USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume II > Part 22
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The Concord Railroad system would surely have been larger, except for the dread of great corporations so apparent in New Hamp- shire between 1835 and 1845, which divided parties, inspired ora- tors and newspapers, and has never been quite forgotten. It was strong enough to cause the legislatures of 1851 and 1856 to refuse permission to unite the Concord and the Manchester & Lawrence roads. In 1867 "an act to prevent railroad monopolies," intended to dissolve the business relations of those two companies, went through the legislature, and in 1872 the supreme court held this act so to
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
apply. Thereafter, until July 1, 1887, the two roads were in business together without a formal contract.
There has not been so much caution in other states. Legislation in New York permitted the consolidation of the eleven railroads between Albany and Buffalo in 1853, and the New York Central company, thus created, was united with the Hudson River and the Harlem railroads in 1869. In Massachusetts the Boston & Worces- ter and the Western railroads were joined in 1867. Following these and later like examples, the New Hampshire legislature of 1883, on September 14, passed an act (the Colby bill) which permitted one railroad to lease another on such terms and for such time as should be agreed upon by the directors and approved by two thirds of the stockholders of each corporation, provided that the rates for fares and freights existing August 1, 1883, should not be increased on any part of the roads so leased. This act also made it possible for rail- road corporations of other states operating railroads within this state to have the same rights of operating or leasing as if they had been created under the laws of this state. This act passed the house of representatives by a vote of one hundred and forty-four to one hun- dred and five, and the senate by sixteen to eight. Shortly thereafter leases of various lines were made, some of which will claim mention in another place. The Concord Railroad was consolidated with the Boston, Concord & Montreal September 19, 1889, and on June 29, 1895, the consolidated company was leased to the Boston & Maine for ninety-one years from the preceding April 1. Its main tracks then extended four hundred and forty-five and ninety-two one-hundredths miles.
The following table shows the growth of its business by decades :
Miles of road exclusive of side tracks.
Passengers.
Tons of freight.
Miles run by engines.
1844
35
73,355
42,679
138,528
1854
35
248,787
308,997
202,898
1864
110 1-2
270,556
328,855
410,671
1874
145 1-2
614,327
730,741
800,934
1884
141 71-100
693,851
1,116,519
815,815
1894
414 76-100
1,824,151
2,085,216
2,534,110
The growth of the capital of the company has been as follows : In 1845 it was seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; 1846, eiglit hundred thousand dollars; 1847, one million two hundred thousand dollars ; 1848, one million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; 1850, one million four hundred eighty-five thousand dollars ; 1854, one million five hundred thousand dollars ; 1890, four million eight hundred thousand dollars; 1893, five million nine hundred eighty- three thousand eight hundred dollars ; 1894, five million nine hun-
887
CONCORD AS A RAILROAD CENTER.
dred eighty-four thousand seven hundred dollars ; 1896, seven million one hundred seventy thousand one hundred dollars, of which almost one fourth is owned in Concord.
It is probable that the passenger fare by rail to Boston in 1842 was $2.25, about three cents a mile. This was reduced on Novem- ber 1, 1844, to $2; on November 1, 1845, to $1.75; and on June 1, 1848, to $1.50. Then came in 1850 the rivalry of the Manchester & Lawrence line, some diversion of business, and an increase on Sep- tember 1, 1851, to $1.75; on September 1, 1854, to $2.00; on Sep- tember 1, 1857, to $2.25; on September 1, 1862, to $2.35; and on August 1, 1864, to $2.90. On May 15, 1865, there was a reduction to $2.75; on January 1, 1866, to $2.60; on January 1, 1867, to $2.50; on August 1, 1867, to $2.45; on January 1, 1868, to $2.20 ; on May 2, 1870, to $2.00; on June 1, 1887, to $1.75; on January 1, 1891, to $1.66 ; and on December 1, 1893, to $1.60-about two thirds the rate of 1842, when trains were less frequent, run generally at less speed, and the service was in every way inferior to the present stan- dard. Tickets for a thousand miles, at two and one half cents a mile, were in use from 1874 to 1877, and at two cents a mile since the lat- ter year. The latter is now the rate for passage tickets to all Concord & Montreal stations.
