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 29
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On the 15th of June, 1836, the first election for di- rectors under the amended act was held at the Or- ange Hotel, when Thomas Powell, John Forsyth, Da- vid Crawford, Benjamin Carpenter, John P. De Wint, John Ledyard, Christopher Reeve, Gilbert O. Fowler, James (. Clinton, Nathaniel Du Bois, Samuel G. Sne- den, David W. Bate, and Oliver Davis were chosen. At a subsequent meeting of the directors Thomas Powell was elected president; David W. Bate, vice- president; John Ledyard, treasurer; and James G. Clinton, secretary.
A survey of the route was made soon after by John B. Sargeant, who reported the length of the proposed road as thirty-eight miles, and the cost as ten thou- sand dollars per mile. Stock to a sufficient amount having been subscribed, steps were taken to grade the section between Washingtonville and the Quassaiek Creek. Ground was broken on the 3d of November, 1836, with appropriate ceremonies, and the auspicious event was celebrated by a general illumination of the village. In response to a petition on the part of the citizens interested in the road, the Legislature, in the early part of the session of 1837, passed an act ena- bling the trustees of the village to purchase at par one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of the stock. The subscription was made in accordance with the provisions of the act; and on the 10th of January, 1838, the trustees paid their first and last installment of ten thousand dollars.
The financial reverses of 1837 prostrated the enter- prise; and although a considerable portion of the section placed under contract in August. 1836, was graded, the work was not continued. However, in 1840, the Erie Company having asked the aid of the
was exerted to compel that company, as a condition of aid, to construct a branch road to Newburgh .* The effort was unsuccessful; the Erie Company re- ceived a loan of the credit of the State to the amount of three million dollars. The embarrassment of the Erie Company culminated in 1842, and its affairs were placed in the hands of assignees. In 1845, the company having again applied to the Legislature for aid, the citizens of Newburgh again, and this time with success, pressed the proposition for a branch road. Their efforts led to a conference with the Erie Company, which resulted in the submission of bills to the Legislature,-the first releasing the company from the payment of the three million dollars loan, on con- dition that a bona-fide subscription to that amount should be secured within eighteen months ; the second, requiring the company to construct a branch to New- burgh within six years after the passage of the act. To more certainly secure the latter, a written agree- ment was made, on the 19th of March, between the directors of the Hudson and Delaware Company and the directors of the Erie Company, by which the for- mer conveyed to the latter " all the grants, lands, im- munities, franchises, improvements, rights, privileges, maps and charts, and all of the real and personal es- tate of every kind whatsoever belonging" to that com- pany under and by virtue of its charter, in consid- eration of the sum of not less than forty thousand dollars; the Erie Company agreeing as a further consideration that on the passage of the bill, then before the Legislature, authorizing the company to construct a Branch Road to Newburgh, and also the bill releasing the company from the payment of the three millions loaned to it by the State, that then, upon the bona-fide subscription of the Hudson and Delaware Company of one hundred thousand dollars to the capital stock of the Erie Company, the latter would construct the branch to Newburgh and issue to the Hudson and Delaware Company stock to the amount of one hundred and forty thousand dollars. On the payment of twenty-five per cent. of the sub- scription of one hundred thousand dollars, " the same, together with a sum equal to twice that amount," to be furnished by the Erie Company, was to be " actually expended" upon the branch "simultaneously with and as rapidly" as that company should progress
* At a meeting of the citizens of Newburgh, held March 4, 1840,- Moses 11. Belknap, president, and Solomon Tuthill, clerk,-it was
" Resolved, That if the Legislature shall grant further aid to the New York and Erie Railroad Company by any former or future law, to be passed for that purpose, in such case the expenditure thereof shall be made under the more immediate supervision of the State; and upon the middle and western sections of said road, where the same would connect with works already constructed, such as the Delaware and Iludson, the Chenango and Chemung Canals, and the ithaca and Owego llailroad, and yield an immediate profit, which cannot be effected by constructing the eastern end of said road in the first place, as is now being done.
" Resolved, That no such further aid be granted, unless it be accompa- nied by legislative provision for the construction of a branch of said road terminating at Newburgh."
120
HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.
with its main line; and this ratio of payments and expenditures was to continue until three hundred thousand dollars was expended. In case that sum did not complete the branch, then further subscrip- tions, by the Hudson and Delaware Company, if made, should " be immediately applied to the con- struction of said branch and the putting of the same in operation." The interests of the roads being thus harmonized, the bills referred to were passed by the Legislature on the 14th of May following. The stock subscription required from the Hudson and Delaware Company under the agreement was soon raised, and fifteen thousand dollars in addition,-in all, one hun- dred and fifteen thousand dollars. The following are the names of the subscribers, and the number of shares taken by each, as nearly as can be ascertained :
Shares.
