USA > New York > Tioga County > Owego > Early Owego, N.Y.; some account of the early settlement of the village in Tioga County, N.Y., called Ah-wa-ga by the Indians, which name was corrupted by gradual evolution into Owago, Owego, Owegy and finally Owego > Part 27
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RRIN VERY, . Post-Rider, informs- his . pat- roba . Int Newark, Berkshire, Caroline, and Candor, that his terms for carrying the mail es Diris on the Ist of January next -- All persons imlebted to him for papers are . therefore hereby nutimail, that their respective accounts must be settled In dant time-Grain will be received in delivered according to contract, otherwise the money will be expected .- Nov. 30.
As soon as possible wagon roads were broken through the forests, gen- erally along the Indian trails, and soon the primitive stage made its ap Dearance.
The first regular stage to visit Owe -. go came from Newburgh. The owner's. name was Stanton, and he lived at Mount Pleasant. His stage was. a three-horse lumber wagon, with hiek- ory poles bent over to form a top, and covered with canvas. By this stage the mais from the east were carried once in each week, reaching Owego every Saturday afternoon.
In 1811 Conrad Teter, of Wyoming, Pa., began carrying the mail from Wyoming to Tioga Point (Athens), Pa., with a one-horse wagon, succeed- ing a maut carrier who had been de- livering the mails with a small mail bag on horseback. Mr. Teter soon purchased a covered wagon and used two horses. He for a few years car- ried the mails between Wilkes-Barre ard Painted Post, N. Y., making the round trip once a week. "After a time he ran a covered Jersey carriage, drawn by . four horses, between Wilkes-Barre and Athens.
In 1814 he came to Owego and suc- ceeded Mr. Stanton as proprietor of the Newburgh route. He drove the stage himself, making weekly trips from Owego to Newburgh. From
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Newburgh passengers went by water to New York. This stage went over the route afterward taken by the New- burgh and Geneva stage line. Mr. Peter had a partner named Hunting- ton.
Teter's brother-in-law, Miller Hor- ton, of Wilkes-Barre, was at this time carrying the mail for Teter between Wilkes-Barre and Athens. . He came to Owego and became Teter's partner, the partnership with Huntington hav- ing been dissolved.
February 14, 1816, an act was passed by the legislature of this state, which gave Teter and Oliver Phelps, of Lud- lowville, the sole right for six years to " run stage coaches for passengers. be- tween Newburgh and Monticello, on the road leading through Montgomery and Chenango Point (Binghamton) on the mail route, and between, Chenango Point and Geneva on the road running through Owego, Ithaca, Trumansburg, and Ovid, and between Ithaca, and Auburn on the main mail route, - through Ludlowville. The act pro- vided that no other persons could run stages over this route under a penalty of $500, and prescribed that trips should be made in three days, twice each week, and oftener if the public good should require, the fare not to exceed seven cents a mile.
In 1818, a new company was formed, with Oliver Phelps at its head, and Ithaca was made the western termina- tion of the route instead of Owego. A better line of stages was put. on the route, making tri-weekly trips.
In 1819 Dr. Tracy Robinson and Major Augustus Morgan, of Bingham- ton, became proprietors of the route. In 1822 the same company, but with
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additional proprietors, established a daily line on the route, making Geneva the western terminus.
Stephen B. Leonard established the first stage route from Owego to Bath, In 1816. It required two days to make the trip, the passengers staying over night at Elmira. This was considered a great undertaking in those days, and Mr. Leonard was highly complimented by the newspapers for his enterprise. The following is a copy of Mr .. Leon- ard's advertisement, which was pub- lished in the Gazette, and which may be read with some interest at the present day:
Owego & Bath
Mail & ( CUT OF STAGE AND HORSES. TWICE A WEEK.
Stage.