Between the years 1862 and 1878 the currency was depreciated paper money. This currency touched its lowest value at one period in 1864 when two dollars and eighty-five cents in currency was equivalent to only one dollar in gold. From 1862 until 1871 there was a direct United States tax on the earnings or the dividends of railroad corporations.
The people of the north country did not wait for a railroad to be built to Concord before they considered whether they might not bet- ter themselves in a like respect. A convention was held at. Mont- pelier, October 6, 1830, to consider a proposal for a national railroad from Boston to Lake Champlain and Ogdensburg. There had been a like meeting, with the same object in view, at the town hall in Con- cord, April 6, the same year, just six months earlier. On August 19, 1835, there was a meeting at the Lafayette Hotel in Lebanon, of persons who favored surveying various routes for a railroad between the Connecticut river in that town and Concord. One committee was appointed to examine such routes, and another to obtain means for making more careful surveys and estimates.
The Northern Railroad represents the plan which the Lebanon meeting had in view. Its first charter, that of June 18, 1844, re- quired it to buy its lands at the will of owners. A new charter was
888
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
granted December 27, 1844 (two days after passage of the act that provided sensible methods for gaining a right of way), which authorized a railroad to be built from any point on the Concord Rail- road in the town of Concord or Bow to the west bank of the Connec- ticut river in the town of Lebanon. This permission to build from a point in Bow may have been obtained because it was doubtful whether the best line hence to Franklin would be found by the " river route " or by the "plain route," and choice of the latter, lying west of and higher than the other, might make it desirable to begin to gain eleva- tion at some point further south than was the Concord Railroad terminus ; in fact, it was somewhat doubtful whether the new road would touch Franklin at all, as a shorter line would lie west of that town. If the Northern road had started in Bow, and gone along what was then the westerly edge of our main settlement, about where it was once proposed to dig the Contoocook canal, the town would have been afflicted with many highway crossings at grade and other troublesome features.
Jonathan Adams and T. J. Carter surveyed various routes for the Northern road. The river route by way of Franklin was chosen because that town with its irresistible water-power was the most important on the line, except Lebanon ; because also that route involved less outlay, and would complete a railway from Boston to Franklin with no grade on it in excess of sixteen feet to the mile. George W. Nesmith, first president of the company,-a director for forty-five years,-liad his home at Franklin, and no one could think seriously of going wide of a town where that honored gentleman dwelt. There are, however, to this day men who say the road should have gone up the valley of the Blackwater.
There were beyond Franklin grades of fifty feet to the mile, and many difficulties to be dreaded-cold, snow, and swift streams liable to sudden freshets.
The charter of the Northern company provided that one hundred thousand dollars should be expended toward construction before December 1, 1849, and the road must be completed and ready for use before December 1, 1852.
The manner of gaining right of way had changed, as has been related, since the controversies of 1841 and earlier years. Now the state itself exercised the right of eminent domain, took the necessary · lands, making payment therefor with the money of the corporation, and leased the right of way to the company for a term of two hundred years. This fiction of the law was devised to heal party wounds, and to soothe those persons who claimed to stand for the rights of the people.
889
CONCORD AS A RAILROAD CENTER.
The land damages of the Northern Railroad, as appraised by the railroad commissioners, averaged about one thousand dollars a mile. The largest sums awarded to landowners in Concord were to Abel Hutchins and Mary Ann Stickney, one thousand dollars to each.
Among the first directors of the Northern company was Isaac Spalding, and the corporation clerk in 1845 was Nathaniel G. Up- ham. This connection of these men indicates that Concord Railroad people looked with favor on railroad building into the upper country. This was the case so far as the Northern was concerned, but there was not the same friendliness toward the Boston, Concord & Mon- treal, chartered the same day, and in some respects a rival of the Northern. In after years these relations changed ; the Concord and the Boston, Concord & Montreal companies united, while the North- ern for a time sought friends elsewhere.
In July, 1845, Onslow Stearns, who had been engaged in the construction of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, and was its superin- tendent, came to Concord to connect himself with the Northern as its building agent. He became president of the latter company in May, 1852, and was thereafter, until his death in 1878, the control- ling spirit in its affairs.
