USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 52
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The governor repeatedly advised action upon these recommend- ations ; but, in spite of this and other pressure, it was four years before the legislature again moved in the matter, and five before anything practical was done towards extending the road beyond Worcester. The delay, however, proved fortunate, as much unnec- essary expenditure was saved by the experience dearly bought by other routes. Pittsfield was, perhaps, also favored by the delay, as she was, by means of the Pontoosue turnpike, better able to thwart the local attempts to turn away the road from the route which successive boards of commissioners and engineers had, with remarkable unanimity, pronounced the most feasible. During the delay, also, steam came to be recognized as the only proper motive-power ; which still further favored this route, by making stationary-power comparatively less economical, and high grades, therefore, more objectionable. The postponement of action then, however disagreeable to the ardent friends of the railroad, and, whether prompted by the timidity or the wisdom of the legisla- ture, is not now to be regretted.
The inaction of the legislature intensified instead of calming railroad-agitation in Berkshire. Discussion was more animated than ever; both sections of the county being earnestly in favor of the road, and each ambitious to secure its location within its own 1 Bliss.
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limits. The local trade was of far greater consideration in build- ing the road, than it has since become in running it. Indeed, in the popular mind of Berkshire, the primary object was to open a way to market for the heavier productions of the county ; and, in this, as the resources of the two sections were then developed, the south had a great advantage. A meeting at Great Barring- ton, in January, 1828, put the argument thus :
Resolved * That such railroad, as particularly connected with the middle and southern sections of the county of Berkshire, ought to pass through the towns of Lee, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, Great Bar- rington, and Egremont, towards the city of Hudson. Such location being best calculated to accommodate the transportation of the great mass of agricultural products of those sections, and particularly the heavy article of marble from the extensive quarries in West Stock- bridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield; such location being also best calculated to encourage the transportation of heavy articles from the extensive iron and other manufactories in Salisbury and Canaan, Conn.
The authors of this resolution had evidently heard of the report of the first board of commissioners, which aroused great indigna- tion throughout all the southern towns; 1 and the meeting was very much in earnest; but its members had a clearer comprehen- sion of their local resources than of the exigencies of railroad- engineering. Still, in the fall of 1875, an engineer of the Massa- chusetts Central railroad, reports that he has found a perfectly feasible route across southern Berkshire, at Great Barrington, making the western terminus at Poughkeepsie, which would have very well satisfied the Great Barrington meeting of 1828.
But while northern and southern Berkshire disputed regarding the Boston and Albany road, there was one line in whose support they cordially agreed. It might be long, they well knew, before the railroad would give them communication with Boston. Even if it were immediately undertaken, years must pass before it could be completed. But a short and easily constructed road would speedily enable them to follow the old familiar track of trade to Hudson, and thence, by steamer, to New York. And nobody then thought of preferring the railroad to the steamer.
1 This indignation displayed itself at the next election in the defeat of Colonel Mckay for state-senator. The feeling against him, however, rapidly passed away, and he was elected the next year by a fair majority.
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The first action in favor of this route was taken by a meeting held at West Stockbridge, January 31, 1828; the citizens of Hudson having just before sent delegates to the Berkshire towns principally interested. This meeting was fully attended by lead- ing citizens of Berkshire and Columbia counties, who resolved to present a joint petition to the legislatures of New York and Mas- sachusetts, for the incorporation of a railroad from Hudson to West Stockbridge, and-there dividing-through Richmond to Pittsfield, and, through Stockbridge and Lee, to Lenox Furnace. On the 12th of February, the Pittsfield delegation to the West Stockbridge convention, reported to a meeting of their constitu- ents ; which strongly approved the action taken, and appointed the following committee of Vigilance and Correspondence-a name savoring of revolutionary earnestness :- Joseph Merrick, Henry Hubbard, Butler Goodrich, Jonathan Allen, Dr. William Cole- man, Jonathan Yale Clark, Thomas A. Gold, Jonathan Allen, 2d, S. D. Colt, Hosea Merrill, Jr., M. R. Lanckton, Ephraim F. Goodrich, E. R. Colt, E. M. Bissell, C. T. Fenn, David Campbell, Jr., Lemuel Pomeroy, and Jirah Stearns.
