USA > New York > Chemung County > Chemung County, its history > Part 3
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The locomotive "Horseheads" of the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira Railroad.
there was no heat except for warm bricks placed around the feet of the passengers.
The cost of the coaches ranged from three to four hundred dollars each, and the horses were valued at from sixty-five to one hun- dred and fifty dollars an animal. The teams had to be rugged to stand the pace as the roads were uneven, unbridged, and filled with stumps and holes. The coaches were light and were usually good for one to two years. Heavier type vehicles accumulated too much mud in the thaws and were too cumbersome for the teams. In the winter months large sleds were often used instead of the wheeled coaches.
Elmira was the headquarters of the stage companies with equip- ment and stables located at the corner of Baldwin and Market Sts.
As long as the dirt roads remained, subjected to snow, ice and rain, the growth of city and county was slow, but picked up in tempo with the hard surfacing of the main routes. The first hard surfaced road in the county was constructed in 1906, run- ning between Horseheads and Erin, and the first concrete high- way was laid down between Elmira and Ithaca in 1915.
THE RAILROADS
During the heyday of the coach lines the railroads and the canals came into the local transportation field. The canals, while they served their purpose, had their handicaps. They were slow, wound around steep hills, were too shallow for heavy cargo, and froze up when they were needed the most.
In the late 1830's steam power appeared. Steam engines could climb hills and did not need deep water. The elements did not stop the steam trains. Railroads were fast and could reach into remote parts of the country where canals could not; but the canals did serve their generation.
Before the advent of the railroads western New York traffic was routed to Lake Ontario and to Montreal, while northern New
Standard and wide gauge tracks of Erie railroad be- fore the broad (6-foot) gauge was abandoned. (1879 photo)
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Elmira's Erie' Station before railroad was elevated in 1934.
York state commerce was transported to Canada via Lake Champlain. The vast coal fields of northern Pennsylvania could not be exploited to their fullest. The country needed railroads.
On April 21, 1825 the state of New York ordered a survey for a railway through the Southern Tier counties from the Hud- son River to Lake Erie. On April 24, 1832 the New York & Erie Railway was chartered. It was designed as a great trunk line to connect New York City with the undeveloped region of southern and western New York state.
After years of financial trials the road was opened into Elmira on Oct. 2, 1849. Aided by the larger company, the Chemung Rail- road had been laid down between Elmira and Seneca Lake and was opened Dec. 4, 1849. Erie trains ran through from the Hudson River to the lake and passengers and freight was transferred to lake boats. Two years later the New York & Erie Rail- way completed its track to Lake Erie.
From the south an effort had been started in 1828 to project a railroad from Williamsport, Pa. to Elmira to intersect the New York & Erie and for the purpose of securing New York state grain, salt and plaster in exchange for Pennsylvania's coal and iron. On Aug. 1, 1854 the Elmira & Williamsport Railroad opened into Elmira.
In 1853 the Elmira, Canandaigua & Niagara Falls Railroad completed its construction between Canandaigua and Watkins. Connection was made with the Chemung Railroad, thus giving the Chemung Valley rail lines to the four points of the compass. Elmira had become a railroad center.
In the Civil War Elmira was a military training center and the railroads brought in recruits and sent away soldiers.
During this period the lines between Williamsport and Canan- daigua came under control of the Northern Central Railway, which, in turn, became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system in 1914.
To the west of Chemung County the Corning & Blossburg Rail- road had been opened in 1840 for the purpose of moving coal and lumber of the Blossburg area to the Feeder Canal at Corn- ing. Transferred to canal barges the products were shipped to
KLMIRA
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Lackawanna Station in Elmira before tracks were elevated.
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Car of the Elmira, Corning and Waverly Railway.
ELMIRA.CORNINE
The 1961 Phoebe Snow of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad leaving Elmira eastbound.
Early double-decker of the West Side Railroad.
points in northern New York state and to New England via the Chemung Canal and the Erie Canal. When the New York & Erie Railroad made connection with the Corning & Blossburg Railroad new markets were opened to the east and the west.
In 1876 the Elmira & State Line Railway was constructed along Seeley Creek between Southport and the state line where it joined rails with the Tioga Railroad which had been built east- ward from the old Corning & Blossburg Railroad at Tioga Junction. Coal and lumber was then routed into Elmira via the new line instead of to Corning and went to distant markets via the railroads that were centered in the city. In 1882 the Tioga Railroad and the Elmira & State Line Railroad became the Tioga Division of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad (Erie). In 1942 that portion between Tioga Junction and South- port was abandoned.
