USA > New York > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 35
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" The Lebanon Springs are only seven miles from the
# Until this time, and later, the use of locomotives was not eon- templated by the projectors, hut all the plans and estimates of the engineers and commissioners were based wholly on the idea of the use of animal power for the moving of trains, "ns better adapted to the transportation of the endless variety of loading which a dense and industrious population requires." Colonel Richard P. Morgan, in his report upon the mountain division of the route in Massachu- setts, proposed the construction of inelined planes, along which ears were to be drawn by the power of water-wheels where such power was found available; otherwise by horses, or, hetter than all, by oxen.
t The Western railroad of Massachusetts, however, over which this contemplated connection was to be made, was not opened until more than four years after the date of this letter.
132
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
line of the road, and as soon as the main road is completed a branch will be made to that place. That the Berkshire and Hudson railroad will materially advance the prosperity of this rising city (Hudson ) I do not entertain a doubt. . . . The whole line, extending from Hudson* to West Stock- bridge, thirty-two miles, is under contract for grading, and nearly or quite completed. The rails will in all probability be laid this summer, and by September of the present year the work will be completed."
The road was opened for travel September 26, 1838, and the event was celebrated at West Stockbridge with bound- less enthusiasm by a great concourse of the citizens of Co- lumbia and Berkshire. The construction and equipment of the line were not of the best, nor indeed were they such as would be regarded as even passable at the present day. The track was formed of ordinary flat bar-iron, five-eighths of an itich in thickness, laid on wooden stringers ; and the grades of the road, for four miles of its length, varied from seventy-one to cighty fect per mile. The cars were short and box-like, and were mounted on springs which were scarcely springs at all; so that, in such vehicles and over such a frail and uneven track, passengers found very little of the comfort which attends railway travel at the present day. Still it was a railroad, and its vast superiority over the old methods of freight transportation was apparent from the first, while for the surging and jolting of the train, travel- ers were more than compensated by its speed, which then seemed almost marvelous,-for the idea of the employment of animal-power which had at first been entertained was abandoned, and locomotives (such as they were) were used instead.
An extension of the road beyond West Stockbridge (known as the Pittsfield and West Stockbridge railroad) having been opened in May, 1841, and all links having been joined beyond Pittsfield during the succeeding five months, the unbroken route between Hudson and Boston was opened, amid great rejoicing, Oct. 4, 1841.
The Castleton and West Stockbridge Railroad Company was incorporated by the Legislature of New York in May, 1834. The line, so authorized, to run from Castleton to the Massachusetts line, on a route to West Stockbridge. In 1836 it was re-chartered as the Albany and West Stock- bridge Company, and with a corresponding change of western terminus, making it identical with the northern branch of the southernmost of the two routes considered and surveyed by the commissioners appointed by the Legislature in 1828, and nearly the same as the New York portion of the present Boston and Albany railroad. The company was composed principally of citizens of the State of New York, but the construction and operation of the road was afterwards, by agreement, assumed by the Western Rail- road Company of Massachusetts.
It had first been proposed to use the wooden track, capped with the flat bar, but the inferiority of this method had been so clearly demonstrated upon the Hudson road that it was rejected here, and a serviceable iron rail was used instead. This line was vigorously pushed to comple-
tion, and was opened to Chatham Four Corners on the 21st of December, 1841. Eastward from Chatham the Western company continued to use the tramway of the Hudson and Berkshire road, but were obliged to exercise the greatest care in passing their heavier trains over the frail and dan- gerous track ; but meanwhile they were diligently at work upon the independent line, which would obviate the neces- sity of their using the Berkshire road. This was com- pleted and opened Sept. 12, 1842.
Columbia county had now achieved direct railroad com- munication with the capitals of both New York and Mas- sachusetts ; but proud, and justly proud, as she was of this communication, her roads of that day bore but faint re- semblance to those of her present system, with their rock- ballasted beds, steel tracks, superb equipment, and ceaseless traffic.