The charter for the Hudson and Berkshire road, with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars, was granted by the New York legislature, May 1, 1828. In the Massachusetts General Court, after two postponements, it was refused in January, 1829. It might have been supposed that this action arose from reluctance to add to the already too great facilities for intercourse between Berkshire and New York city; but the bill providing for the con- struction of a railway between Boston and the Hudson, was also defeated in the house of representatives by a majority of one hun- dred and twenty-three.
Disappointed in their efforts to secure railroad-communication with the metropolis of their own state, the people of Berkshire became more earnest to secure it with the city of New York; and a meeting was held, October 6, 1831, at West Stockbridge, to consider the interest which Berkshire had in the construction of a railway to the city of Albany. In this meeting, Col. S. M. MeKay, Hon. Henry W. Dwight, Ralph Taylor, and other prom- inent citizens of the county, were appointed a committee to respond to any movement which might be made, across the line, for a railroad from New York to Albany, by the valleys of the Croton and the Housatonic.
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On the 10th of October, a convention of several north Berk- shire towns, Lemuel Pomeroy presiding, adopted a preamble and resolutions, of which the following are the significant portions :
Whereas, the citizens of New York and Albany, with their charac- teristic enterprise and intelligence, already appreciate the wonderful advantages which, within a few months, have been practically developed by the railway-system, and are now about to make a railroad from the city of Albany to the city of New York :
And whereas, it is well understood to be the true policy of the cities of New York and Albany, if it shall be found practicable, without materially increasing the distance, to establish a road so far east of the Hudson as to avoid competition with the steam-boat and sloop-freightage thereon ; but at the same time to secure to the railroad all the travel and transportation which demand greater expedition than can be obtained on the river ; and also to open to those cities the rich resources of the county of Berkshire, parts of the counties of Hampden and Hampshire, and all the western counties of Connecticut-and that such a route will combine much greater resources than one on the banks of the Hudson. * * *
Resolved, that measures of co-operation should be spiritedly and cor- dially adopted by the citizens of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
On motion of Thomas A. Gold, the meeting passed a resolution urging the next legislature to incorporate the road from Pittsfield, to connect at West Stockbridge with the Hudson and Berkshire road chartered by the State of New York. On motion of Henry Hubbard, it was resolved cordially to co-operate in procuring a charter for the other branch of the road; through Lee to Lenox Furnace. Mr. Hubbard strenuously advocated the division of the road, at West Stockbridge into two branches ; not only as a mat- ter of justice and fair dealing, but because it would provide a rich feeder for the road from Boston to Albany, if that should run through Pittsfield ; and would also do away with one of the strong- est arguments for a more southerly location, by providing an out- let for the heavy freight of that section. The meeting also appointed S. M. McKay, Henry Hubbard, and T. A. Gold, dele- gates to a county-convention to be held at Lenox on the 17th of , October. This convention passed a long series of resolutions sim- ilar in tenor to those of the preliminary meetings; but the only remarkable portion of them is the first distinct recognition in Berkshire of steam as the proper motive-power; although the
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recent experiments in England are obseurely alluded to in the Pittsfield resolutions.
Nothing definite was done with regard to the proposed railroad from Albany to New York ; but it was held in reserve as a prob- able resort in ease of the final abandonment of that from Boston to Albany.
The movement for a road between Berkshire and the city of Hudson was, however, persistently pressed. The high grades did, indeed, discourage the building of the branch from West Stockbridge to Lee ; but, in 1831, the Massachusetts legislature granted a charter for a road from West Stockbridge village to the New York line; and, in 1832, S. M. McKay, Lemuel Pome- roy, and T. A. Gold, were incorporated, with a capital of two hun- dred and forty thousand dollars, as the Pittsfield and West Stock- bridge Railroad Company. These charters expired before any action was taken under them; but in 1836, they were renewed; the capital of the West Stockbridge road being increased to seventy-five thousand dollars ; and that of the Pittsfield and West Stockbridge company, of. which Lemuel Pomeroy, M. R. Lanek- ton, and Robert Campbell, were now named as corporators, to three hundred thousand dollars. Provision was made in the charters of both companies that the Western railroad might use their tracks upon specified terms.