A part of the Corning & Blossburg Railroad was consolidated with other new short line railroads to become the Fall Brook Railway, running between Williamsport and Corning, and in 1877 this company projected an extension northward to Geneva, passing through the extreme north western part of Chemung County. In 1899 the Fall Brook Railway became a part of the New York Central Railroad system.
In the eastern part of the county rail activities began in 1871 with the formation of several small lines which, through mergers and consolidations, came under the control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1882. In 1889 this company pushed through a new line from Van Etten to Geneva.
In the early 1870's the Chemung valley had rail lines to the north, south, and west, but none leading directly east. To move the vast lumber shipments from the Erin and Park Station region a railroad was built from Ithaca to Horseheads. On Sept. 28, 1872 the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira Railroad was opened. Coal and lumber from the Blossburg area was forwarded by the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira line to central and northern New York and to New England. On April 2, 1878 the Canal Railroad was char- tered under the auspices of the Utica, Ithaca & Elmira Railroad and laid down on the tow-path of the Chemung Canal between Horseheads and Elmira. In 1884 the two companies, with others, became the Elmira, Cortland & Northern Railway. The Lehigh Valley Railroad assumed control of this line in 1896. The last train on the Chemung County section of the line passed over the rails on May 25, 1938 and the track was abandoned with the exception of the old Canal Rail- road which is in daily use today.
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The last steam railroad to be constructed in Chemung County was the Delaware, Lacka- wanna & Western Railroad which opened into Elmira on April 21, 1882 and afforded the valley with another first-class line of communication, linking Buffalo with the At- lantic seaboard and granting access to the anthracite fields of eastern Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1960 this commpany merged with the Erie Railroad to form the Erie-Lacka- wanna Railroad Company. The tracks of the Lackawanna Railroad were abandoned between Binghamton and Corning and the Elmira marshalling yards were closed.
The railroads brought many benefits to the city of Elmira and the valley of the Chemung. Towns grew along the lines, in- dustries were established and prospered, and agriculture promoted.
The railroads assisted the city in its growth and abetted the manufacture of glass, iron, boots and shoes, clothing, the marketing of tobacco; gave aid to the milling of flour and feed and the manufacturing of cloth and stoves. They delivered the raw materials for the making of railway cars, fire apparatus, saws and files, and wood water pipes.
Stage coach taverns gave way to village depots and the steam whistle replaced the coachman's horn and whip. The growth of the Chemung valley matched the development of railroad facilities.
The peak of area railroad activities was reached in the 1920's and the decline began in the 1930's when the track between Horseheads and Ithaca was torn up. The hill section of the Tioga Division southwest of the county was abandoned in 1942. Passenger service ended on the New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Freight service only is provided by the Lehigh Valley. The last major change was the Erie- Lackawanna merger. The trains are longer and run faster than they did at the turn of the century. Radio-telephones assist in train movement. The telegraph instrument is out-moded. Diesel locomotives have replaced the steam engine as motive power, but despite the modern inventions, the service provided falls short of that which was provided after World War I.
ELECTRIC RAILWAYS
For local street transportation the Elmira & Horseheads Railway Company was opened Aug. 23, 1871 when a single horse pulled a
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Open trolley car on Water St. near Lake St. about 1895.
Boarding the interurban of the Elmira-Corning & Waverly Railway.
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lone car over the route on Lake Street. A small steam engine later replaced the horses to Horseheads, and this line was elec- trified in 1893. The Maple Avenue Railroad was incorporated in 1887, followed in 1891 by the West Side Railroad.
The West Water Street Railway was organized in 1890 and leased to the Elmira & Horseheads line. In 1900 and 1901 all the city lines were consolidated as the Elmira Water, Light & Railroad Company.
In 1895 the Watkins & Havana Glen Railway was organized as an electric inter-urban line and in 1896 the name was changed to the Elmira & Seneca Lake Railway Company, becoming the property of the Elmira Water, Light & Railroad Co. High speed electric cars ran into Horseheads from Watkins Glen, using the track of the old Elmira & Horseheads route to reach the corner of Lake and Water Sts. in Elmira. The line was abandoned in 1923 due to lack of patronage brought about by the increasing- use of the private automobile.