THIS line runs regularly twice a week, between the villages of. Owego: and Bath, -Days of starting and arrival as follows :- Leave Owego on Mondays and Fridays, at 6 a. m., and break. fasting at Athens, arrive at Elmira at 6 p. m. Leave Elmira on Tuesdays and Saturdays, at 4 a. m., and breakfasting at Painted Post, arrive at Bath at 6 p. I.
Returning .- Leave Bath on Mondays and Fri -. -days, at 4 a. m., and breakfasting at Painted Post, arrive at Elmira at 6 p. m. - Leave Elmira on Tuesdays and Saturdays, at. 4 .a. m., and breakfasting at Athens, arrive at Owego at 6 . p. I.
This line of stages intersects the Newburgh and Buffalo line at Owego -- as also the Philadelphia -- the Wilkes-Barre line, at Tioga Point --- and the Geneva line at Bath, -- at which latter place it also intersects a line leading directly to Angelica situate about 30 miles from Olean, one of the places of embarkation on the Allegany river, and about 18 miles from Oil Creek, the nearest place of embarkation, and which empties into the Al- logany at Olean; at which place boats of any size are always kopt ready for travellers, for the purpose of descending the Ohio river.
Persons travelling from New York, or from any of the Eastern States, to the S. W. States, will find, this the shortest, cheapest, and most expeditious route. The distance from' New York, via Owego, Painted Post and Bath, to Angelica, is 316 miles, which is performed in about. 5 days.
Good teams and careful drivers will be kept on the route, and no pains spared to accommo. date passengers. The Stage houses are good.
S. B. LEONARD ..
March 30, 1819.
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fra- For seats in the above line, apply at E. S. Marsh's or Amos Martin's in Owego- - at Salt- marsh's, Athens -- at Daris's, Elmira -- and at Barnard's, Bath.
At a later period, Mr. Leonard had two four-horse coaches running be. ' tween Owego and 'Montrose. In De- cember, 1823, he sold his lines to a stage company, which was then or- ganized, and of which he became one of the proprietors. The route was ex- tended to New York city, and became a strong opposition to the Newburgh and Geneva line. This company was composed of Joseph I. Roy, John Bur- nett, Zephania Luce, Abraham Bray, Gould Phinney, Silas Heminway, Stephen B. Leonard, Jacob. Willsey, Augustus Morgan; Isaac Post, Ithimer Mott, Miller Horton, A. P. Childs, and others.
Mr. Roy was at this time a hotel keeper at Jersey City, and Mr. Luce was afterward his business partner. Mr. Bray lived at Newton, N. J. Mr. Phinney was the owner of a glass fac- tory at Dundaff, Pa. Mr. Heminway afterward became an extensive stage proprietor at Buffalo, and had five or six lines through the state, where the . New York Central railroad now runs. Jacob Willsey lived at Willseyville, in this county, of which place he was one of the earliest settlers. Major Morgan, who was also a proprietor in the Newburgh and Geneva line, was first a; printer, afterward a hotel keeper, and lived in Binghamton. Mr. Post kept a tavern at Montrose, Pa. Mr. Mott also kept a tavern one and one-half miles east of New. Milford, Pa. Miller Horton lived at Wilkes- Barre, Pa., and was also one of the proprietors of the Newburgh and Geneva line of stages.
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The company put a new line of stage coaches on the road. The route was from New York to Owego. Here it intersected the Newburgh and Geneva line for Buffalo. Stages from New York occupied two days and a half in their journey to Owego, and one day. more from Owego on to Geneva. Trips were made three . times a week. The route was through the villages of Newark, Morristown, and - Newton, N. J., to: Milford, Pa .; thence it followed the new' turnpike, via Dundaff and Montrose, to Owego. The stages on this route left Patton's, 71 Cortlandt street, New York, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, reaching Owego the third day at 10 a. in. This was then the most expe- ditious route, the distance to Owego being but 170 miles, whereas by the way of Newburgh it was 210 miles. The line was intersected at Montrose ·by the Philadelphia and Baltimore . lines, and at Owego by the Bath and ·Olean line.
