History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 28

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > New York > Orange County > History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 28

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In 1810 the " Bellvale and Monroe Turnpike Com- pany" was chartered,-capital $9000, Incorporators, William Noble, Isaac Vander Zer, Joel Wheeler,

In 1810 the "Newburgh and Plattekill Turnpike Company" was chartered,-capital $14,000. Jacob . Stephen Bartholf, and associates. The line of the

115

TURNPIKES.

road began " at or near Bellvale mills, in the town of Warwick, and from thence on the most eligible route to the Orange turnpike, to intersect the same at or near the dwelling-house of Benjamin Bennett, in the town of Monroe."

In 1812 the " Merritt's Island Turnpike Company" was incorporated,-capital $10,000. Incorporators, John Wheeler, William Thompson, Joshua Sayre, George D. Wiekham, Michael A. Jones, Robert Ferrier, Moses Wisner, and those who should be asso- ciated with them. The line of the road began "on the east side of the Drowned Lands, in the town of Warwick," and ran from thence to Pine Island; Wisner; thence to Merritt's Island ; and thence across the Wallkill to the mainland on the west side of the Drowned Lands, in lot No. 4 in the first division of the Drowned Lands.

thence to Pochuck Creek, near the house of Moses . shitting-mill," to the "creek landing on Hudson's River, in the town of Haverstraw."

April 9, 1813, the "Great Island Turnpike Com- pany" was chartered. Its capital stock was $15,000. ; Incorporators, Reuben Hopkins, Gideon Jennings, Daniel Millspaugh, Archibald Owen, and Nathaniel Wheeler. The line of the road began "on the road leading from the Goshen court-house to Florida, at or near the place where the south line of the Goshen town-lots cross the same, and ran " from thence across the Little and Great Islands, and from thence to the line of the State of New Jersey, to intersect the same between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth mile- stone."

In 1818 the "White Oak Island Turnpike Con- pany" was chartered,-capital $5000. Its incorpo- rators were Samuel S. Seward, Jesse Jayne, Thomas Sweezy, Samuel Tuthill, John Curtice, James Vail, John W. Vanderolf, Robert Carr, William A. Smith, and Horace Dibble. Its line began "at or 'near the church in the village of Florida," and ran from thence to the northwest point of Round Hill, and from thence to the Great and Merritt's Islands turnpike, on White Oak Island. The "Gardner's Island Turnpike Com- pany" was chartered the same year,-capital $15,000. Incorporators, William Thompson, John Bradner, Jesse Woods, Roger Howell, and George D. Wickham. The line of the road began "at or near the intersec- tion of the Merritt's Island and Great Island turn- pike on Pine Island," and ran from "thence across the Drowned Lands and Pochuck Kill to Gardner's Island, and from thence across the Drowned Lands, by or near the house of Jesse Woods, to the Jersey line."

In 1823 and '24 two additional connections were made with the Orange turnpike. First, the " Goshen and Monroe Turnpike Company," chartered in 1823,- capital $7000. Its incorporators were Roger Par- mele, John Wallace, Thomas G. Evans, Lewis H. Roe, Nathaniel Roe, Cornelius Board, and those who should associate with them. The line of the road began " at the court-house in Goshen," and ran thence to Chester; thence to the "Orange turnpike between

the first and second inile-stones." The second, "The Monroe and Haverstraw Turnpike Company," was incorporated in 1824, capital not stated. Its incorpo- rators were Roger Parmele, Joseph Blackwell, Henry McFarland, George Kyle, Robert Parkinson, Samp- son Marks, Abraham Gurnee, Abraham Goetchius, George Wyant, Matthew Benson, Walter Brewster, Samuel Brewster, Samuel Goetchius, Samuel Smith, John Suffern, Edward D. Noyelles, Lawrence D. Noyelles, John F. Smith, Adam Dater, Jacob Marks, Elias Gurnee, John B. Secor, John Rose, Jacob Odell, Harman Felter, " and their heirs and assigns." The road ran from the Orange turnpike, "near Parmele's

The list of turnpikes is completed with the " Otis- ville Turnpike Company," which was chartered Feb. 19, 1828. The capital of this company was $5000. Its incorporators were Stacey Beakes, Isaac Otis, Levi Westbrook, and Abner P. Gillet. The line of the road began "at or near the dwelling-house of Isaac Otis, in the town of Calhoun" ( Mount Hope), and ran thence "along the centre of the old road to the dwelling of said Isaac Otis, and from thence to Westbrook's basin on the Hudson and Delaware Canal, in the county of Sullivan."