The Erie Railroad entered the electric inter-urban business in 1906 with the Elmira, Corning & Waverly Railway, intending the line to be a "feeder" to the steam railroad. Tracks were laid between Waverly and Wellsburg in 1906, extended to El- mira in October, 1909, and to Corning in 1911. Tracks of the city lines were used through the city of Elmira, east and west. With the increased popularity of the automobile, the line was forced to cease operations March 31, 1930. The last "trolley" car to operate in the city passed over the rails on March 11, 1939. Buses then took over.
THE AUTOMOBILE
The first automobile in the Chemung valley was a small one- cylinder, 14 horsepower Winton which appeared in June, 1899. This simple machine heralded the Motor Age.
Photograph on left-Southport yard of Pennsylvania Railroad in days of steam.
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T.J.CONN LLY'S
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Water St. at the railroad in 1932, before tracks were elevated.
The early automobiles were used chiefly for pleasure trips. After World War I, the popularity of the auto rose rapidly. In 1915, there were 1,000 auto licenses issued by the license bureau and today the figure will approach 40,000. The blacksmith shops gave way to the garages and the watering troughs were replaced by the gasoline pump.
More motor cars meant better highways. Prior to 1929 the up- keep of the roads was done by the various towns or the state with many rural residents paying all or part of their taxes by work- ing a stated number of days a month on the roads. In 1929 the County Highway Department was formed.
Truck lines, first local, then national, were established and be- gan to skim off the cream of the railroads' freight traffic. Bus lines were organized. Railroad passenger traffic dwindled. Electric railways failed. Parts of, or entire railroad companies were abandoned. Meanwhile the four-lane Route 17 was built east of Elmira through Horseheads in 1956.
Communities such as Erin, Breesport, North Chemung and Pine City are now dependent on the automobile, the truck and the bus for their daily needs. Elmira is surrounded by new subur- ban areas whose dwellers must use the automobile to reach their places of employment and supermarkets.
The widespread use of the motor car is causing vast and com- plex problems as to parking places and traffic movement on narrow streets. More express highways are contemplated to handle the steadily increasing motorized traffic.
For further reading, consult :
TRANSPORTATION
. References The Chemung Historical Journal
Vol. 1-No. 1 Sept. 1955 Indian Trails
Vol. 1 -No. 1 Sept. 1955 Trolley Lines Vol. 2-No. 4 June 1957 Odyssey Of the Roads
. Vol. 2 - No. 4 June 1957 Our Early Railroads
Vol. 4- No. 3 Маг. 1959 End Of the Line For Steam
Vol. 3-No. 1 Sept. 1957 Elmira's First Automobiles
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AVIATION
These important events marked the beginning of aviation in Chemung County.
The first occurred Sept. 20, 1906 when Capt. E. W. Baldwin, in the airship "The Arrow", floated from Horseheads to Elmira.
The second event was made possible through the efforts of Matthias H. Arnot who thought of air flight as early as 1897. But it was not until 1910 that a glider was constructed from drawings made by Arnot. Measuring sixteen feet long, four feet high, and four feet wide this craft was made by Charles Teasdale at the Thurston and Haskell Shop on W. First St. in Elmira.
The third event was the appearance on the local scene of a monoplane acquired on Aug. 13, 1913 by Daniel J. and Floyd S. Hungerford of Elmira. The builder of this airplane, the "Blen- et, Type X1" was August Rauschenbush.
Aerial navigation started early in September 1890 when Mansel Taylor became president of the Air Navigation Company of El- mira. He was the first man to head such a concern.
Construction of the first airplane engine in the area took place in 1909. It was a 30 horsepower engine that actually flew an airplane and is credited to Daniel and Floyd Hungerford.
The Elmira Airport Corporation was incorporated in July 1927 and on Sept. 10, 1927 the Caton Avenue Airport was officially opened. This same day Charles A. Lockwood was the first El- mira businessman to deliver his goods from Elmira via the air route. The operation of this airfield, situated between the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and Caton Ave., gave Elmira air connections with Buffalo, Rochester, New York City, and Syra- cuse. This airport has long been abandoned.