Shares.
Atwood, William.
1
Hasbrouck, Eli
5
Agnew, Williaal. 25
llalstead & Co.
5
Barclay, David H
5
Hathaway, Odell S.
10
Belknap, A. & M. H ... 5
Hawkins, Wm. H
Betts, Frederick J.
20
Horton & McCamly
1 10
Belknap, Aarını.
10
Johnes, Edward R
10
Beveridge, J & Co.
100
Kemp, Robert D.
3
Brennan, Patrick
5
Kernochan, Joseph
50 2
Brown, John W
5
Little, John
Buckingham, B. F
Little, Thonias
2
Buchanan, H. P.
9 Mecklem, George
5
Bunton, Lewis S.
5 Miller, C. B
15
Barker, John
3 Monell, Jolin J.
5
Chambers, James.
15 Moffat, D. 1I.
5
Chambers, John.
5
Niven, T. M ..
10
Calyer, Daniel K
2
Nicoll, War. C
1 4
Crawford, Mailler & Co.
50
Powell, Thos. & Co.
250
Cleary, William
3
Purdy, Henry L ..
2
Cornwell, George.
5
Robinson, Capt, Henry.
50
Corwin, Halsey & Co.
3
Saeed, George
2
DeGroff, James. Du Bois, Nathaniel
20
Smith, Wm. P. C.
5 5
Farrington, Daniel
20
Sorth, Orville M.
3
2
Storm, Garret.
50
Fowler, Jacob V. B
5
Tyler, Benjamia
10
Fowler, M. V. B.
5
Van Nort, Benj. W
10
Gardner, Silas D
2
Weed, llarvey
50 3
Gowiley, Jamies.
1
Walsh, Henry.
5
Gorham, John R
3
Zabriskie, A. G.
3
Hasbrouck, Wm. C
5 Wiley, John .....
5
Harris, Joha ...
10 Waugh, James S.
Halsey, Walter.
10 Whited, J. J. & Co 3
On the fulfillment of this stock subscription by the citizens of Newburgh, it was their prerogative to be represented in the board of the Erie Company by a local director, and Homer Ramsdell was accordingly nominated by the subscribers, and elected as such di- rector in the summer of 1845. The first contracts made by the Erie Company upon its reorganization under the amended act of 1845 were those for con- structing the Newburgh branch and that part of the main line between Middletown and Otisville. The work was carried forward under the agreement until in 1847, when, by reason of enormous expenditures upon the main line between Otisville and Bingham- ton, and when only about one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars (the amount subscribed at New- burgh) had been expended upon the branch, the Erie Company was so pressed for money that a suspension of the work upon the branch was deemed imperative. To prevent this and to bridge over the necessities of the hour, the Newburgh director agreed to negotiate
the acceptances of the company for each successive monthly estimate until January, 1849, at which time all were to mature. During this time the further sum of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars was ex- pended upon the branch.
The opening of the main line of the Erie to Bing- hamton, on the 27th of December, 1848, was attended by a cost far exceeding the estimates, and the finances of the company were correspondingly embarrassed. Added to this were heavy drains for work then being vigorously pushed upon the Susquehanna division, so that the directory, in January, 1849, deemed them- selves forced to discontinue the expenditures upon the branch. At this juncture the Newburgh director proposed to raise the sum of one hundred and forty- five thousand dollars upon the acceptances of the com- pany, to mature May, 1851, and to pay the same to the company, provided responsible parties in New- burgh would indorse the acceptances, and also pro- vided the company would execute a mortgage upon the branch as security for the amount. In view of the compulsory clause in the act of 1845, releasing the company from the payment of the three million dollar loan, conditioned upon finishing the road to Dunkirk and also the Newburgh branch, in May, 1851, and as a financial measure, the board of direc- tors accepted the proposition and adopted the fol- lowing preamble and resolution :
" At a meeting of the directors of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, the following preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted (Jan. 10, 1849):
" I'herens, There has already been expended upon the Newburgh branch, in conformity to agreement, about the sum of two hundred and forty-five thousand dollars, which, together with the sumis necessary to complete the present contracts, say twenty thousand dollars, will nearly make up the amount required to be advanced by this company toward the construction of said branch road, as per agreement of 19th of March, 1:45; and whereas, the inhabitants of Newlmigh. in order to secure the completion of the said ruad by the first day of september next, propose to advance upon the acceptances of this company one hundred and furty- five thousand d. lars for that purpose; and whereas, upon the extension of the mmnin line of our road to Elmira, if not earlier, said branch road will be of great value if completed ; therefore
"Resulred, That the superintending engineer upon the Newburgh braach is hereby authorized to draw upon the treasurer of this company in sums not less than five hundred dollars to an amount in the aggregate of one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars, which drafts shall be payable in May, 1851 (the time prescribed by the law of this State for the com- pletion of said branch rond), and bear interest at seven per cent. per annum payable halt-yearly ; and that Homer Ramsdell be authorized to procure the money upon said acceptances and deposit it with the treas- urer to be applied toward the purchase of iron rails and completion of said branch road as aforesaid; and that the president is hereby author- ized to issue such orders as shall be necessary to carry out the intention of the foregoing preamble and resolution.