From this enumeration it will be seen that during the first quarter of the present century, and principally within its first decade, the people of the county in- vested not less than half a million of dollars in the construction of turnpikes. Viewed from the stand- point of the present, the sum was not large; but con- sidered in connection with the condition of the people and the value of money at the time when the expen- diture was made, when the population, ranging from thirty thousand to forty thousand, had scarcely emerged from the poverty entailed by the Revolu- tion, and when they were suffering from the embarass- ments of the embargo and the war of 1812, it assumes a different aspect, and clearly establishes the extent of the traffic which demanded the outlay and the energy with which it was undertaken and consum- mated. As already remarked, the results of the system were largely to the advantage of Newburgh, changing, as it did, the commercial centre from New Windsor, and establishing at Newburgh extensive connection with western New York. In 1819 the trade of Newburgh had reached Canandaigua by turn- pikes, over which passed stage-coaches conveying passengers, and freight wagons laden with goods. During the summer of that year a company was or- ganized for the construction of a steamer on Cayuga Lake, with a view to extend the route southward to Ithaca. The first meeting of the stockholders of this company was held at Ithaca, December 20th, when David Woodcock, Oliver Phelps, James Pompelly, Jo- seph Benjamin, and Lewis Tooker were chosen direc- tors, who appointed David Woodcock, president, Charles W. Conner, treasurer, Charles Humphrey, sec-

116

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

retary, and Oliver Phelps, agent. The people of New- burgh were asked to contribute thesum of one thousand dollars to the enterprise. Nineteen hundred dollars, however, were immediately subscribed and paid; and in 1820 the first steamer on Cayuga Lake plicd in connection with stage lines from Newburgh, “ per- forming the route to Ithaca in two days." In 1834 the line was extended to Geneva and Buffalo, and the entire route from New York via Newburgh to Buf- falo was performed in sixty-five hours, "the shortest and most expeditious route from the Hudson River to the western country."*

This western commerce was materially impaired by the construction of the Erie Canal in 1825, while that which was less remote was similarly affected by the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1828. The latter, extending from Rondout to Port Jervis, and from thence to Honesdale, crossed the track of all the turn- pike connections with Sullivan County west of the Shawangunk Mountains, and was fatal to several of them. The statement made by Mr. Quinlan-" the territory that this road would have accommodated would have supported the turnpike had it not been for the construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal"-has a more general application than to the Mount Hope and Lumberland road. In common with other residents in the southern tier of counties, the people of Orange felt that injustice had been done to them in the construction of the Erie Canal, and were ready to ask the State for aid to counteract the in- jurious results of that enterprise which they were ex- periencing. At this juncture McAdam had satisfac- torily demonstrated to many that a stone road was superior to all others, and it was urged that the State should build one from Buffalo to the Hudson. The proposition was favorably considered by the Legis- lature, and commissioners were appointed to survey the different routes. Perhaps the road would have been built could there have been a satisfactory termi- nus on the Hudson selected, but Catskill, Pough- keepsie, and Newburgh labored to secure it.t The commissioners reported in favor of Catskill, and the remainder of the story is soon told : the bill author- izing the building of the road was defeated in the Legislature in March, 1826. But the seed planted

* The following items are from " Williams' Annual Register" for 1834 :

" STAGE LINES .- Newburgh and Geneva mail stage, ria Binghamton, Owego, aud Ithaca, leaves Newburgh daily at 2 o'clock A.M. (atter ar- rival of night boats from New York and Albauy). Newburgh and Goshen stage daily at 9 A.M.

" Distances from Newburgh to Ithuca, Genera, and Buffalo.

Montgomery

Montrose. 20 110

Bloomingburgh

12 24

New York State Line.

23 133

Rothe 3 27

Owego 141 א

Monticello 13 40

29 170

Cuchecton ....

20 60

Grheva. 45 195

Mount Pleasant 23 83

Buffalo ... 10G 301

Tunchanbock 7 90 Portland on Lake Erie .... 50 351

+ David Ruggles, Selah Reeve, Jonathan Fisk, Ward M. Gazlay, andl Thomas Phillips, Jr., were appointed a committee to take charge of the interests of Newburgh in the matter, at a public meeting in January, 1826.

by Gen. Clinton in his grand "Appian Way," and partially brought to fruit in the Newburgh and Co- ehecton turnpike and its western connections, had not been seconded by MeAdam with utterly barren results,-it made the construction of the Erie Railroad possible.