The capital named in the company's charter was fifteen thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, or one million five hundred thou- sand dollars, but there was provision that if a greater amount of money should be necessary it might be raised by creating more shares. The road was doubtless built with economy, but the suc- cess of the Concord company had led some minds to conclude that the new road would surely be profitable, and that the more capital was put into it, the more dividends would come out. Such was the talk around local tavern firesides. The amount expended in build- ing the Northern Railroad and the Bristol branch, as stated in the directors' report for 1851, was two million seven hundred and sixty- eight thousand four hundred dollars. A small part of its stock, one of the later issues, was sold at ninety dollars a share. The capital in 1855 had reached the sum of three million and sixty-eight thou- sand four hundred dollars, and there it remains. On the first day of April, 1850, out of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine stockholders whose residences were known, one thousand and eighty- seven were people of New Hampshire. Notwithstanding the idea then somewhat prevalent that completion of the Northern road would hurt the trade of Concord, there were one hundred and twenty local stockholders owning one thousand four hundred and eight shares. Building the road served to enliven the main street of the town. Laborers, not long away from the green isle, wearing
890
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Tam O'Shanter caps and corduroy suits, with a few dollars to spend, were often on the streets, somewhat in contrast with equipages car- rying the families of contractors.
There were two pieces of construction within the town lines which were regarded as formidable in character. One was cutting through a promontory at Farnum eddy, and the other was making a new channel for the Merrimack at Goodwin point. To assist in the one, the first steam excavator ever in Concord was set at work in the winter of 1845-'46. The earth proved refractory, and so much time was consumed in the undertaking that the obstacle was flanked by a temporary track on which trains have passed from that day to this. The other undertaking was partially done when a freshet carried off thirty thousand cubic yards of earth, which would have cost ten cents a yard to move by the methods of the contractor.
The Northern company proved its national spirit by buying more than half the rails for the original track from the domestic rolling mills, a portion of them coming from the Mount Savage works in Maryland, where in 1844 the first American rails were made.
The road was opened to Franklin December 28, 1846, and was operated, under a temporary arrangement, by the Concord Railroad, until the opening to Grafton, which occurred on September 1, 1847. On November 17, the same year, the cars were met at Lebanon, sixty- nine miles away, by an assembly of four thousand people, when there were public addresses by Daniel Webster, George W. Nesmith, Pro- fessor Charles B. Hadduck of Dartmouth college, Erastus Fairbanks, and others, and in June, 1848, the line was in operation to White River Junction.
The round-house and repair-shops of the company were built here just south of Bridge street almost fifty years ago, and there they remained without very essential change except to replace in some- what larger form whatever fire destroyed, until the autumn of 1897. They were then demolished because of supersedure by the new con- solidated shops at the South end. There were now and then new engines built in the old shops, such as the "George W. Nesmith " and " William M. Parker."
The business of the road was at the outset not altogether satis- factory. The dividends in 1849-'50 were at the rate of four per cent. ; in 1851-'52, five per cent., and in 1865-'66 high tide came · with ten per cent.
There was an investigating committee of stockholders in 1850, a year when such committees were in fashion, that declared in their report that building the Bristol branch was " worse than a mistake- a blunder." The branch earned two per cent. on its cost during the
891
CONCORD AS A RAILROAD CENTER.
year ending April 30, 1851. Built, at least nominally, as an inde- pendent spur, it became an integral part of the Northern road in January, 1849.
The local traffic of the Northern road has never been too abun- dant ; hence the company has been watchful to obtain its share of the business of Canada and the remote West. The Canadian closed mails to and from London, via Boston, having taken this way in 1844 when the railroad had come only as far north as Concord, were continued under the improved through train service. When the supremacy of this route was challenged, as it was in November, 1849, there was a race to Burlington between this and the line via Rutland. At such times the " General Stark," with Engineer Seth Hopkins, was sent down, by permission of the Nashua road, to make a fast run from Lowell to Concord, and the " Etna," with Engineer Thomas White, was driven at top speed hence to White River Junc- tion. These contests were criticised as dangerous, and gave rise to some disputes, but the coveted mail carrying was retained until about 1856, when Canada obtained more direct steamship connection with Liverpool.
