USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 34
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If we start from Painted Post or Knoxville, the same class of boats and lading are found; except if coal took the place of lumber it never came above the deck line. The route would be by canal towed by horses to Watkins; then the animals would be taken to the stable and the boat with others would be, by a steam- boat, towed to Geneva; then the canal would again be used to destination, returning by the same route.
After the opening of the Crooked Lake canal, Hammonds- port became the head of navigation on this canal. Boats were loaded with the produce of the farms and forest and drawn to Hammondsport from distant sections of Steuben and adjoining counties. After all preparations for the trip, sometimes a fleet of ten or a dozen boats were taken in tow by a steamboat. Some were moored to the side, others towed astern; so that the fleet had the appearance of a Mother Goose and her brood. Additions were made to this fleet from different points on this lake. Ar- riving at PennYan, the boats went into the canal and were towed by horses to Dresden, on Seneca lake, a distance of eight miles, passing through twenty-seven locks in a descent of two hundred and sixty-nine feet. At Dresden the fleet of boats was taken in
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the same manner as on Crooked lake to Geneva at the foot of Geneva lake. Here the canal part of the trip began, the boat be- ing towed by its own horses, unless arrangements had been made with some of the towing companies for that purpose. Then the trip was continued, both by night and day; if by the boat's horses, the trip was by daylight only, the animals being taken aboard for the night and the boat moored in some convenient basin, or on the heel path of the canal. Most of the trips ended at Troy, New York. The principal shippers at Hammondsport and Penn Yan had branch houses, or connections in New York, so that many boats with their cargoes were again in the same manner as on the lakes taken in tow by steamboat to New York, the boat moored at the consignee's pier, and the cargo delivered without breaking bulk. For the return trip the wide-awake New York end of the home shippers had secured ample cargoes of goods for country merchants, machinery, farming tools and all articles needed for a new and fast-growing community. The boats were taken in tow by the tug steamboats and delivered to the canal at Troy, whence the homeward-bound craft returned in the same way as they came. Not infrequently, on the way back, emigrants and their goods were taken on for their new homes in Steuben and adjoining coun- ties. The trip from Hammondsport to New York and return usually occupied from two weeks to twenty days.
As the head of Crooked lake (or now Keuka lake) was nearer to the central part of Steuben county, and most of the produce of this and Allegany counties was marketed there, a glimpse of the situation will be of interest to this age of steam and electric railways, improved highways, automobiles and aerial navigation. Hammondsport is eight miles north of Bath, the south end of the opening between the hills leading to the lake from the Conhoeton valley. Frequently from twenty to fifty boats were moored at the head of the lake, ready for loading. Let us take some strategic location and note the long lines of vehicles, laden with grain, flour, pork, whiskey, black salts, lumber and shingles going to the lake for shipment, and the like returning, laden with mer- chandise, household goods, machinery and tools from the same place. Such a favorable location was Kennedyville, where the valleys from Ontario, Yates and adjoining Steuben towns met the valley of the Conhocton, and here again were intersected by val- leys from the west. This is four miles above Bath. The drivers would so arrange the journey as to reach Kennedyville at the close of the day; stay over night at one of the three large taverns with ample barns, and get an early start, frequently between mid- night and early dawn, so as to reach Hammondsport, twelve miles away, as early as possible. There they would market and dis- charge their loads, take on their return loads, so as to get back to Kennedyville some time that night, and get an early start for home the following morning. The taverns were full; all the beds, tables and floors were occupied by tired men, and as many as two hundred vehicles were yarded for the night. They came from Potter county, Pennsylvania, and from all parts of Allegany coun- ty, southern Livingston, Ontario and Yates counties, but more largely from the towns of Steuben county, and in the daytime could be seen a solid line of vehicles like the emigrant trains on
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the plains of the then far western states. The streets of Hammonds- port were congested, but Bath was side-stepped. The dream of Williamson was in part realized; the products of the county passed through Bath, but not for the Susquehanna and its terminations. The cold blue waters of the St. Lawrence system had penetrated the country and carried away its fruits.