In the spring of 1825, the line was extended west to Geneva, by the way of Ithaca and Ovid, and coaches left New York every day, Sundays ex- cepted. At. Geneva , the line inter- sected the daily lines to Rochester, Buffalo, Lewiston, etc. It had now be- come an important route, as it opened another, and the most direct, com- munication between New York and the western .part of the state. At Newton, N. J., it intersected a tri- weekly line to Philadelphia; at Mont- rose, the line to Wilkes-Barre, Harris- burg, etc .; at Chenango Point, a line. which ran north through Greene, Ox- ford, etc., to Utica; and at Owego, a. line which ran through Tioga Point
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and Elmira to Bath. The latter line was afterward extended to Olean:
· The stage offices were at Patton's, in New York; Joseph 1. Roy's, Jersey City; Bolle's tavern, Newark; the pub- lic houses at Newton and Dundaff; Buckingham's, at Montrose; Dr. Tracy Robinson's hotel at Chenango Point; Goodman's and Manning's taverns, in Owego; the Ithaca hotel and Grant's coffee house, at Ithaca, and Faulkner's hotel, at Geneva.
The coaches were drawn by four horses, the horses being usually changed at the end of each twelve or eighteen miles. Nine passengers were carried inside each coach, and as many outside as could ride comforta- bly-generally from three to six.
It was at about this time that there were two rival stage lines from Owe- go to Ithaca. One was conducted by Stephen B. Leonard, and the other by Lewis Manning. Mr. Leonard's stages carried the mails, and the rivalry was . so sharp that he charged but fifty cents each way for passengers. In some instances passengers were car- ried free of charge and a free break- fast was given to them, to prevent their going by the rival line. Mr. Leonard had a contract for carrying the mails, which gave him a great ad- vantage over his competitor, who was finally compelled to withdraw his stages from the line.
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The Newburgh and Geneva line was owned by R. Manning, C. Pratt, D. Dunning, Lewis Manning, Augustus Morgan, E. Hathaway, and others. This route was originally from Owego to Binghamton, from Binghamton to Great. Bend, Great Bend to Sweet's tavern, Sweet's to Mount Pleasant,
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Mount Pleasant to Lukens's farmr, ' Lukens's to Bloomingburg, Blooming. burgh to Newburgh. and thence by boat to New York. The stages left Owego three times each week, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and were two days and two nights in making the · Journey:
The proprietors, in September, 1828, established another line from the head of Seneca lake to Owego, in connec- tion with the steamboat . "Seneca Chief." . Trips over this line were made three times a week, and inter- sected the Newburgh line at Owego. The trip from New York to Geneva was made in three days: The first 40 and the last 65 miles were by water.
Previous to about the year 1830, the stages on the various lines running from and through Owego were usually two horse affairs. After making a dis- tance of about fifteen miles, the dri- .vers and horses were changed and sometimes the stages. The stages were com, usually about thirty miles each day. After 1830, heavy Troy coaches were put upon the road, which were drawn by four horses. each, with about the same changes. These . coaches weighed from 1,800 to 2,000 pounds and carried nine pas- sengers inside and two outside, al- though more were crowded on the top when it was necessary. The body of one of these stages was hung. on tivo strong leather straps, composed of many thicknesses of leather. With five or more passengers the riding was com- fortable; with only one or two passen- gers the stage rolled and jumped on a rough road. These stages were like the modern omnibus-they would al- ways hold one more passenger. The
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'fare from Owego to Newburgh was $7.25, and to Jersey City over the Montrose route $8.00.
All the villagers knew the time of the arrival and departure of the dif- ferent stages, and when the sound of the stage driver's horn was heard an- nouneing his coming, there was usu- ally a considerable number of sight. seers to witness their going and com- ing.
At the stage houses the passengers stopped for their meals, and this tra- fic was a large source of profit. Usu- ally these hotel keepers were the es- sence of politeness, and in assisting their guests to and from the stages and entertaining them in the house they had no equals.