By prudent use of its credit, and possibly some strain of its corpo- rate powers, the Northern company, early in the fifties, acquired the ownership of what had been the Concord & Claremont, the Contoo- cook Valley, and the Sullivan railroads. In August, 1872, it bought shares in the Concord Railroad, and at the annual meeting of the last-named company in 1884, the agents of the Northern company were prepared to vote on four thousand one hundred and ninety-nine shares.
On September 2, 1880, the Northern company disposed of its five thousand shares of stock (the whole issue) in the Sullivan Railroad. The buyers were friends of the Vermont Valley company, who paid therefor eight hundred thousand dollars, of which sum seven eighths reached the treasury of the Northern company. What became of the rest has been a matter of dispute.
The Northern system was leased to the Boston & Lowell June 19, 1884. This lease was terminated by a decision of the state supreme court March 11, 1887, and for a period the Northern hung in the air, but on October 1, 1890, the system was, by authority of the legisla- ture, leased for ninety-nine years to the Boston & Maine company. It had then one hundred and seventy-one and fifty-seven hundredths miles of main track.
The charter of the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad, granted December 27, 1844, permitted that corporation to build from any
892
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
point on the Concord Railroad, in either Concord or Bow, to some point on the westerly bank of the Connecticut opposite Haverhill or Littleton. It might go up the Merrimack valley to Franklin (if the Northern Railroad should not have preceded it), and thence onward by either the Winnipiseogee or Pemigewasset valleys; it was to be completed as early as December 1, 1855. This charter contained the stipulation that net earnings in excess of ten per cent. on the capital stock should go into the state treasury, as did also the char- ters of the Northern, Concord & Claremont, and the Contoocook Valley companies. One of the intents of this proviso may have been to emphasize the public character of these corporations, which char- acter the legislature of 1844 had determined to admit.
As this Boston, Concord & Montreal enterprise met with no favor and could find no support in State street, its construction was under- taken by the courageous and ingenious people who dwelt along its way. Peter Clark became its building agent in July, 1846, and so remained until February, 1848, when he began like service with the Portsmouth & Concord company. His successor was James N. El- kins, who had been a passenger train conductor on the Concord road. Joseph Low was treasurer from 1845 to 1848, in which latter year he was succeeded by George Minot. For its first fifteen years the company availed itself of the courage, persistency, and ability of Josiah Quincy of Rumney, in the office of president. T. J. Carter did some of its engineering, but George Stark appears to have been chief of that department in 1849.
This road was built with the utmost economy, by the most easily- constructed routes, which were patiently sought out. The stock sub- scriptions were obtained in small sums wherever subscribers could be found. The earnings of factory girls were placed in its treasury. Some subscriptions were made payable in labor or materials-fence- rails, sleepers, bridge timber, and the like. All its original rails came from England, and some were lost by shipwreck on Minot ledge. These cost in 1846 seventy dollars, and in 1852 thirty-eight dollars, a ton. There was at the outset a sharp rivalry with the Northern road, and the latter company built its Bristol branch in an endeavor to gain the business of the Pemigewasset valley from as far north as Plymouth. Both lines in 1848 encouraged stage competi- tion in the upper country, and both lost money by so doing.
There was an opening of the road to Sanbornton Bridge (now Tilton), May 22, 1848, when the new engine, "Old Man of the Mountain," and cars, all painted sky blue, were deemed delightfully appropriate for mountain travel. There were successive openings, to Meredith Bridge (now Laconia), August 8, and to Lake Village
893
CONCORD AS A RAILROAD CENTER.
(now Lakeport), October 1, the same year; to Meredith Village, March 19, 1849 ; to Plymouth, January 21, 1850; to Wells River, May 10, 1853; to Littleton (by White Mountains Railroad), Decem- ber 17, 1853; to Lancaster, October 31, 1870; to Groveton, July 4, 1872; to Fabyans (by Wing Road), July 4, 1874; to Mount Wash- ington, July 6, 1876 ; to Profile House, June 25, 1879; to Bethle- hem, July 1, 1881 ; to North Woodstock, July 2, 1883; to Berlin, June 27, 1893.