The Chemung canal and feeder was principally devoted to the transportation of coal and lumber, delivered by the cars of the Corning and Fall Brook railroad, but the commodities carried were diverted from the river transportation. The opening of the Dansville branch of the Genesee Valley canal largely diverted ship- ments from the Crooked lake route, and a large part of the pro- duction of northern and western Steuben and much of Allegany county, went to Dansville. A change in the methods of trans- portation was being inaugurated. Manifest destiny was the guid- ing star. The canals were too slow. Goods that required weeks to reach the market could be transported in as many days. The packets for passengers that traveled four to six miles an hour were pleasant; but celerity, not pleasure, was the requirement. The steam carriage could make the journey ten times as quick.
But the era of canals is now again in full swing. Ships will soon sail through and over Balboa's isthmus. The Barge canal of the state of New York will extend the Hudson river to Erie and Ontario-inland seas, and crafts larger than those built by Benedict Arnold on Lake Champlain to dispute the passage of that historic highway, on whose shores the discharge of the har- quebus of its namesake made eternal enemies of the Iroquois and sowed the seeds of cruel revenge will sail from Quebec to New York and the towns of the Atlantic coast. The guess is hazarded that people who read these words will see the lakes of central New York again canalized and navigated by modern appliances.
THE ERA OF RAILROADS.
All internal waterway transportation was doomed by the ad- vent of the railroads, and waterways, both natural and artificial, in Steuben county were with the older sections of the state to be- come memories or tales and recitals of the chronicler, founded in fact, romance and imagination. The noon of the nineteenth cen- tury was pregnant with great events, not only for America, but for the whole world. Since then of all the factors that have con- tributed to the growth of wealth, to the increase of material com- fort, and to the diffusion of information and knowledge, the rail- road fills the most important part. It has widened the field for the division of labor and employments, cheapened production, promoted exchange and facilitated intercommunication.
In the aggregate, the railroad represents a larger investment of capital than any other branch of human activity, and the serv- ice it has always rendered to the public, both industrial and com- mercial, is far greater than that which can be credited to any other agency. The total expended in the maintenance of the rail- roads of the United States is greater than that which supports the national government. They are quasi public institutions; created and existing by legislative exactment; possessing the right of emi- nent domain, and subject to and under the control of the civil
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machinery of the government, by which their operation, dealings and public benefits are regulated. The development, and present condition of the railroads of this country are among the marvels of the century.
Soon after the development of the Blossburg coal mines, a railroad company was organized and built a line from the mines to the state line at Lawrenceville, called the Tioga Navigation Company. In 1854 the Tioga Iron, Mining and Manufacturing Company built the railroad from Corning to Lawrenceville, and this was the first outlet for bituminous coal from the Pennsylvania mines. It was graded similar to the modern country highway; ties were placed several feet apart and longitudinally and at right angles with the ties, stringers were laid six feet apart. These were of hard wood, six inches wide, four inches thick and spiked to the ties, along the top surface of the stringer. About on the inner edge of the stringer were fastened strips or bars of iron as rails for the cars.
The New York company was leased to the Pennsylvania com- pany for a term of years; was operated with steam locomotive en- gines, and stocked with cars for coal, goods and passengers. It was a primitive and loosely constructed affair. Frequently the bars or strips of iron on the stringers worked loose at the end, rolled up and ran through the bottom of the car. Occasionally a passenger, or employee, would be impaled by one of these "snake heads," as the loosened strip was called. The New York end of this road was the first railroad in Steuben county. In 1854 the whole line was sold to a new corporation called the Blossburg and Corning Railroad Company.
It was afterwards, with extensive coal resources in Pennsyl- vania, acquired by Hon. John Mager, the eminent financier and banker of Bath; reorganized as the Fall Brook Railroad Company and extended its lines north to Watkins, Geneva and Lyons, New York. After Mr. Mager's death the property was acquired by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, by which it is now owned and operated as its Pennsylvania division, with headquarters, large shops, depots, stations and yards at Corning. A branch extends from Dresden on its northern leg to Penn Yan, along the old Crooked Lake canal, a distance of eight miles.