" A true copy, NATHANIEL MARSH, Secy."
" In consideration of and in conformity to" this preamble and resolution, the following persons made written agreement, on the 15th of January, 1849, to indorse the acceptances of the Erie Company for the sums set opposite their names :
T. Powell & Co ...
$45,000
Crawford, Mailler & Co ...... $20,000
J. Beveridge & Co.
25,000
.J. V. B. Fowler & ('o ........ 1.000
.John P De Wint.
25,000
F. Gerard and Jas. DeGroff.
1,000
B. Carpenter & Co .. 10,1%)
Wm. C. Hasbrouck ..
1,000
Adam Lilburn
1,000
N Reeve.
1,000
50
Oakley, Isaac K
3 3
De Wint, John P
100 3
spier & Wilson
Smith, Corns. C.
10
Falls, Hiraa).
3
Smith & Booth,
Felter, Theron ..
Gerard. Franklin.
3
Williams, Samuel.
Stanton & (Jark
Clugston, Jahn
Crawfordl, David.
Beunett, Hiram.
10 Lander, Toltas D
.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Corus. C. Smith. $1.000 | George Mecklen ...
Stanton, Clank & Co ..
Spier & Wilson ...
500
Benj. Tyler .... 1.(MK)
Enoch Carter 500
Daniel Farrington .. 1,4.00
(hlell &. Hathaway
3.0 0
A. & M 11. Brlkump
1,000
Christopher B. Miller 2.0001 1
Jim J. Monell
1,100
Aaron B. Belknap. 1,0: 0
Corwin, Halsey & Co.
1,000
Richard C. smith
1,000
$145,500
These acceptances were also all indorsed by Thomas Powell & Co. On the 23d of February following, Messrs. Powell, Ramsdell & Co. and J. Beveridge & Co. purchased two thousand tons of railroad iron, then in the hands of Davis, Brooks & Co., at forty dollars per ton and duties thereon, for which the notes of Powell & Co. were given for fifty-five thousand dollars, and the notes of Beveridge & Co. for twenty- three thousand dollars. In addition to the iron, Homer Ramsdell purchased the depot-grounds,-en- bracing the river-front between the Whaling Com- pany's doek and the north line of Western Avenue, and also a lot south of the dock of John W. Wells, fronting one hundred and sixty-five feet on Water Street and the river,-paying for the same twenty thousand dollars. The property of John W. Wells, ninety-one feet on the river, with a quit-claim to one- half of Western Avenue, was condemned and taken on the award of commissioners at forty thousand dol- lars. On settlement in June, it was found that Powell & Co. were at that time, through indorsements, ac- ceptances, and advances, responsible for two hundred and two thousand two hundred and nineteen dollars. The capital thus furnished completed the branch, and on the 9th of January, 1850, its opening was cele- brated with appropriate festivities.
The old Delaware and Hudson Company left be- hind, as memorials of its existence, a partly-graded track and the stock subscription of the village of Newburgh ($10,000), upon the debt for which the interest was annually paid until the village became a city. The details of its history, as well as those of the construction of the branch, now serve as monu- ments to the memory of those who were their projec- tors and supporters. The effort of 1837 is now an accomplished fact : the coal-mines of Pennsylvania are in connection with Newburgh by rail ; but the ad- vantages of the earlier enterprise passed away, to a very large extent, with its opportunity.