The name of Elmira was carried to the far corners of the world on 16,750 letters in the first airmail flight from this community on October 1, 1934. An outstanding pioneer in the mail service was the late Leon (Windy) Smith.
The American Airways landing field began operations on June 24, 1933. Originally the site covered ninety-two acres in the valley between Horseheads and Big Flats. Later it became the Elmira Airport and is now the Chemung County Airport, served by Mohawk and Capital Airlines. In recent years the airfield has been greatly modernized. A new terminal was dedi- cated in 1960, one of the best in New York State.
HARRIS HILL Elmira has long been recognized as "The Glider Capital of
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America". On July 2, 1930, Jack O'Meara, piloting a Baker- MacMillan Cadet glider, made the first soaring flight from South Mountain. So successful was this initial flight that the National Glider Association, now The Soaring Society of America, de- cided to hold the first National Gliding and Soaring Contest in Chemung County. South Mountain was chosen as the base of operation.
This contest was held from Sept. 21 to Oct. 5, 1930. Albert E. Hastings was declared American soaring champion with the longest duration flight of seven hours and forty-three minutes.
In June 1934 Warren Eaton, Earl Southee, and others obtained land leases for a new launching site which is now known as Harris Hill (Warren E. Eaton Gliding Facility). In 1941 the U.S. Army sent its first class of men to Harris Hill for training in motorless flight.
Harris Hill was named in honor of Henry Harris who was a member from the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology. Overlooking the Big Flats valley and the Chemung River, the Hill has a total of 150 acres. It is 1,500 feet above sea level.
We should not study the history of motorless flight without some mention of the Schweizer Aircraft Corporation, founded in December 1939. This company manufactures airplanes, sail- planes, and various non-aircraft products.
Chemung County's new air terminal at dusk, with Mohawk planes on runways.
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CIVIL WAR DEPOT AND PRISON CAMP
Elmira's military tradition dates to 1840. A guard company formed that year became the nucleus of the first regiment in New York State mustered into federal service at the start of the Civil War. It was Company K of the 23rd Regiment and it was enrolled at a meeting called in Elmira on April 15, 1861, the day President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers.
Three months later-on July 30, 1861, Elmira became one of three military depots in the state under order of Governor Mor- gan. The others were New York City and Albany. Elmira was chosen because of its location and accessibility, it being on the Erie and the Williamsport & Elmira Railroads and the Chemung Canal.
Quickly Elmira became a military center of vast importance to the Union cause. Men streamed into town to volunteer and the town echoed in ever growing volume to the tread of their march- ing feet and the clank and jingle of their equipment.
To house and feed these men was a serious problem. Store- houses, churches and a barrel factory were taken over for troops. Four areas for barracks were established. One was east of Lake St. and south of Washington Ave., roughly the location of Parker Field. Another was on the Southside where the Pennsylvania Railroad yards are now located. The third-so- called Barracks 3-roughly 30 acres along W. Water St. west of Hoffman St., lives in history as the site later of the Elmira Prison Camp. Barracks No. 4 was on the Southside, across the river from No. 3.
The barrel factory continued in service, being close to the Erie R.R. A tall, wooden building, at various times a carriage fac- tory and a school, became a military hospital. It stood at William and Church Sts. Another hospital was near Davis and Clinton Sts. In a building on Market St., near the present site of the Strand Theater, was quartered a guard force or military police unit.
We can gain an accurate idea of the scope and magnitude of military activity in Elmira by setting forth that from Elmira went:
24 organizations of infantry which had been raised here. 4 artillery companies recruited here, with 975 officers and men.
Confederate section of Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira.
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6 cavalry units, with 1,650 officers and men. A total of 20,796 officers and men were enrolled, equipped, trained and forwarded to the battle- fields from this military point.
Of these outfits, three were considered "home regiments" by Elmira. They were the 141st, the 23rd and the 107th, the last named the best known. It was mustered into service Aug. 13, 1862, with 1,016 men on its roster. A monument
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to this regiment stands in front of the County Buildings on Lake St., its pedestal telling the story of the engagements in which it helped to write history in blood and suffering. The number of its men to survive-380-speaks eloquently of the price it paid to the Union cause.
As soon as they were outfitted and given rudimentary training, the men were sped to the front, many riding through Williams- port and Harrisburg to Washington standing in open cattle cars. Elmirans gave them writing paper, mittens, sewing kits and other small comforts as they entrained for the front.