The New York and Erie Railroad was organized in July, 1833, under an act of the legislature of the state of New York, passed April 24, 1832. The first preliminary survey was made in 1832, under the direction of the state government by DeWitt Clinton, Jr. In 1834 the Governor, William L. Marcy, appointed Ben- jamin Wright to survey the route. He was assisted by James Seymour and Charles Ellett. The survey began in May of that year and was finished the same year. In 1835 the company was reorganized, and forty miles was put under contract to build. In 1836, the state comptroller was directed to issue $3,000,000 state stock to aid in the construction of the road. New York, at an enormous expense for those days, had built the Erie canal through the central part of the state, from Buffalo to Albany; the people of the southern tier of counties demanded some financial aid in the enterprise of building the road, so that they might have some recog-
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nition of the state's liberality. In 1845 the state released and can- celed its lien on the road and franchise of the company, and au- thorized its original stockholders to surrender two shares of the old stock, and receive in lieu thereof one share of the new stock. The original charter of this company provided for the building of a railroad from some place on the Hudson river to some place on Lake Erie, west of Buffalo; the eastern terminus was in a swamp, twenty-four miles above New York city, on the west bank of the Hudson. The western termination was hung up for a time between Dunkirk and Portland. It has ever been one of the ob- jects of this corporation and its successors to be alert for "induce- ments." Dunkirk was selected as the western terminus because of its inducements. It was then a straggling village, quite impor- tant as a fishing station.
The road was opened from Piermont, the eastern terminus, to Goshen, September 22, 1841; to Middletown, June 7, 1843; to Port Jervis, January 6, 1848; to Binghamton, December 28, 1848; to Owego, June 1, 1849; to Elmira, October 17, 1849; to Corning, January 1, 1850; to Hornellsville, September 1, 1850, and to Dun- kirk, May 14, 1851. The completion of this railroad was a great event and of supreme importance to the people and interests of the "Southern Tier." The event was duly celebrated at Dunkirk and along the entire line, attracting the presence and attention of officials of the state of New York and Pennsylvania and of the federal government.
Many schemes, ways and locations had been devised, invented and selected about its construction in this county. In the Canis- teo valley, in 1841, a steam-driven machine, combining pile-driver, sawmill and locomotive, made its appearance. It was mounted upon and moved by wheels, driving two piles at a time and saw- ing them off at a level with the proposed grade of the road. Upon these piles it was proposed to place ties and then the iron rails. This method of construction extended through the Canisteo valley to Hornellsville and thence up the valley of the Canacadea creek to the Allegany county line. The company, running out of funds (which was ever a chronic condition with the enterprise), this method of construction was abandoned; but the old piles still re- maining attract the attention of the traveler and prompts the in- quiry as to their meaning and use. Again resuming construction, ten years later, "inducements" caused the management to change the route west of Hornellsville, and instead of following the old Indian trails (always the most feasible), the route through Alle- gany county was laid over the most difficult elevations, at an alti- tude of one thousand and eight hundred feet and rising more than six hundred feet in ten miles. This ascent began within the pres- ent limits of the city of Hornell, but it was a lasting benefit to that place because it was the end and junction point of two divi- sions of the road and necessitated the erection and maintenance of shops and division offices. These shops have grown to be the most important on the road and are well known in the railroad world; thereby the place has grown from a lumber camp to a city of fifteen thousand people. The recent management have seen the folly of this location and are now changing and shortening
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routes and improving grades, all of which would have been un- necessary if the old trails had been followed.
The road has been several times in the hands of receivers, necessitating reorganization in 1860 under the name of the Erie Railway; in 1878 as the New York, Lake Erie and Western Rail- way Company, and in 1895 under its present style, the Erie Rail- road Company.
Notwithstanding all of the adversities of bad management and ill-fortune the Erie Railroad is one of the great railroads of the world. It acquired in 1852 that part of the Buffalo and New York City Railroad from Hornellsville to Attica. The road from Attica to Buffalo was the property of the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad Company, organized as the Buffalo and Co- hocton Valley Railroad Company. The Erie acquired by a lease running five hundred years the Buffalo, New York and Erie Rail- road. These roads are now known as the Buffalo division of the Erie Railroad, extending from Hornell to Buffalo. The Rochester division of the Erie, extending from Painted Post to Avon, and thence to Rochester (by the Rochester and Genesee Valley Rail- road Company), was leased to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company in 1870. The Erie also owns and operates the road from Avon to Attica, and from Avon to Mount Morris. It has acquired the Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad, extending from Jamestown, New York, to Buffalo, as well as the old Atlantic and Great Western Railway (the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company). So that now it runs over its own tracks from New York to Chicago, with its trains of luxurious cars, equipped with all the modern improvements for comfort and safety. The Erie, when first built, was a six-foot gauge, but in 1876 this was reduced to the present universal standard. The principal places in Steuben county on its main line are Corning, Painted Post, Addison, Canisteo and Hornell; on its Rochester division, Campbell, Savona, Bath, Kanona, Avoca, Cohocton, At- lanta and Wayland.