The time may not be distant, however, when more direct connection with the coal-fields than by the main line of the Erie and the Newburgh branch will be effected through the Warwick Valley Railroad and the Wawayanda Railroad and its connections in New Jersey. The Warwick Valley Railroad was the out- growth of a proposition, made soon after the comple- tion of the Newburgh branch, to extend its line to the Delaware River, for which a survey and maps were made and there rested. In 1859, Mr. Grinnell Burt and other residents of Warwick practically re- vived the project by organizing the " Warwick Valley Railroad Company," under the following board of directors: Grinnell Burt, John Rutherford, Thomas B. DeKay, Ezra Sanford, James B. Wheeler, Milton 9
MCEwen, James Burt, John H. Brown, John L. Wel- ling, William Herrick, James P. Houston, and Nathan R. Wheeler. On organization, the directors elected Grinnell Burt, president; Milton McEwen, vice- president; James B. Wheeler, treasurer; William Herrick, secretary. The capital stock was $100,000, of which Newburgh furnished $10,500. When the road was completed, the bonded and floating debt amounted to a little over one hundred thousand dol- lars, forty per cent. of which has since been paid out of the earnings of the road, and a surplus of an equal amount has been expended to extend the road to the New Jersey State line. In consideration of these payments and to create a surplus fund, a stock divi- dend of one hundred per cent. was declared to the stockholders in 1867. Regular annual dividends of seven per cent. have been paid from the earnings of the road, showing that, aside from the advantages which it has conferred upon the district which it tra- verses, it has been a pecuniary success. The company was consolidated, in the fall of 1879, with the Wa- wayanda Railroad of New Jersey, by which its line is extended to MeAfee, N. J., on the Sussex Rail- road.
The Newburgh and New York Railroad Company was organized in the city of New York, Dec. 20, 1864, -- Samuel Marsh, Daniel Drew, John Arnot, Isaac N. Phelps, Robert H. Burdell, Dudley S. Gregory, Am- brose S. Murray, J. C. Bancroft Davis, H. L. Pierson, Alexander S. Diven, Thomas W. Gale, John J. Mo- nell, Thomas H. Bate, directors; J. C. Bancroft Davis, president ; Horatio N. Otis, secretary. The capital stock was fixed at $500,000, of which over one thousand dollars per mile was immediately sub- scribed and paid up. The project was based on a proposition for a west shore road from New York to Albany, which, by its construction, would only lack sixty miles of completion. Aside from the directors named, who subscribed ten shares (one hundred dol- lars) each, George Clarke and Enoch Carter, of New- burgh, subscribed one share each ; F. A. De Wint, of Fishkill, one; and John Hilton, H. N. Otis, Charles Minot, L. E. Tillotson, J. W. Guppy, William R. Barr, N. Finch, E. W. Brown, and J. D. White, of New York, each one. The road being less than fif- teen miles in length, the number of directors was re- duced to seven, in conformity with the general rail- road law, in December, 1867, when John S. Eldridge, Jay Goukl, John C. B. Davis, Daniel Drew, A. S. Diven, Henry Thompson, and Homer Ramsdell were elected. On the 1st of August, 1868, Mr. Ramsdell was elected president. He resigned July 7, 1869, and James Fisk, Jr., was elected. The line was surveyed by John W. Houston, engineer ; the contract for con- struction was awarded to Peter Ward and William Leary, of Newburgh, Aug. 1, 1868, and the work com- pleted Sept. 1, 1869. The road was .subsequently leased to the Erie Company, that company supplying the capital required for its construction.
121
122
HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.
The understood willingness of the company to second any effort to extend the connections of the road gave rise to what have been called "the New- burgh paper railroads," the first of which, the New- burgh and Wallkill Valley Railroad, took the form of a company to construct a road from Newburgh to Walden, connecting at Vail's Gate with the Erie branch and with the Newburgh and New York road. The company was organized in the winter of 1867- 68 by the election of directors and officers. In May following (May 9th) the Legislature passed an act city of Newburgh to borrow, on the faith and credit of said city, the sum of three hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars," to aid in the construction of the road, and to issue the bonds of the city therefor,-on con- dition that the consent should first be obtained, in writing of a majority of the tax-payers of the city, who should also own or represent more than one- half of the taxable real and personal property of the city. At the time the project was undertaken, the disposition of the Newburgh and New York Com- pany to second the enterprise was not generally un- derstood as a tangible agreement, and this fact, coupled with an expressed opposition to the Vail's Gate route on the part of several leading citizens, led to a failure in obtaining the consent required to bond the city, and necessarily to a suspension of the further prosecution of the undertaking.