The Hudson and Berkshire road was not prosperous, and eventually those who had so frecly and generously sub- scribed in aid of the enterprise lost the entire amount of their investment. The road received State assistance in 1840 to the amount of $150,000, secured to the State by mortgage, and in December, 1847, was further authorized by law to issue 8175,000 in bonds, which should take pre- cedence of the State's claim against the road, on condition that the stockholders should raise an additional $50,000 by assessments on their stock ; the object of the raising of these sums by loan and assessment being the laying of a new T-rail in place of the old strap-rail. This was done in 1848, and new locomotives and cars were purchased, in the hope that the road might prosper ; but these hopes were not realized. In January, 1853, it was leased to George H. Power and Shepherd Knapp, who operated it until Nov. 21, 1854. It was then sold by James M. Cook, comptroller of the State, on foreclosure, for non-payment of the loan received from the State. The road and its appurtenances were purchased by Chester W. Chapin, president of the Western railroad of Massachusetts (now. the Boston and Albany railroad ), for $155,000. The road was soon after re-organized, placed under the same management with the Boston and Albany railroad, and has been successfully operated by that corpo- ration until the present time.
Under the management of Messrs. Power and Knapp the business was doubled in less than two years, and during the period from 1852 to 1873 the coal traffic of the road had increased from 500 tons to 250,000 tons per year ; but in consequence of the general depression in business, and the establishing of other lines, the yearly coal tonnage had fallen off from the amount named in 1873 to 190,000 tons in 1877. But the road is still prosperoos. It is well man- aged, and is of great advantage to the city of Hudson and to the county.
THE HUDSON RIVER LINE.
The merchants and business men of this State, being fully conscious of the advantages which the opening of the Western railroad from Albany to Boston would give to the last-named city in the contest for commercial supremacy, began as early as 1830 to canvass the project of connecting by rail the cities of Albany and New York ; but it was thought necessary to lay the route at a distance from the
* The route as originally laid out reached the river at the North bay, upon the north side of the city, but was changed to its present location before the building of the road.
133
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
river, and to depend considerably on the traffic to be gained from western Massachusetts and Connecticut. The ideas which then prevailed on that subject are made apparent in the proceedings of a railroad convention of several Berk- shire towns, held Oet. 10, 1831, and presided over by Lemuel Pomeroy, and which adopted a preamble and reso- lution as follows: " Whereas, the citizens of New York and Albany, with characteristic enterprise and intelligence, already appreciate the wonderful advantages which within a few months have been practically developed by the railway system, and are now about to make a railroad from the city of Albany to the city of New York ; and whereas, it is well understood to be the true policy of the cities of New York and Albany, if it shall be found practicable, without materially increasing the distance, to establish a road so far east of the Hudson as to avoid competition with the steam- boat and sloop freightøge thereon, but at the same time to secure to the railroad all the travel and transportation which demand greater expedition than can be obtained on the river, and also to open to those citics the rich resources of the county of Berkshire, parts of the counties of Hamp- shire and Hampden, and all the western counties of Con- nectieut, and that such a route will combine much greater resources than one on the banks of the Hudson. .. . . Re- solved, that measures of co-operation should be speedily and cordially adopted by the citizens of Massachusetts and Con- necticut."
At that time, and for years after, the idea of building a railroad along the banks of the Hudson, from city to city, was thought to be absurd and unworthy to be for a moment entertained ; for it was argued and believed that even if such a road could be built through the highlands at any- thing like a reasonable expense (which was by no means thought possible) it could never hope to compete success- fully with the safe, swift, and elegant steamers which plied upon the river and monopolized its trade.
But at length even this project began to be considered as possible, afterwards as practicable, and finally as impera- tively necessary ; this last conviction being forced by the stern logie of the opening of the Boston road in 184I. To the building of the inland route as proposed in 1831 the people of Hudson had been wholly opposed, as tending to divert trade and population from their city ; but they heartily concurred in the new project of a river-road, and joined with the lower towns in their meetings held in its interest ; the first of these to which IIudson sent delegates being at Poughkeepsie, on the 17th of March, 1842.