Some Elmira church spires tell the story of tensions that pre- ceded the war. This was a station on the slave underground by which many hundreds of hapless men, women and children made their way into Canada. It is in our democratic tradition that two names remain prominent in the history of the slave under- ground hereabouts. One was Jervis Langdon, wealthy, aristo- cratic, humane; the other, John Jones, a Negro who walked into Elmira in rags, his feet bloodied with the rigors of his de- termined, fear-ridden flight. He found friends here who taught him to read and write and gave him work. Here he lived out his days. The memory of Langdon is preserved in The Park Church which he and other abolitionists helped to establish; the memory of Jones lives on in a housing project.
Whether we like it or not, Elmira's fame as a Civil War point rests to a considerable extent on the Prison Camp established in May, 1864, and continuing until the war ended a year later. It occupied Barracks 3, as mentioned previously, and extended along W. Water St. for about 1,000 feet westward from Hoffman St. and extending south to the Chemung River. This tract of some 30 acres was enclosed by a 12-foot plank fence along the top of which was a walk and boxes for sentries.
The first Confederate prisoners arrived here in June, 1864. Enroute, 64 prisoners and 16 guards were killed in a railroad wreck at Sho- hola, Pa. Many of the prisoners were sick and in need of care not available in any prison camp either in the north or south. Wooden booths for the sale of food and beverage appeared on Water St. across from the camp and gawkers had an opportunity to look into the camp from towers built by promoters with more enterprise than delicacy. The camp grounds were neat. There was no "deadline," beyond which a prisoner could walk or reach without drawing a shot-usually fatal-from a guard.
The Elmira Prison Camp has been under endless attack and probably always will be.
John W. Jones
The Elmira Prison Camp in 1864.
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Remember that it was set up in war time. Medicines were not in sufficient supply. Arrangements to house the men were in- adequate at first.
But the men were well fed. Records show that 13,000 barrels of flour and nearly 2 million pounds of meat were purchased in the year the camp was in operation. The surplus was sold by the camp and the money realized from the sale went into a fund to buy what delicacies were to be had for the sick.
Sanitary conditions left much to be desired as they did at every camp for prisoners on either side of the Mason & Dixon Line. Smallpox broke out early in 1865. A flood on St. Patrick's Day swept over the camp.
The Elmira Camp housed 11,916 prisoners of whom 2,994 died. Of these men, 2,973 were buried in what is known now as the National Cemetery. The burials were reverently performed by a man with a familiar name-John Jones. He kept a careful record of the name, company, regiment and state of every body he interred, and the location of the grave. In later years, the wooden headboards which first marked the graves were re- placed with the uniform stones.
Added, in 1937, was the monument to Confederate dead, the contribution to the cemetery of the Daughters of the Confed- eracy.
Clay W. Holmes' "Elmira Prison Camp," contains the full and accurate story of the camp whose gates closed when the war ended and the surviving prisoners were formed into pitiful ranks, marched to the Erie station and sent southward to the homes for which they had fought so valiantly.
CIVIL WAR
References
The Chemung Historical Journal
Vol. 1-No. 1 Sept. 1955 Chemung County's Part In the Civil War
Vol. 1- No. 2 Dec. 1955 The Elmira Prison Camp
Vol. 5 - No. 3 Mar. 1960 The Trail Toward Freedom
Vol. 6-No. 1
Sept. 1960 Civil War Years
Vol. 6- No. 4
June 1961 Underground Railroad
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When the first settlers came up the Chemung River before 1800 they brought with them, among other things, school books. Thus, one of the first institutions established as they built their houses and plowed the fields, was the schools.
In the beginning school was held in the home and in 1793 such a school was held in the weaving room of Israel Parshall near the present village of Chemung. However, the first school in our area may have been taught by William Jenkins during the winter of 1788 in a log cabin near Lowman. It was also about 1793 that school was taught in a log house in Horseheads. This early school was called the Breese School and was held in the home of John Breese (Brees), an early settler in Horseheads.
As the people came and settled into the present limits of Che- mung County, during those early years, more schools dotted the countryside and the process of educating the children started. Only a few subjects were taught and generally con- sisted of reading, arithmetic, spelling, and some writing. The Dilworth speller was a principal textbook along with other books brought from New England. Other subjects dealing with society were to come in later years.
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