It being determined, in 1837, that the Western railroad should pass through Pittsfield, and over the route of the Pittsfield and West Stockbridge company, Mr. Pomeroy and his asso- eiates, who had become deeply engaged in the former road, deemed it useless to continue their separate efforts upon a small seetion of it. The West Stockbridge company were in a some- what different position ; and, although maintaining a separate organization, built and ran their road in connection with the Hudson and Berkshire; which was put under contract in the fall of 1835, and opened for travel September 26, 1838.
The completion of this road was celebrated at West Stoek- bridge by a reunion of the citizens of Berkshire and Columbia counties, which was largely attended from Pittsfield. Jason Clapp immediately began to run a line of fine coaches from Pitts- ยท field, to connect with the ears at West Stockbridge; and contin- ued to do so until they were superseded by the trains of the Western railroad.
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The Hudson and Berkshire road was a poor enough affair, as compared with what it has since become. It had grades, for four miles, of from seventy-one to eighty feet. It was laid simply with flat, iron bars, five-eighths of an inch thick, resting on longi- tudinal wooden rails; and the whole construction was so frail, that when it was necessary for the Western Railroad Company to use it for a time, while their track was building, they found it extremely difficult to procure locomotives so light that the super- structure would not be crushed by their weight. The cars were short, box-like structures, resting upon springs so unelastic, that the jolting, which would enable the traveler to count every joint in the rails, made every one of his own ache, until he often looked back regretfully to Mr. Clapp's luxurious coaches. Nevertheless, in the matter of speed, and especially in the transportation of freight, the road was an immense advance upon the old modes of transportation.
We return to the story of the early struggles for a railroad from Boston to the Hudson river.
Although the legislature of Massachusetts would do nothing in aid of this project as a whole, it chartered, in June, 1831, the Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation, whose line covered the proposed route as far as the city of Worcester; a division which afterwards proved a source of almost unlimited trouble. In 1833, the legislature, in its wisdom, provided other sources of vexation and delay, which, although they were not tolerated so long, were annoying while they lasted. It incorporated the per- sons who were then directors of the Boston and Worcester com- pany, individually, as the Western Railroad Corporation, with authority to construct a railway from Worcester to the western boundary of the state. The stock was to consist of not less than ten thousand, nor more than twenty thousand, shares of the par value of one hundred dollars ; and, should the subscription exceed twenty thousand shares, the subscribers who were for the time being stockholders in the Worcester company, should be entitled to the preference.
The Boston and Worcester company were thus entrusted with the entire control of the matter of a railroad from Boston to the Hudson ; and, of course, managed it with exclusive reference to their own interests. No response was made to the earnest request to have the books opened for subscription, until November, 1834,
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and "even then," says Mr. Bliss, "the efforts were confined to Springfield and the towns between there and Worcester. There was an entire want of confidence in the enterprise as a financial undertaking-and very many doubted the practicability of its execution."
There seems, however, to have been no good reason why this lack of confidence should have restricted the opening of the sub- seription-books to the towns east of the Connecticut ; for nowhere was there such thorough faith in the practicability and expediency of the work as in Berkshire ; and, although the subscriptions of its citizens could not be expected to compare with those of the richer regions of the east, the managers of the scheme, when it was undertaken in earnest, were anxious enough to get them.
And, through all the years of delay, until the road was finally located in accordance with their wishes, the citizens of Pittsfield were planning enterprises, to be undertaken in connection with it ; or independently if it failed them. Of some of these schemes we have already spoken ; but there was one other, which specially interested them, and which slightly antedated the quasi opening of the subscription-books of the Western railroad, in November, 1834. This was the railroad chartered by the legislature of New York, in May, 1834, as the "Castleton and West Stockbridge," to run between the towns from which it took its name; but which was, in 1836, changed to the " Albany and West Stockbridge," with a corresponding change of route, and also the same which- its franchise being transferred to the Western Railroad Corpora- tion-finally became the New York portion of the Western road.