At a similar meeting, held at the same place, July 28, 1846, " to advance the progress of the Hudson River rail- road," Mr. William H. Grant, a civil engineer, who had for years been engaged on the public works of the State, set forth in glowing language the necessity of the work and the danger arising from delay in its prosecution. He said that the Boston road had been in a great degree an experi- ment tried by the enterprising people of that city, but that its result had surprised them, as it had also amazed the thinking ones in New York ; that the steady and rapid an- nual increase which New York had before enjoyed had not only been entirely checked but changed to actual retrogres- sion by the opening of that road, and that by the same
cause Boston had realized a gain almost exactly correspond- ing to the loss inflicted on New York during the four years in which it had been in full operation. "Look," said he, " at the trains of the Western railroad as they depart from the depot at East Albany, and see if they are not loaded down and groaning under the burden of our own produets and the products of the west; carrying our merchants and the merchants from distant States, that formerly thronged to New York, rapidly and en masse to the city of Boston. See them returning with similar burdens, sending them far and near, and scattering them broadcast through- out the country, to the exclusion of the legitimate trade of New York ; and this too when the channels of competition are all open, and the Hudson river is offering its superior navigation of one hundred and fifty miles, against two hun- dred miles of railroad over mountains and on unparalleled grades. But, more than all, see this only avenue to New York closed and hermetically sealed during one-third of the year,* while the whole trade of the interior and the west, without stint or diminution, concentrates on the city of Boston. . . . 'Our grand canal' truly ! Why, it has been made subservient, with our whole canal system and our railroads from Albany to Buffalo, to the city of Boston. Our internal resources, industry, and capital, and even our merchants, mechanics, and farmers, have become tributary to her. Look at the manufacturing establishments spring- ing up from Massachusetts capital, and even railroads pro- jected and carried into operation by it, upon our own soil. . . . There may be some resources upon which New York relies, not palpable to an unimaginative eye, but to plain, practical common sense there is no other than the construction of the Hudson River railroad. With this road well constructed and fairly in operation, she will not only be placed in a de- fensive position to protect her commerce from the aggres- sions that have been committed upon it, but she will have opened an iron avenue with the illimitable west, that will draw to her again the lion's share of its treasures. That she will build it, it would be folly to doubt ; and that she will do it speedily, I most confidently believe. The city of Hudson, the villages of Rhinebeck, Hyde Park, Pough- keepsie, Fishkill, and Peekskill, have, besides their local interests, a reciprocal interest with the city of New York in this road, and they have evinced thus far an intelligence and energy in regard to it which New York herself has not surpassed."
The estimate made by John B. Jervis, Esq., C.E., of the cost of the road (143} miles) was $9,000,000, of which $3,016,500 was obtained in subscriptions to the stock, other sources being depended on for the remainder. Mr. Jervis' estimate of annual earnings was as follows : in sum- mer, 200,000 through passengers at $1.50 each,} $300,000 ; 400,000 way passengers at $0.50, $200,000. In winter,
# By observations taken during twenty years (1825 to 1844, inclu- sive), it was found that the river was elosed hy ice for an average period of one hundred and thirty-five days in each year.
t The number of passengers transported on the river by the day- and night-hoats during the year preceding the date of this estimate was 1,200,000. By The terms of the railroad charter, two cents per mile could he charged in summer and two and a half cents in winter, but not more than three dollars from New York to Albany in any scasoo.
134
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
freight and passengers estimated at $412,000 ; U. S. mail, $40,000. Total, $952,000.
The work was vigorously prosecuted from the opening of the season of 1848, and it was promised that the road should be completed in two years, which, however, failed of accomplishment for various reasons, the principal of which was lack of funds, and another of which was the prevalence of cholera as an epidemic among the laborers upon the line. The road was opened for passenger travel to Peekskill on the 29th of September, 1849, and to New Hamburg, twenty-three miles farther, on the 6th of the following December. There were great rejoicings at Pough- keepsie when, upon the last day of the year 1849, the line was opened to that point; but to the cities and villages lying farther up the prospect was not a cheering one, for no work had been done and no contracts awarded above Poughkeepsie, and, what was still worse, the treasury was empty.
In January, 1850, an act was passed authorizing an ad- dition of $1,000,000 to the stock of the company, and a further issue of $3,000,000 of bonds ; and the work was resumed in the following season, the commencement being made at the Albany end of the line, and passengers and mails* being in the mean time conveyed by stages from Poughkeepsie to Hudson, and thence by rail, via Chatham Four Corners, to Albany.