In the old stage days in every vil- lage in the Susquehanna valley was a tavern · designated as ."the stage house," or house where the stages stopped. The old Owego hotel, which stood where the present . Ahwaga house is now, was the stage house in this village for the old lines until the New York and Erie railroad was built to Owego in 1849. The hotel was burned in the fall of that year.
The old stage companies had the contracts for carrying the mails and were consequently able to drive off any opposition lines that might be started. In October, 1840, N. Randall & Co. started an opposition line be- tween Owego and Morristown, N. J., running by the way of Montrose, Dun- daff, Carbondale, Clark's Corners, Ca- naan, Honesdale, and Milford. At Morristown, passengers for New York and Philadelphia were transferred to the cars.
Nathan Randall, previous to estab.
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fishing this stage line-from 1828' to .1837- was the publisher of the Ithaca Journal and Advertiser at Ithaca. His Owego office was at 1. Manning & Son's Owego hotel and his agent was J. C. Bogardus .: Bogardus was from Rhinebeck. He died a few years af- terward, a victim of intemperance.
The New York agency was at 73 Cortlandt street. The agent, Jonathan Hill, was a bachelor and had been: a stage driver. At the time of his death he had not a relative living, and he left all his property to John Patton, Jr., a nephew of James Patton, who was agent for the old stage line at 71 Cortlandi street, and himself a stage agent. John Patton, Jr., was after- ward engaged in the ocean steamship business, and became very wealthy: At the time of his death a few years ago, he was the owner of the Pacific hotel in Greenwich street.
William G. Thompson, who was a son of Henry Thompson, the first tav- ern keeper and postmaster at Camp- ville, lived nearly all of his life at Owego and died here. He was agent for the old lines at 73 Cortlandt street about the year 1846, and two years af- terward went on the line to look after the passengers.
Mr. Randall was finally driven off the road by the old companies, to whom he sold his coaches and stock. In every instance where opposition lines were afterward started they were also compelled to leave the road and sell out to the old proprietors. The office of the old lines was at Man- ning & Son's Owego hotel, while the opposition established their agencies at the Franklin house and. Tioga house. The duty of these agents was
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simply to receipt fare for the com. pany.
Another of the opposition lines was the "Eagle Line" of Field, Cox & Co., which was established in October, 1843, after the N. Y. & E. railroad was completed to Middletown. The head- quarters of the proprietors were at . Binghamton: Coaches were run daily from Middletown by the way of Nar- rowsburg, Honesdale, Mount Pleasant, New Milford, Great Bend, and Bing- hamton to Owego." At this time the. offices of both the regular and oppo- sition lines were at the old Owego hotel.
Charles Cox was from Carbondale, Pa., . He afterward kept a hotel four miles west of Homesdale. He died at Scranton. Mr. Field was a brother of Maj. Almerin Field, who was proprie- tor at various times of hotels at Corn- ing, Elmira, Owego, and Waverly. The brothers kept a hotel at Narrows- burg and were both engaged in stage coaching.
As the New York and Erie railroad was constructed the stages running east froni Owego changed their routes and ran in connection with its last western terminus. The road was ex- tended to Goshen, in September, 1841; to Middletown, in June, 1843; to Port Jervis, in January, 1848; to Bingham- ton, in. December of the sanie year; and to Owego October 1, 1849. When the road reached. Elmira the days of the old stage lines were at an end .so far as this part of the state was con- cerned.