The corporators of the West Stockbridge and Castleton road were chiefly citizens of New York; but it was looked upon as an integral portion of the great Massachusetts railroad, and the peo- ple of Berkshire watched the proceedings of its managers with intense interest; and it was in co-operation with them that Lem- nel Pomeroy and his associates obtained the charter for the Pitts- field and West Stockbridge railroad in 1836.1
1 The petitioners for this road were Lemuel Pomeroy, Luther Washburn, Phinehas Allen, Levi Beebe, Elijah M. Bissell, William E. Gold, Thomas Moseley, Simeon Brown, John Brown, Butler Goodrich, Levi Goodrich, Par- ker L. Hall, John Pomeroy, Curtis T. Fenn, Jonathan L. Hyde, Elijah Peck, Solomon I. Russell, Lemuel Pomeroy, Jr., Nial Bentley, Ira Platt, Michael Hancock, Merrick Ross, Charles B. Francis.
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In February, Mr. Pomeroy presided at a very large convention of the friends of the Castleton road; and at this meeting the stock was duly subscribed; so that the company. was organized on the 23d. Statistics concerning the business of Berkshire, pre- sented at this meeting by C. B. Boyington 1 of West Stockbridge, and others which he subsequently collected, afforded valuable aid in the prosecution of railroad-work in Massachusetts and New York.
A gentleman better informed than any other, concerning the action of Pittsfield at this time, says :
Mr. Pomeroy pursued the object in a way that nobody else did. While others were full of good feeling, and were willing to attend meetings at home, it was he who got out a delegation at every meeting abroad, and saw it carefully attended to. But little would have been done, it seems to me, without this pressing enthusiasm on his part. * Dr. Robert Campbell was better acquainted with the subject than anybody else. He and one or two others went with Major Whistler and Captain Swift in making the preliminary observations. Mr. Hubbard was always enthusiastic on the subject, and made many speeches in town-meeting and elsewhere.
Throughout the struggle, the friends of the road had the best aid which Pittsfield and its most capable citizens could give them. In particular, the town took care to send to the legislature men of influence and ability, and fast friends of the enterprise. Hon. Julius Rockwell especially, then a young but influential member of the house, of which he was twice speaker, was looked upon by the advocates of the route through Pittsfield, as one of its most effective champions. He was also their most active agent as well as a highly-valued counselor. Whatever was to be done in behalf of the route, they felt at liberty to call upon him to do it, with a certainty of zealous service. Wherever his powers as a debater could avail, they were freely used; and so also was his scarcely less valuable influence in personal conversation. Some of his minor labors, and something of the position held by Lem- uel Pomeroy, are indicated by the following letter :
PITTSFIELD, July 18, 1835.
DEAR SIR :- We have lately examined the different routes for the railroad from our village to the line of our state, to meet the Albany
1 Afterwards pastor of the South Congregational Church of Pittsfield.
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railroad, and we find that we can improve the Baldwin survey very much. We are determined to have a railroad from this place to the state line, and that forthwith. I have not the pleasure of an acquaint- ance with N. Hale, Esq., and as he seems to be the man more promi- nent than any one else, in giving direction to our railroads from Boston to the line of the state, I wish you to see him, and urge him to attend a day or two, in person, while Mr. Ellison (the engineer) is on the route from this place to West Stockbridge.
We expect the directors of the Albany and West Stockbridge rail- road will be on the ground ; and it is of great importance that our Bos- ton railroad-friends should know much more of this part of the country than they now do, in reference to the proposed road. We have no fears on the subject of the final route of the road. Nature has so formed the earth, that when the instruments are applied, it will be apparent that no other route can be found except upon the Pontoosuc road; the summit-level of this route being two or three hundred feet lower than that which would pass through Lee and Stockbridge.
The great variety of matters and things connected with the railroad, and the taking of the stock, renders it exceedingly necessary that Mr. Hale, or some other gentleman from Boston, should be at Pittsfield and at Albany, at or about the time the books are opened for the stock. The location of this road will have great influence upon gentlemen in our part of the country in taking the stock. *
Truly Yours, L. POMEROY.
JULIUS ROCKWELL.