The Bath and Hammondsport Railroad was organized to build a line from Bath to Hammondsport, at the head of Lake Keuka, the center of the grape-growing and wine-producing region of the state of New York. It is nine miles in length and controlled by the Erie Railroad Company. It connects with the road of that company and also with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad at Bath. In 1831 the Bath and Crooked Lake Company was organized to build a railroad between the same points, but nothing was ever done under its charter.
The Addison and Northern Pennsylvania Railroad Company was organized in 1882 and its road, which was built the next year, extends from Addison, on the Erie Railway, to Elkland, Pennsylvania, on the Cowanesque branch of the New York Cen- tral and Hudson River Railroad, fifteen miles. It now forms a part of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad and penetrates the lumber and coal mining districts of Pennsylvania. Its northern terminus is Buffalo, New York, and it passes through the rich agricultural counties of southwestern New York.
The Kanona and Prattsburg Railroad, twelve miles long, extends from Kanona, on the Erie Railroad, north to Prattsburg,
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being the outlet for a rich farming, dairying and cattle-raising section. It is wholly in Steuben county and has been in operation since 1882.
The New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was built in 1880; extends from Binghamton, New York, to Buffalo and Suspension Bridge, two hundred and three miles. It is a double track road, operated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad under a perpetual lease, known as the "Lackawanna Line." It enters Steuben county at its eastern line; thence passes up the Chemung and Cohocton river valleys, principally following the "old Williamson road" to the north line of Steuben county, near the village of Dansville, New York, passing through the same towns in Steuben county as the Rochester division, which it par- allels. It passes through.the northern part of the city of Corning. This road has never been embarrassed by want of means or bad management, and is one of the great coal carrying roads of the nation, using hard coal for all of its passenger-hauling engines and is free from the discomforts and inconveniences of engines consuming soft coal. It has been aptly and justly styled the "Road of Anthracite." It is the favored route of travel of the inhabi- tants of the county, who can avail themselves of its comforts and who pronounce its use "like riding on oil."
The Lackawanna and Pittsburg Railroad was built from the oil-producing region of Allegany county, New York, to Wayland, Steuben county, on the Lackawanna line in 1884. It entered Steu- ben county in the town of Dansville, thence passed to the adjoin- ing town of Wayland, turning to the south to avoid topographical obstructions its line is brought within ten miles of the city of Hornell. About this time the people of Hornellsville resolved, in view of the selfish and illiberal policy adopted by the Erie Rail- road, to build a road to some point on the Lackawanna, in the town of Avoca, and for that purpose secured a charter for the Hor- nellsville and Cohocton Valley Railroad Company. They em- ployed a corps of engineers; prepared maps, profiles and blue prints showing distances, course and altitude of the route; sub- mitted them to Hou. Samuel Sloan, the president, and Mr. Hal- stead, the general manager of the Lackawanna system. These gentlemen declared the route, as shown by the exhibits, to be en- tirely impracticable, but upon being advised of the desire of the promoters of the scheme, advised the Hornellsville people to build a road to connect with the Lackawanna and Pittsburg at the near- est and most feasible point. Their suggestions were adopted; an organization was perfected under the name of the Rochester, Hor- nellsville and Lackawanna Railroad Company; the route was sur- veyed and adopted; the money secured and operations began. Then opposition developed by persons claiming to be acting for the Erie Railroad, who instituted legal proceedings to embarrass and, if possible, prevent the building of this ten miles of road. Some of these actions went to the court of appeals and were there decided in favor of the new road, and many new rules in railroad construction were by this decision for the first time promulgated in this state. The road was opened the last days of 1888 by an excursion train of ten cars from Hornell to Bath, over this road, the Lackawanna and Pittsburg, and the Delaware, Lackawanna
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and Western. The Rochester, Hornellsville and Lackawanna Rail- road, soon after its completion, became a part of the Lackawanna and Pittsburg Railroad. For a time in the hands of a receiver it was subsequently reorganized under its present name of Pitts- burg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad Company. It now has a trackage from Hornell and Wayland to Ramseytown, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles, and is expected to enter Pitts- burg before the end of the year.