On the 16th of June, 1851, the northern end of the road was opened from Albany to Hudson, where, tempo- rarily, the trains made connection with steamers for the lower terminus and for New York, the through fare being placed at $1.50. Next, the road was opened to Oak Hill, and on the 4th of August to Tivoli.
On the 1st of October, in the same year, the first train passed over the entire length of the road. One week later- Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1851-came the formal opening, in- augurated by the passage from the metropolis to the capital of an excursion train, drawn by the locomotive "New York," and carrying the officers of the road, capitalists, members of the press, and distinguished citizens. An extra issue of the Albany Evening Journal of that date thus chronicles the event : " The day dawned auspiciously. The sun is shining brightly, and the atmosphere is balmy and bracing. The public were on tip-toe at an early hour to witness the joyous jubilee in honor of the completion of the Hudson River railroad. It is an event well calculated to awaken enthusiasm. Few greater enterprises have ever been prosecuted in this country, and none which, in the outset, met more coldness and ridicule. But the men of iron nerve who conceived the project could not be diverted from their purpose by common obstacles. They persevered and triumphed. The great work, commenced under cir- cumstances the most chilling and adverse, is now completed. The event deserves a jubilee, as the inflexible men by whom it has been accomplished deserve the gratitude of the people of the State. The road itself will be their perpetual monu- ment." Concerning the rejoicings at Hudson, a newspaper
correspondent upon the train wrote : " At 10.29 we reached Hudson amid the booming of cannon and the cheering of thousands. There was more enthusiasm manifested here than at any previous stopping-place. Banners and flags waved in every direction, and the utmost enthusiasmn pre- vailed." Even the children of the Hudson Orphan Asylum paraded with a banner, on which was inscribed, in honor of the president of the road, " Boorman, the friend of the orphans."
Arrived at Greenbush, the officials of the road, with their guests, and citizens more or less distinguished,-in all more than fourteen hundred persons,-sat down to a bountiful repast, furnished by the proprietors of the Delavan House. Speeches, sentiments, and congratulations followed ; but these we do not intend to reproduce, save one, the toast offered by President Boorman, " The citizens of Columbia county. The spirit they have manifested toward this en- terprise shows them worthy of the illustrious name they bear." It was a merited compliment, and one which will not soon be forgotten.
Night closed on the festivities, and the Hudson River railroad was a fact accomplished. But who, among all the thousands who gathered on that autumn day to celebrate its inauguration, could have dreamed of its future colossal proportions and limitless power ?
The length of the Hudson River road within the county of Columbia is 29} miles and 653 feet ; the length of its track within the different towns being as follows :
Miles.
Fert.
Clermont (the lower portion)
23
695
Germantown
3
338
Clermont (the upper portion)
2
567
Livingston ...
730
Greenport (lower part) ..
1
173
Hudson city ..
448
Greenport (upper part)
14
499
Stockport
4
654
Stuyvesant ..
81
509
The road ·received liberal subscriptions to its stock from the inhabitants of these towns, particularly from those of the city of Hudson ; notwithstanding that these last-named had had a bitter experience with the stock of the Hudson and Berkshire road.
The first surveys had contemplated tunneling under the lower part of Hudson, so as to have the railroad pass under Warren street, between Front and First, but this plan very naturally met with opposition from the citizens, which led to the eventual adoption of the present route along the front of the city.
THE NEW YORK AND HARLEM LINE.
This railroad enters the county at Boston Corners in Aneram, and passes in a general northwesterly direction through Aneram, Copake, Hillsdale, Taghkanie, Claverack, and Ghent, to Chatham, where it intersects the Boston and Albany railroad at Chatham village.
The company was formed in April, 1831, and commenced work in New York city in 1832, but did nothing north of Harlem river until after 1840. After that time the work was prosecuted slowly and finished by sections, it being completed and opened to Chatham Four Corners (now Chatham village) on the 19th of January, 1852. It is an
# The Hudson Gazette of Dee. 18, 1849, rejoiced in this prospeet of a mail service between New York and Hudson, which should make the entire distance in a day, as, " by present arrangement, it takes three days to get a letter lo New York and back again."
135
HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
important line of communication to the eastern towns through which its route lies.