It is beyond our province to narrate the struggles by which a line of railway from Worcester to the Hudson river was finally attained, except as they are of special local interest. The story is well told by Mr. Bliss. But in order that the local story may be intelligible, some portion of the general history of the road must be briefly told.
Early in 1835, there were movements at Hartford and Worces- ter in favor of a railroad directly across the country between those cities, to connect with the road from Hartford to New York. The friends of the Western railroad in Springfield were naturally ren- dered uneasy, when they remembered to what hands the legisla- ture had entrusted the destinies of the Western railroad; and they took energetic measures which resulted in the opening of books for subscription to the stock of the Western railroad at Boston, New York, Springfield, Worcester, Albany, Hudson, Pittsfield, and Lee. Among the conditions of the subscriptions
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was one "that the work should be commenced in such manner as to complete at the same time the road from Worcester to Spring- field, and from the boundary-line of New York-there connecting with such railroad as shall be made to that point from the Hud- son river-either to Lee or Pittsfield, whichever of those towns should be ascertained, on the completion of the definitive surveys, to be the most eligible route for the railroad from the Hudson to Springfield.
The ten days, for which it was announced that the books would be opened, elapsed; and still seven thousand of the required twenty thousand shares were not taken. The books were, there- fore, re-opened on the 9th of October, with the additional condi- tions, that the corporation should not be organized until stock to the amount of two million dollars was subscribed by responsible parties ; that the subscription should be void unless the whole number of shares were taken prior to the first day of April, 1836; and that the construction of the road should not be commenced until the sum of ten dollars had been assessed and paid on each share.
To meet these conditions, the friends of the road, all along its line, strained every nerve. Public meetings were addressed by some of the most eloquent and influential speakers in the state. The newspapers published able articles upon the importance of the enterprise. The friends of the road were unwearied in their personal efforts; and we know that the labors of those in Pitts- field were as untiring and energetic as any other. The Argus had been removed to Lenox, and became hostile to the Pittsfield route. Indeed, when that route was finally adopted, it opposed granting state-aid to it. The editors of the Sun were personally among the foremost friends of the road ; but editorially, politics, which were always the primary consideration with them, and fealty to party at that moment, forbade them to give the aid of their paper to a project condemned by the democratic creed of the hour. We, therefore, rarely find in the Sun more than a bald paragraph chronicling the progress of the Western railroad. It did not report even the meetings called by advertisement in its own col- umns. Meetings were, however, held, and the people were addressed, through the press, with excellent result.
In the whole state, the two million dollars required to warrant the organization of the company, were subscribed prior to Decem-
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ber 5, 1835, and the directors were chosen on the 4th of the fol- lowing month ; all being residents of Boston, except George Bliss and Justice Willard of Springfield. In March, it was found that a million dollars more were needed, and the legislature, by nearly a unanimous vote, agreed that the state would take that amount of the company's stock.
The work was now entered upon in earnest; and, in the sum- mer of 1837, it became necessary finally to locate the route across the county of Berkshire; a question of infinite moment to the town of Pittsfield, whose citizens were instantly alive to its importance. The people of the towns along the proposed south- ern route, and particularly those of Stockbridge and Lee, were equally sensible of the influence which its determination would have upon their fortunes. Each side, therefore, brought forward its strongest facts and arguments ; and the directors of the road were most thoroughly informed when they made their decision. In regard to their action, we quote Mr. Bliss, who was a member of the board :
The surveys and reconnoissances for ascertaining the best route from the Connecticut river to the New York line, were very extensive. The range of mountains which forms the summit between the Connecticut and the Hudson, was thoroughly examined from Washington on the north, through Becket and Otis, to Tolland, near the line of Connecti- cut,-twenty-two miles northerly and southerly. Every important depression and every considerable stream, passing down the mountain, was fully surveyed. The north line, essentially as surveyed by Mr. Baldwin, in 1828, had appeared the most favorable, and an approximate location was made upon it by the engineers of the Western company, under the supervision of Mr. John Childe, in 1836-7. But numerous friends of a southern route, through Stockbridge and Lee, thought that a preferable one ; and, to concentrate the results of a vast number of experimental surveys, an approximate location was ordered, and was made in the spring of 1837, by Richard P. Morgan.
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