The New York and Pennsylvania extends from the Erie Rail- road, in the village of Canisteo, through the towns of Canisteo, Greenwood and West Union, Steuben county, and through Inde- pendence and Willing, Allegany county, to the Pennsylvania state line at Genesee Forks, thence following a tributary of the Genesee river to Rose lake, the most eastern source of the Mississippi sys- tem of rivers; and thence down a tributary of the Allegheny river to Ceres, on the state line, where it intersects the Pennsylvania system of railroads. Its length is sixty miles and it was completed in 1904. A part of its route in the state of New York occupies the right-of-way of the Geneva, Hornellsville and Pine Creek Rail- road Company, organized in 1876. This project made a location, did a little construction and bonded towns through which it was located, but its right-of-way was afterwards sold and the com- pany became extinct.
In 1870 the Sodus Bay, Corning and New York Railroad Com- pany was formed to build a road from Sodus Bay to Corning, and a route was surveyed through the towns of Wayne, Bradford and Bath, Steuben county, to intersect with the Erie at Savona. Thic two first named towns were heavily bonded in aid of the road, which was never built, and the taxpayers of those towns are still encumbered by this bonded indebtedness. The project has yet a spasmodic existence and hopes are entertained that some day it may materialize.
An electric railroad is maintained in the city of Hornell, ex- tending to the village of Canisteo, and is now called the Steuben Traction Company. It has an elusive project of an extension to the village of Bath, and thence to Lake Keuka. An electric rail- road, called the Corning and Painted Post Railroad, is in opera- tion and in process of construction from Painted Post through the city of Corning to the county line, thence to Elmira and Waverly. Other electric roads are projected and will probably be built, as they are the most accessible and convenient method of public trans- portation yet devised and are best adapted to the topography of the county.
This subject of transportation and public service communica- tion has necessarily taken much space and involved diligent re- search and consideration. The different methods of transportation from the most primitive to the present elaborate and complicated have made the county what it is.
CHAPTER XIV. BANKING AND BANKS.
BANKING LEGISLATION-JOHN MAGEE (STEUBEN COUNTY BANK) - BATH BANKS-THE BANKS OF CORNING-BANKS AND BANKERS OF HORNELLSVILLE-OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE COUNTY-GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
During the last decade of the eighteenth and the first decade of the ninteenth centuries only a limited amount of real money was required in the business transactions of the Painted Post country. The products of the region that were to bring money were principally furs, peltry and Indian ornaments, which could be transported on the back of the hunter and his man to the near- est market, usually Albany, Philadelphia or Baltimore, and either converted into money, or exchanged for Indian wares and orna- ments and ammunition. In the same way, these could be trans- ported back to the wilderness. That part of the avails of the ar- ticles brought to market not exchanged was cash, which was de- posited with some trusted custodian for safe keeping at quite a large per cent for interest; or was deposited with a state deposi- tory, which likewise allowed interest thereon. Many of the hardy, fortunate pioneers, hunters and trappers acquired a respectable competency for that day. The articles taken in exchange were dis- posed of among the Indians and white settlers for the same com- modities as before. Later on, the settler converted his hardwood trees into ashes and then into black salts, to be transported by rude sleds and teams to Tioga Point, Northumberland, Baltimore and intermediate trading points, and exchanged for rude farming utensils, axes, saws and mill irons. Then began the manufacture of lumber from the heavy, dense pine forests, which was floated down the rivers and converted into goods and money; some of the latter was specie, and some paper money issued by the wild cat and red dog banks of Pennsylvania, and usually worthless if not passed off the next day. Much of the lumber was, before shipping, either sold to or hypothecated to the land officer in payment for the land of the settler and shipper. The embargo acts and the War of 1812 greatly embarrassed the ability of all classes to meet their obligations and to provide for their daily needs. It was almost a repetition of the starving times of New England. Banks in distant parts of the state were unknown, except by reputation. The Bank of New York, the first bank in the state, was incor-
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