The company had its place of management at Plymouth, and its repair shops at Lakeport. Its successive superintendents were : James N. Elkins, James M. Whiton, Joseph A. Dodge, and Edward F. Mann. Its president for many years was John E. Lyon, who took charge of the road in 1856 when it was tottering toward bankruptcy. The extensions built into the north country beyond Littleton between the years 1869 and 1878 were fruits of his courage and persistency. The Mount Washington Railway (in which he was associated with Sylvester Marsh, afterward a Concord citizen, and others), the rebuilt Pemigewasset House at Plymouth, the Fabyan House, and the Summit House on Mount Washington, were enterprises in which he took delight. To such affairs as these, our townsman, Nathaniel White, also lent a stout shoulder and a good purse.
This narrative can give no adequate idea of the financial diffi- culties which from time to time beset the Boston, Concord & Mon- treal company. These were at their climax in the distressfnl year of 1857, when the property went into the control of trustees for about two years. At this time, the cost of the road, exclusive of its cquip- ment and interest charges during construction, was stated at two million one hundred and eighty-three thousand three hundred and sixty dollars and thirteen cents. The only satisfaction that came to the first generation of shareholders was the reflection that they had provided their neighbors and themselves with a speedy channel for traffic, and assisted in the development of the upper counties of the state, and yet the company gradually shared in the kindly results of time. It had the traffic of the busiest northern towns, the moun- tain travel, and the freights of a thousand lumbermen. It reached away almost to the Canadian boundary by nearly the route which, as we have seen in another chapter, was selected for the stage " erected to run from Quebec to Boston " in 1810. Hence its affairs gradually improved. Its managers and friends, in August, 1872, were able to join the Northern company in a joint purchase of eight thousand shares in the Concord Railroad, the control of the latter being sought. It had ontgrown the contempt of State street.
In 1884, on June 1, the property was leased to the Boston &
15
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Lowell Railroad corporation for a term of ninety-nine years. At that time its cost was represented by three classes of stock amount- ing to one million eight hundred thousand dollars, and four issues of bonds, the total of the latter being three million sixty-nine thousand and six hundred dollars. It had never paid a dividend on any stock except its preferred issue of eight hundred thousand dollars at the rate of six per cent., but it had almost one hundred and eighty-seven miles of main track.
This lease to the Boston & Lowell company was invalidated by a court decision in May, 1889. The Boston & Maine company had theretofore leased the Boston & Lowell system and obtained thereby temporary possession of the Boston, Concord & Montreal. Mean- while, in May, 1886, ownership of a controlling interest in the Bos- ton, Concord & Montreal stock had been acquired by twenty asso- ciates, large shareholders in the Concord Railroad. The court decision of 1889 restored the property to its shareholders, and it was, by authority of the legislature, united with the Concord com- pany on September 19, 1889, under the title of Concord & Montreal Railroad.
The preceding paragraph relates so briefly a series of transactions of such importance to Concord, and the railways of the Merrimack valley, that the way in which they were effected should be definitely explained. Controlled as the Boston, Concord & Montreal line was under the lease of 1884, it was possible by building a few miles of new road to divert a great traffic to another route to Boston. To do so was in contemplation. To defeat this injurious plan it was neces- sary to wrest control of the Boston, Concord & Montreal from the company holding it under lease, which could be done, if done at all, only after buying, at a cost which seemed excessive, a majority in- terest in the shares of that company-an adventurous undertaking, involving great possibilities of failure and loss. Benjamin A. Kim- ball, a director of the Concord company, bolder than his fellow mem- bers, opened personal negotiations with Samuel N. Bell, a director of the Boston, Concord & Montreal company, who represented the con- trolling ownership. These two gentlemen agreed on a plan of action, prices for shares and bonds, names of associates, and how to break the lease. One very troublesome fact was the existence of an agree- ment which made it necessary first to offer to sell the controlling shares to people interested in the Boston & Lowell company. They were so offered, in diplomatic phrase and manner, and, as it fortu- nately happened, declined. The transaction was at this point taken up by the associates who had been selected, the transfers of securi- ties were effected, suits brought in court, the lessee dispossessed, and
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