph L. Richardson, Henry Richardson, Oliver Clifford, Amory Gale, A. P. Lovell, John Bullard, 2d, J. D. Richardson, Paul Daniell, H. F. Howard, Michael Bullen, Edward Adams, Nathan Jones, Michael Lovell, Elbridge Clark, John Clark, Asa D. Morse, Oliver Phillips, Horatio Mason, Lyman Adams, Henry Daniels, Lemuel Clark, George Harding, Cyrus Bullard, W. Battelle, Joseph Ingalls, Charles S. Wheeler, Lewis Wheeler, Cemetery Corporation, Richard Rich- ardson, T. J. Baker, P. N. Spencer, Elisha Adams, Edwin Metcalf, T. M. Daniels, J. P.
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Clark, T. H. Hall, Samuel Dudley, Theodore Harding, Jonathan Adams, William Adams, Stephen Campbell, Elisha Cutler, Samuel Rice, A. M. B. Fuller, George L. Pond, J. S. Smith, Simeon Fisher, Alvin Wight, Seth Inman, Cyrus Adams, Horace Hill, James Adams, Cephas Thayer, Timothy Partridge, Stephen Clark, Charles Clark, H. C. Bullard, William M. Adams, E. F. Pond, Stephen Smith, Elijah Part- ridge, Jotham Adams, Jr., Stephen Adams, A. L. Shaw, Cyrus M. Hill, William Everett, B. C. Barber, Edward Clark, Hawley Clark, Jr., Jerome Westcott.
The amount taken in stock in the New York and Boston Railroad was about fifteen thousand dollars, and nearly equally divided between the three parishes, while the amount in bonds cannot be well ascertained.
While the prospect for the completion of the " Pettee Route," as the " Air Line" was called, seemed doubtful, through the energy of Messrs. Daniels and Hurd, of Med- way Village, the Medway branch to the Norfolk County Road, was pushed forward to completion. It is estimated that this enterprise cost them $40,000 in various ways which ultimately proved to be almost a total loss.
The Hon. John M. Wood, of Portland, was the contractor for constructing, and was the largest stockholder in the old Air Line Railroad, and was its first president.
It was completed and the cars began running to Medway in 1861, and reached the Blackstone River, at Woonsocket, in 1863. It was merged in the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company in 1865. Mr. E. C. Hawes was the first conductor, and con- tinued upon the road until 1883. He deserves honorable mention for a long and faith- ful service. Messrs. Knapp, Monson, and Story will long be remembered by many passengers as courteous conductors. Mr. William Adams, of West Medway, became a large owner of stock and bonds in the road, and was a director for several years. The Hon. Luther Metcalf was the first president of the Charles River Railroad.
The financial condition of the country during the war, and the strong competition between the two roads from Boston to the Blackstone valley for means to construct and complete these roads and new connections, led to a proposition for a union of these corporations into the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company. This pro- ject was strenuously opposed by Mr. Wood, of the Air Line, and the result, it is said, hastened his death soon after.
All the money paid for both roads must either be considered a loss to the sub- scribers or a charitable donation to posterity. As an investment this road has never paid its original owners ; but its existence has become a necessity to the town.
The following is the report of the Commissioner of the New York and Boston Railroad Company, or the old Pettee Route, when it was absorbed by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, as found in the Massachusetts Railroad Returns, for 1866:
" The Annual Report of the Commissioner of the late New York and Boston Railroad Company, now merged into the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company, to the Legislature of Massachusetts.
The undersigned, Commissioner for Massachusetts, being duly authorized and required by an Act of the Legislature, approved May 14, 1864, has this day examined the books of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company, and hereby certifies that separate accounts of the expenditures of said Company in the several States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, have been duly kept, as required by law; and he finds that the following expenditures have been made in the several "States upon that portion of the road of said Company derived from the New York and Boston Railroad Company, to wit :
Expended for construction in the State of Connecticut, $270,597 16
Expended for construction in the State of Rhode Island, 408,939 16
Expended for construction in the State of Massachusetts, 1,338,244 26
$2,017,780 58
Total cost of the equipment of the road operated from Brookline, Mas- sachusetts, to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, 82,880 25
$2,100,660 83
12
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As less than one mile of the road now in operation lies in the State of Rhode Island, and as the income of the road, as yet, does not exceed the expenditure, the Commissioner deems it unnecessary to make any apportionment of the cost of the equipment or of the current expenditures and receipts until this portion of the road is operated to a greater extent beyond the limits of this Commonwealth.
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