But while commercial relations with the west were impaired by the Erie and Delaware Canals, the terri- tory unaffected by those avenues had received In- creased development through the turnpikes which had been constructed, and poured its abundant har- vests upon the Hudson River entrepôts. The trade of Cornwall and New Windsort was large, while that of Newburgh was unprecedented in its previous history. The years 1835, 1836, and 1837 were especially marked by substantial business activity, as well as by that which formed a part of the unsubstantial ven- tures of the times. Speaking of this period, the Rev. James R. Willson, in an address delivered before the Newburgh Literary Association, remarked, "The average arrivals and departures daily, estimated to- gether, cannot fall much short of three hundred, or eighty-four thousand in one season. The sections of country in the interior, occupied by these travelers, are generally connected with this village by some commercial ligament. Great numbers of these trans- act much business here. From late estimates of the daily amount of exports from Newburgh, it would seem that in one season they cannot fall much below four and one-half millions of dollars." But this food-tide of fortune was practically the close of the old era of trade and commerce, an era which now lives only in traditions of turnpike travel, and of long caravans of farmers' wagons-the Jersey wagons, the Pennsylvania wagons, the county wagons, and the Ulster and Sullivan County wagons-laden with produce for market, or returning with merchandise, many of which stopped short at Goshen when the Erie road reached that village in 1841, and gave to it a temporary activity, and which, as a peculiar feature of that era, few persons now living remember as a re- ality with which they were familiar, but which many do as the source of the wealth which they have in- herited.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

It is not our purpose to discuss the question of the origin of the system of internal improvements in the State, or to attach to any one person the honor due to many in their development. They were eminently the outgrowth of what may be termed natural causes.

# Practically the commerce of New Windsor entered upon its decay at the opening of the century, and continued with decreasing volume until it closed. The census gives the following comparative figures :

Newburgh.

New Windsor.

Population, 1782.

1,487

Population, 1782. 1,132

.. 1790

2,365

1790

1,819

1800.

3,258

1800.

2.001

1810.

4 627

1810.

2,331

1820.

5.812

1×20

2.425

1855

12,773

1855

2,555

1×75 (city). 17,322

1875

2,455

= 1875 (town) 3,538

117

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Going back to the colonial era, we find the province peculiarly fortunate in its natural system of water- communication. Then, to the north, at the head of boat-navigation, the Hudson was connected by an easy portage with Lakes George and Champlain, and through them with the St. Lawrence, the great river of the Canadas; whilst to the west the Mohawk, | the principal affluent of the Hudson, gave easy access, scarcely interrupted by a few short portages, to the basin of the great lakes and to the magnificent river system of the Mississippi. Like many of our old roads, these water-routes had been followed by the Indians in their canoes for ages. Important beyond present appreciation for the purposes of either com- merce or of war during the colonial era, their improve- ment became a matter of earnest thought before the war of the Revolution came on, nor was it lost sight of during that eventful period, for we find Governor Clinton, in 1780, inviting Washington to a survey, and the latter accompanying him to Albany and Saratoga, that he might, from personal inspection, be able to contribute practical suggestions. In 1792 we have the report of a committee appointed by the directors of the " Western Inland Lock-Navigation Company" to examine the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Fort Schuyler, who found that the uninterrupted lock- navigation could be secured by an expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 1800, Gover- neur Morris suggested a direct canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson, through the centre of the State. His plan was to tap the lakes and have a continuons slope therefrom to the highlands bordering the Hudson, and a series of locks thence to the river. The subject was discussed until in 1808, James Geddes was appointed to survey a canal route. His report excited general attention, and seeured the ready approval of DeWitt Clinton, who, through his connection with his uncle, Governor George Clinton, and his conversations with his father, James Clinton, was already thoroughly in- doetrinated with the objeet the accomplishment of which was sought. In 1810 commissioners, of whom DeWitt Clinton was the head, were appointed to ex- płore a canal route through the centre of the State. The commissioners reported in 1811, and presented the importance of the improvement so forcibly that they were continued and authorized to borrow and deposit money and take cessions of land. During the war of 1812 the project was held in abeyance, but in 1816 a definite survey was authorized, and on the 4th of July, 1817, the work of construction was begun at Rome. On the 26th of October, 1825, DeWitt Clin- ton, then Governor, and who for fifteen years had de- voted the best efforts of his life to the accomplishment of the work, entered the canal on his packet-boat at Buffalo, and arrived at New York on the 4th of No- vember, his eoming heralded by signal eannon and blazing beaeon-fires. But great as was the work which had then been accomplished, it was found erude and imperfect, and improvement after improvement has

been added to it, until, with its connections, its orig- inal cost has been multiplied many times, but can never exceed the great fund of wealth and develop- ment which it has given to the State.