The stage proprietors in the later days of stage coaching were as fol- lows: . C. L. Grant & Co., Ithaca; I. Ringe, Geneva; L. Manning & Son,
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Owego; T. J. Magee, Bath; Lorenzo Seymour, Corning; Cooley & Maxwell, Elmira; Stephen B. Leonard, Owego; Augustus Morgan, Binghamton; Ithi- mer Mott, New Milford; Win. Riley, Rileyville, Pa .; Hamilton & Son, Monticello; O. Sweet, Bloomingburg; S. Hathaway, Newburgh; Leonard Searle & Bro., Montrose; Wm. Bron- son, Carbondale; Major . McClary, Honesdale; Sam Dimmock, Milford; the Cassidy brothers, Port Jervis; Charles Beach, Catskill; H. Curtis, .Greene; and Miller Horton, Wilkes- barre.
The Searleses. canie ' to Montrose, Pa., at an early day from the Wyom- ing valley, and were the first to estab- lish stage routes and post offices in Susquehanna county. For many years they ran two lines from Milford to New York-one by the way of Sussex, N. J., and the other via Deckertown.
The stage proprietors here named were all combined in one large stock company and owned all the large routes running through southern New York. Each one put into the company as many coaches and as much live stock as was necessary for the num- ber of miles he ran over, and each drew mileage in proportion to the · number of miles run by his stages. Settlements were made once every three months at meetings of the pro- prietors, which were held at various points previously designated. Owego was a central point, and the meetings were frequently held here.
As the N. Y. and E. railroad ex- tended its tracks westward and the stage routes were consequently gradually shortened,many of the stage drivers became brakemen on the road,
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were rapidly pushed forward, and be- came conductors. The old coaches disappeared, most of them being re- moved to parts of the country not yet occupied by the railroads.
The last of the old coaches in Owe- go was lying for several years in the old lane, which ran about where Cen- tral avenue now extends, and through which the old Owego and Ithaca horse railroad had run down into the vil- lage. : The coach was minus its wheels and everything else that could be car- ried away. One night, on a third of July, the boys made a great bonfire in the street at the north end of the park. The old coach was dragged out into the street and surrounded by wooden boxes and other inflammable stuff. A light was applied, and the whole was soon a heap of ashes and scrap iron.
Stage coaching was not unattended by accidents. The roads were some- times rough, the hills precipitous, the nights dark, and there was danger in times of ice and flood. The only ac- cident worthy of any mention that ever happened in Owego was on the 26th of March, 1846 .. There was a great flood in the Owego creek, and all the low land between the two bridges in Cana- wana was overflowed. At four o'clock in the morning, the mail coach from Elmira containing five passengers was coming into Owego. It passed over the creek bridge and entered the swift current, which was flowing over the highway. The water at once swept away both coaches and horses. One of the horses was drowned. The dri- ver and three of the passengers were drowned. All passengers were young
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, men under twenty-five years of age and one of them was a negro.
The Second Railroad Chartered in the State of New York Is Built between Ithaca and Owego, to Lessen the Expense of Transporting Merchan- dise to Owego and thence by the Susquehanna River to a Market, with Capital Stock of $150,000, Which Is Subsequently Increased to $450,000.
The old Ithaca and Owego railroad was built in 1833 to make easier and cheaper transportation for merchan- dise brought down . Cayuga lake to Ithaca by boat and drawn thence to Owego by teams for shipment down the Susquehanna river to the Philadel- phia and Baltimore markets.
At that time the chief products con- sisted of salt from Syracuse, plaster from Auburn, and flour, grain, and lumber from every direction. in cen- tral New York. At first all the mer- chandise was drawn the entire dis- tance from the point of production to Owego by teams. Finally a ditch was dug from the head of Cayuga lake to connect with the Erie canal. When this water connection was .com- pleted boats were run down to Ithaca, and merchandise . brought thence to Owego by teams.
The proposition to build a railroad from Syracuse to Owego was first con- sidered. Public meetings were held at Newark Valley, Berkshire, Rich- ford, Dryden and other places to cre- ate a sentiment in favor of such 'road. But when the water connection was made between the Erie canal and Cay- uga lake the plan was changed.
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The first railroad constructed in the United States was built only six years previous, in 1827, and that was a horse railroad from the granite quarries of Quincy, Mass:, to the Neponset river, a distance of three miles. And the Ithe aca and Owego railroad was incorpor- porated only a year later.