The second of the series, the Newburgh and Mid- land Railroad, advanced several steps beyond the point reached by the Newburgh and Wallkill Valley road. The proposition was to construct a road from the vicinity of West Newburgh to Walden and thence to Fair Oaks, there to connect with the New York and Oswego Midland, and took definite form in the organization of the "Newburgh and Midland Railway Company,"-George Clark, president; Odell S. Hathaway, vice-president; Alfred Post, treasurer ; John Dales, secretary ; George Clark, Abram S. Cas- sedy, A. T. Rand, Bradbury C. Bartlett, Odell S. Hathaway, Seth M. Capron, David Moore, James W. Taylor, Alfred Post, William R. Brown, William J. Roe, Jr., Lewis M. Smith, William O. Mailler, di- rectors. To build this road effort was made to bond the city of Newburgh for five hundred thousand dol- lars, under the general act authorizing innnicipal corporations to aid in the construction of railroads. What was presumed to be the consent of a majority of the tax-payers, and also of a majority of the tax- able property of the city, was obtained. On exami- nation of the list before Hon. Thomas George, county judge, it was held by him that while the petition for consent to bond was signed by a majority of the tax- payers, the signatures did not represent a majority of the taxable property of the city,-$555,099 of the amount being held by executors, administrators, etc., whose right to thus represent the trusts which they held was denied. An appeal was taken to the Su-
preme Court, which, at general term, Jannary, 1872, affirmed the decision of Judge George,-Justices Tappen and Gilbert concurring, Justice Barnard dis- senting. This decision ended the undertaking.
After two or three years spent in discussions and surveys the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad Company was formally organized at a convention of delegates from Oswego, Onondaga, Madison, Cort- land, Chenango, Delaware, Sullivan, Orange, Otsego, and Ulster Counties, and New York City, held at Delhi, Oct. 4, 1865. At this convention D. C. Little-
making it lawful "for the Common Council of the john, of Oswego, reported articles of association or- ganizing the company with a capital of $10,000,000. DeWitt C. Littlejohn, John Crouse, Elisha C. Litch- field, Joseph W. Merchant, Edward 1. Hayes, John A. Randall, A. C. Edgerton, Samuel Gordon, Henry A. Low, Edward Palen, Homer Ramsdell, Nathan Randall, and G. P. Kenyon were named as directors. The location of the route, whether by way of Pine Hill to Rondout or Newburgh, or through Sullivan County to Middletown and thence through New Jersey to New York, was subsequently determined in favor of the Middletown and Sullivan line, and, under authority of an act of the Legislature, the towns of Wallkill and Minisink, in common with other towns along the route, issued town bonds in aid of construction,-Minisink seventy-five thousand dol- lars, and Wallkill three hundred thousand dollars. Sections of the road in Orange were put under con- tract,-Middletown to Centreville, Sept. 28, 1868; Ellenville Branch, Sept. 28, 1868; Centreville to Westfield Flats, Feb. 3, 1869. On the 9th of July, 1873, near Westfield Flats, the last rail was laid, and the last spike driven by the late E. P. Wheeler, of Middletown, a former vice-president of the company. After a stormy existence of six years the road was sold under foreclosure, Nov. 9, 1879, and its title changed to New York, Ontario and Western Rail- road.
The construction of the Midland was the occasion of the building of the Middletown and Crawford and the Middletown, Unionville and Water Gap roads, and at least indirectly of the Monticello and Port Jervis branch of the Erie. The latter project origin- ated, we believe, in Monticello, where it was feared that the Midland would result in disaster to that village unless a road was opened to Port Jervis con- necting with the Erie. The project, however, was really much older than the Midland, having had its origin in connection with the Erie Company's efforts to secure a State loan in 1835-36, the loan advocates then promising to construct a branch to Monticello. The company was organized in 1868, and the road opened in 1871. The town of Deerpark issued two hundred thousand dollars in bonds to aid the con- struction. The road was sold, and reorganized as the Port Jervis and Monticello in 1875.
The Montgomery and Erie was the first link in the Wallkill Valley line. It was opened from Mont-
A
123
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
gomery to Goshen in 1867, and constructed by stock subscriptions and bonds of the first election district of Montgomery for fifty-one thousand dollars. The line was continued to Walden and Ulster County as a part of the Wallkill Valley Road, and fifty-one thousand dollars in bonds were issued by the second election distriet in its aid. It had its inception in a desire on the part of the leading men of Montgomery to secure railroad connection, and after having sought in vain for that assistance from the capitalists of New- burgh which would have given to the line a different direction. This remark will also apply to the Mid- dletown and Crawford road,* for the construction of which the bonds of the town of Crawford were issued for eighty thousand dollars. More detailed informa- tion in regard to these and other roads has been solicited without answer. The following abridged statement of the railroads in the county is from " Poor's Manual" for 1880:
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