No doubt there were many men who regarded the construction of the Erie Canal as a visionary project ; and we are not sure that had we been living at that time we might not have been one of the number, and still less are we sure that we might not have regarded the project of Maurice Wurtz-who proposed to tap the eoal-fields of Pennsylvania with railroad and canal and place a hundred thousand tons of anthracite coal on the New York market annually, at a time when six thousand tons would glut all the cities on the Atlantic coast-as a monomaniac; yet Maurice Wurtz, with the aid of his brother William, and some people who are now regarded as eminently sensible and far- seeing, accomplished the task whereunto he was called. Directly touching the county of Orange, the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal was the first of the system of improvements which now interseet and biseet it in almost all directions-the trunk lines of railroads and their connecting branches, which have revolutionized its commercial avenues and placed it in the first rank of wealth and development. After many fruitless surveys to find a practical route to the Hudson, being debarred from Newburgh by the Shawangunk Moun- tains, the old Indian trail (the Mine road route) was adopted. The company was incorporated April 23, 1823, with a capital of $1,500,000, with the right to use $50,000 in banking until 1844, and the eredit of the State was loaned for $800,000 in stock. The eanal was begun in July, 1825, and opened for use in Octo- ber, 1828. Its length from Rondout to Port Jervis is fifty-nine miles ; from Port Jervis to the Lakawaxen, twenty-four miles; from Lakawaxen to Honesdale, twenty-six miles; thence by sixteen miles of railroads to the coal-fields. The original cost of the New York section was $1,424,994, and of the Pennsylvania sec- tion (under charter from Pennsylvania), $612,123. The first locomotive engine in America was imported from England, and used on the road from Honesdale. The canal runs through the town of Deerpark, from Port Jervis at the south, on the Delaware, to Cuddle- baekville, and on to the line of the town on the north, and adds $300,000 to its real estate valuation.

With a view to counteract the detrimental effect of the opening of the Delaware Canal, the people of Newburgh, in 1829, united in the organization of a company for the construction of a railroad to connect with the coal-fields of Pennsylvania, and on the 30th of April, 1830, the Legislature passed an act consti- tuting and appointing David Crawford, Christopher Reeve, John P. DeWint, Thomas Powell, Joshua Conger, Charles Borland, William Walsh, Jolin Forsyth, and their associates, "a body corporate and politie by the name of the Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company," for the purpose of constructing a single or double railroad or way from any part of

118

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the village of Newburgh, through the county of Orange, It was at this point in the history of the road that, on the 30th of November, 1835, a meeting of the citi- zens of Newburgh was held at the Orange Hotel (pur- suant to a call signed by David Ruggles, John For- syth, Nathaniel Du Bois, Charles H. Bellows, Oliver Davis, and David Crawford), of which Gilbert O. to the Delaware River. The capital of the company was fixed at $500,000, with power to increase the same to $1,000,000, if necessary; and David Crawford, Charles Borland, Peter Cuddeback, Thomas Powell, J. P. DeWint, Joseph Kernochan, Peter II. Schenck, and John W. Knevels were appointed commissioners . Fowler was chosen president, Nathaniel Du Bois, vice- to open subscriptions. This act, however, became void, no effort having been made to build the road " within three years" after the time of its passage.

Meanwhile, the present New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad was struggling into being. As already intimated, this project was the outgrowth of Gen. Clinton's " Appian Way" and McAdam's stone road ; but it may be added that the Baltimore experi- ment of 1829, of cars furnished with masts and sails and propelled by wind, had not a little to do in finally cradling it. Aroused by a pamphlet issued at that time, in which the writer, advocating an " Atlantic and Mississippi Railway," running at least partially on the present line of the Erie, a convention of dele- gates from all the southern counties of the State, ex- cept Orange and Rockland, was held at Owego, on the 20th of December, 1831, at which it was resolved to apply to the Legislature for a charter for a railroad from Lake Erie to the Hudson. We say a railroad, but not in the sense that the term is now understood, for the proposition was to make a road suitable for the use of horses, so that the inhabitants who lived along the route could employ their own cars and motive- power. "Animal power," said the manager, "may be considered the natural power of the country ; and on long routes, where great inequalities in the amount of transport and travel will occur, where the com- modities to be conveyed, instead of presenting a reg- ular supply, will probably amount to many times as much some months as others, the use of horses may be expected, for a time at least, to he practically cheaper than steam." A road for locomotives, it was agreed, would cost from twelve thousand to fourteen thousand dollars per mile, while one for animals could be made for five thousand or six thousand dollars, and on the latter the company would be at no expense for engines, carriages, etc. To carry out this magnificent plan one million of dollars was all that was asked. Books of subscription were opened July 9, 1833, and the amount subscribed. Unfortunately, however, a large part of the stock was taken by one William G. Buckner, who, on the last day and at the last moment, took all that was not secured by others. A year passed, during which the company did not receive enough from its stockholders and others to make ne- cessary surveys. In 1834 the Legislature was ap- pealed to to grant fifteen thousand dollars to enable Benjamin Wright and his subordinates to examine the route. The amount asked was granted, and the survey made, but it failed to give vitality to the pro- ject. In 1835 the Legislature was petitioned to ena- ble the State to become a stockholder.