The second. railroad was laid out in January, 1827, from the coal mines of Mauch Chunk, Pa., to the Lehigh river a distance of nine miles. In 1828 the Delaware & Hudson canal com- . pany constructed a railroad from its coal mines to Honesdale, Pa., the ter- minus of its canal, and sent a commis- sion to England for the purchase of rail iron and locomotives. 'The loco- motives arrived in the spring of 1829. The third railroad constructed was the Baltimore and. Ohio line, commenced in 1828.
The first railroad chartered in the . state of New York was the Hudson & Mohawk railroad from Albany to Sche- nectady, April 17, 1826, but its con- struction was not begun until 1830. The second railroad chartered in this state was the Ithaca & Owego rail- road.
In those days, as has already been related, Owego was the outlet from the north, by the Susquehanna river, for flour, grain, salt, lumber, plaster, etc., and for many years this part of the state was the source of supply for such merchandise. Much of it came by the way of Ithaca to Owego and was transported down the river in arks. The steamboat having proved a failure as a means of transporting freight, the next project was a rail- road.
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Che Ithaca & Owego railroad was organized by capitalists living at Owe- go and ftbaca, . prominent : among whom was James Pumpelly. The mat ter was first agitated in 1827.
It had -at first been proposed to . build a canal between Owego and Ith- aca, as a connecting link between the waters of the Erie canal and the Sus- quehauna river, but when it was found that there would be an elevation and corresponding depression of 600 feet to overcome by lockage, as well as the disadvantage of a doubtful supply of water, and also that a railroad could be built for at least one-third less than à canal and could be used at all sea- 'sons of the year while a canal would be frozen in the winter months, the railroad project was substituted.
No active measures, however, were taken to build the road until the build -. ing: of the Chemung canal from the head of Seneca lake to Elmira threat. ened to divert trade from Ithaca and Owego. Then Gen. Simeon De Witt, who owned a large tract of land at the. head of Cayuga lake, and others inter- ested in the prosperity of Ithaca and Owego, set themselves at work to build this road.
Sept. 20, 1827, a meeting was held at Owego for the purpose of taking measures to procure from the state legislature a granit for a company to construct a railroad from Ithaca to Owego. At this meeting Mr: Pum- pelly was chairman and Stephen B. Leonard secretary. A committee com- posed of James . Pumpelly, Eleazer Dana, John H. Avery, John R. Drake, and Stephen B. Leonard was ap- pointed to confer with a similar com- mittee of Ithaca men. On the 31st of
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October a similar meeting was held at Ithaca, when a committee com- posed of A. D. W. Bruyn, F A .. Blood- good, Charles Humphrey, Henry Ack- ley, and Levi Leonard was appointed to confer with the Owego .committee.
These committees met .ut Philip Goodman's tavern in Owego, where the Ahwaga house now stands, on November 20 and decided to petition the legislature to incorporate a com- pany to construct the proposed road.
The company was duly incorporated June 28, 1828, the corporation to con- tinue until January 1, 1878. The right was granted to construct a single or double track railroad from Cayuga lake, at or near Ithaca, to the Sus- quehanna river, in the village of Owego, and to erect and maintain toll houses and other buildings along its line. . The company was empowered "to transport, take, and carry prop- erty and persons, by the power and force of steam, of animals, or of any combination of them, which the said corporation may choose to employ." . The rate for transporting freight was fixed at three cents a ton a mile, and for every pleasure carriage, or carriage used for the transportation of passengers three cents a mile, in addi- tion to the toll by weight for loading. The act also provided that "all per- sons paying the toll aforesaid may; with suitable and proper carriages, use and travel upon the said railroad, subject to such rules and reg- ulations as the said corporation are authorized to make." The act was to be null and void if the railroad should not be built and put into oper- ation within three years from the pas- sage of this act.
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