THE HARLEM EXTENSION LINE.
This road, formerly known as the Lebanon Springs rail- road, connects with the Harlem railroad at Chatham village, and passes northerly through the towns of Chatham and New Lebanon into Rensselaer county, of which it crosses a part, and, entering Vermont, connects with the Western railroad of that State at Bennington, 58 miles from its southern terminns.
The company was organized in 1852, and work upon the line was commenced early in the summer of 1853, but was suspended a year later for financial reasons. From that time until 1867 little was done, but in that year Cornelius Vanderbilt, Horace F. Clark, and other capitalists became interested in the enterprise and completed the road, so that on the 18th of December, 1869, it was formally opened by an excursion train which passed through to Vermont.
The road was intended as a connecting link in an inland route from New York to Montreal. The Messrs. Tilden, of New Lebanon, did much towards completing this line, which, it is said, is now doing a fair business.
THE POUGHKEEPSIE, HARTFORD AND BOSTON LINE.
This road enters the town of Ancram from Pine Plains, in Dutchess county, and passes in a generally northeastern direction to Boston Corners, where it leaves the county and State. Its length in the county of Columbia is a trifle more than eight miles. In its commencement it was called the Poughkeepsie and Eastern railroad, and work was begun upon it in 1868, but it was not completed until the summer of 1872; the first train passing over its entire length on the 1st of August in that year. Its existence is advan- tageous to the mines and manufacturing interests of the town of Aneram, with the history of which it is more fully mentioned.
THE RHINEBECK AND CONNECTICUT LINE
passes north from Dutchess county into the town of Galla- tin, of which it crosses the southeast corner into Aneram,
crosses that town, and intersects the Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston road at Boston Corners. This road has about 123 miles of traek within the county, and it was completed and opened for travel in the summer of 1874.
CHAPTER XV.
MANUFACTURES AND AGRICULTURE.
Statistics of Population, Industries, and Wealth-Agricultural Socie- ties-Farmers' Association.
THE statistics of the census returns for Columbia county make the following exhibit of the population of the terri- tory now included in the county limits at the respective dates given. In 1714 the returns were as follows :
Claverack, 1 male above 60 years ; 52 males between 16 and 60 years ; 54 males under 16 years ; 1 female above 60 ; 38 females between 16 and 60 ; 51 females under 16 ; 10 male and 5 female slaves above 16; and two of each sex under 16.
Kinderhook, 5 males and 6 females over 60 years; 75 niales and 57 females between 16 and 60; 83 males and 67 females under 16; 12 male and 7 female slaves over 16; and 6 male and 7 female slaves under 16.
Coxsackie and the north part of Livingston manor, 6 males and two females over 60 years ; 48 males and 53 fe- males between 16 and 60; 52 males and 28 females under 16 ; 26 male and 11 female slaves over 16; and 10 male and 6 female slaves under 16 years.
In 1720, " Gerret Van Schaijek, high sheriff" of the city and county of Albany, "by order of the court of judica- ture held for province of New York, June 11, 1720," re- turned an ennmeration of freeholders in the county, from which it appears that in Kinderhook and a part of the manor of Livingston there were 38, in the north part of Livingston there were 28, and in Claverack 35 free- holders.
The population by towns from 1790 to 1875 is shown by the following table :
1790
1800
1810
1814
1820
1825
1830
1835
1840
1845
1850
1855
1860
1865
1870
1875
County ...
27,732 35,472 32,390 33,979 38,330 37,970 39,907
40,746 43,252 41,976 43,073 44,391 47,172 44,905 47,044 47,621
Ancram ..
3,126
1,533
1,617
1,705
1,569
1,801
1,720
1,651
1.793|
1,715
Austerlitz ..
2,247
2,245
2,092
1,812
1,873
1,618
1,889
1,443
1,442
1,388
Canaan ..
3,048
2,064
2,042
1,973
1,94]
1,946
2,193
2,000
1,877
1,702
Chatham ...
3,522
3,538
3,469
3,570
3,839
4,023
4,163
4,285
4,372
4.501
Claverack
2,970
3,038
2,840
2,934
3,208
3,363
3,477
3,353
3,671
3.825
Clermont.
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