president, and John W. Knevels. secretary. The sub- jects discussed at this meeting were mainly these two, viz. : What course should be pursued in refer- enee to an application to the Legislature for a sub- scription on the part of the State to the New York and Erie Railroad Company ; and, the feasibility of uniting the Hudson and Delaware road with that of the New York and Erie. The meeting

" Resolved, That we will unite in the application to the Legislature for a subscription on the part of the State to the stock of the New York and Erie Railroad Company. That we will also join in a petition to the Leg- islature for the grant of a charter upon liberal terms incorporating a company to construct a railway from this village to the Delaware River, and that we will bear our proportion according to our several means in subscription to the stock.

" Resolred, That a committee of five persoas be appointed to coninmu- nicate with the directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, and present to them a proposition (as detailed to the meeting) for uniting the efforts of the inhabitants of this vicinity with that company iu the successful prosecution of the project for constructing a railroad from Lake Erie to the lIndson River."

On this committee the following persons were placed, viz. : John W. Knevels, Nathaniel Du Bois, Oliver Davis, and G. O. Fowler. The following reso- Intion was unanimously concurred in, viz. :

" Resolved, That a committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to give the required legal notice in the puplic newspapers of our intention to apply for an act of incorporation for the. construction of a railway from the village of Newburgh to the Delaware River; to prepare and circulate petitions to the Legislature in behalf of this application ; to draft the act of incorporation, and report their proceedings to the meet- ing at the time to which it shall stand adjourned."

The following persons were appointed upon the last- mentioned committee, viz. : John W. Knevels, Abra- ham M. Smith, John Forsyth, John Thayer, Benja- min H. Mace.

Now began the struggle to secure the eastern ter- minus of the Erie at Newburgh ; and the interests of the Delaware road, as a distinct project, awaited the issue. We cannot now intelligently review, perhaps, the discussions involved in the proposition ; nor is it necessary in view of the experiences of the Erie, which soon demonstrated that neither Newburgh nor Piermont was the proper outlet for the road, and that the line over the Oxford grade should never have been adopted. Practically, the discussion assumed this phase, viz. : the route to Newburgh cut off Goshen from the main line; to run through Goshen made the Piermont outlet a necessity. The adoption of the Piermont outlet settled the controversy, and was at that time, perhaps, the wisest course that could have been pursued, as it at least gave the nearest connec- tion with New York City without passing out of the State, and made the present connections through New Jersey more immediately possible. In the course of

119

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

time, the line through Goshen, the Oxford grade, and " State, the whole influence of the citizens of Newburgh the Shawangunk Mountains will share the fate of Piermont.

When it became known that those who were most active in the Erie Company had decided in favor of the Piermont route, the citizens of Newburgh again took up the Delaware project, and on the 21st of April, 1836, the Legislature passed an act "to renew and amend" the original charter. By this act "David Crawford, Christopher Reeve, Oliver Davis, John For- syth, Thomas Powell, Joshua Conger, David Ruggles, Benjamin Carpenter, and their associates" were consti- tuted a body politic and corporate, by the name of " The Hudson and Delaware Railroad Company," for the purpose of constructing a road "commencing in the north part of the village of Newburgh, and running from thenee along the Hudson River in front of said village as far as the trustees of the said village" should determine, and thence to the Delaware River. The capital stock of the company was fixed at 8500,000, and Gilbert O. Fowler, Charles Borland, John Forsyth, Thomas Powell, Benjamin H. Mace, John P. De Wint, Abraham M. Smith, James G. Clin- ton, and John W. Knevels were appointed commis- sioners to open subscriptions.

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 28

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1336

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336