USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 36
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The revised estimates of the cost of the canal placed it at nearly $5,000,000. By an act of May II, 1835, an enlargement was ordered, which was begun in August, 1836, and completed in September, 1862, at a cost of $36,495,535. This of course greatly increased the capacity and usefulness of the canal and rendered it one of the finest artificial waterways in the world.
The Chenango Canal was opened to connect the Erie Canal at Utica
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CHENANGO CANAL- PLANK ROADS.
with the Susquehanna River at Binghamton; it is one of the many projects (most of which were never carried out) which sprang from the completion and success of the Erie Canal. Legislation for these artificial waterways in all parts of the country became very popular, and vision- ary people saw the State covered with a network of canals. The act authorizing the Chenango Canal was passed February 23, 1833, and the work of construction began in July, 1834. Several points of connec- tion with the Erie Canal were discussed, and it was only by the most persistent and unremitting efforts that Utica was finally selected. To pay the expenses of securing the termination for this city a tax was imposed and in later years unavailing efforts were made to secure its payment by the State.
The canal was finished in October, 1836, at a cost of $2,782,124. It was ninety-seven miles long exclusive of feeders, forty feet wide at the surface, twenty-four at the bottom, and four feet deep, and calcu- lated for boats from fifty to seventy tons. The canal was for a number of years of considerable importance to the city of Utica, especially for the conveyance thither of coal from the mines of Pennsylvania, but the construction of the railroad through the same section of country soon reduced its traffic, and after a good deal of discussion it was finally abandoned.
What may be properly termed a plank road era began about 1845-46, and within a few years thereafter the construction of those then neces- sary and useful roadways extended throughout the State. They were commonly built by stock companies organized under the "Act to pro- vide for the incorporation of companies to construct plank roads and of companies to construct turnpike roads," which act was passed by the legislature on the 7th of May, 1847.
Becoming fully convinced of the value and importance of the new roadways the citizens of Utica held a meeting in January, 1847, at which resolutions were adopted setting forth the merits of plank roads, the desirability of building them between Utica and surrounding vil- lages, and entreating the authorities for a general law endowing con- structing companies and pledging $50,000 from the people of the city for the building of such roads as were then had in view. On the last day of June, 1847, an association was formed to construct a plank road
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
to the nothward. Its proposition was to start from the corners at Deer- field and extend to a tavern known as Hicks's, five miles north of the village of Remsen, whence other companies were to carry it onward. Its capital was $50,000, of which nearly four-fifths were taken in Utica. Seven of the nine directors were of Utica, as follows : John Butterfield, Ward Hunt, James Rockwell, Horatio Seymour, John B. Miller, Elisha W. Teackle, Jonathan R. Warner, John Billings, and Mather Beecher. Mr. Butterfield was its president and Benjamin F. Ray treasurer. Of this road the last plank was laid in the fall of 1848. The new highway was a source of great benefit for a number of years, was extensively traveled, and brought a reasonable profit to its owners; but with the increasing cost of plank, and still more with the opening of the Black River Railroad, its necessity was greatly lessened and its income re- duced. When its charter expired in 1877 it was not renewed.
The northern was only one of these highways that were now taken in hand. The moneyed men of the town joined in league with those from without, and in meetings everywhere held unfolded their projects ; funds were secured and companies formed, and ere long these roadways extended toward nearly every point of the compass. With Rome, with New Hartford and Clinton, with Bridgewater, Waterville, Burling- ton, Mohawk, and Schuyler our connections were vastly bettered.
The ultimate fate of these roads was in general similar to that depicted of the northern. While new and promotive of business and travel they seemed to be paying investments, and were kept in good condition so long as it cost but little to do so. But as they became worn and cost of repairs was enhanced the incomes were reduced, and many of them finally ruined their owners. A few exchanged their old planks for a basis of stone, but most were outrivaled by the railroads.
Prior to the year 1826 (only sixty- five years ago) there was not a rail- road in America. In that year a road four miles in length, called the " Quincy Railroad," was built in Massachusetts for the transportation of granite from the celebrated quarries. The motive power was horses ; the use of steam was hardly thought of at that time. In April of the year in which the Quincy Railroad was built the legislature of the State of New York chartered the " Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad Company " to construct a railroad between Albany and Schenectady.
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MOHAWK AND HUDSON RAILROAD.
This was the first chartered railroad company in the Union authorized to carry on a general transportation business of freight and passengers. It was the year the Erie Canal was brought fully into use, and it had already become a general conviction that at an early day a railroad would run along its course as a competitor for a share of the traffic. As business in all of its various channels rapidly increased, demanding increased activity on the part of merchants and manufacturers, the ele- ment of time became a larger factor in every man's business and had a distinct effect upon his profits and losses, Shrewd and far-seeing men realized that this line across the Emire State was the natural course for through trade, as it is now termed, and busy brains were speculating upon ways and means and possible results of building railways that would, at least, divide the traffic of the canal and the stages and prove a profitable investment. The capital of the Mohawk and Hudson River Company was $300,000 with the privilege of increasing it to $500,000.
In the meantime, and before work on this road was begun, railroads in other States were commenced, finished, and brought into use, with locomotives propelled by steam. Among these was the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad, which was chartered in May, 1834, and was first operated by steam in 1839. In August, 1830, and about twenty months before the expiration of the six years in which the road was to be built, the work of construction was begun and it was pushed forward with so much energy that in October, 1831, it was fully completed and carrying about 400 passengers daily on the average. This road, the first in the State, was of course crude in its plan, imperfect in construc- tion, and expensive in operation. The road-bed was mostly of solid stone, and with such an unyielding foundation it acted as an anvil and the rolling stock as hammers to batter and wear out the timbers, cross- ties, and rails. Its cost was $68,000 per mile.
During the ten years subsequent to the charter of the first railroad in this State, the legislature granted many charters for the building of rail- roads in various parts of the State. The success, such as it was, of the road from Albany to Schenectady served to inspire confidence in more extensive and better railroads and taught many valuable lessons that later builders were not slow to turn to their own account. . The charter
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad was granted in 1833. The road was to run between those two places, on the north bank of the Mohawk River, and its western terminus to be at such point as should be determined by the common council of the city of Utica.
The capital stock of this railroad was placed at $2,000,000, and the work of construction was to be begun and $100,000 expended within two years, and the road to be completed within ten years after the pas- sage of the act, or the charter of the company would be forfeited. Property (freight) was not to be transported over the road except the ordinary baggage of passengers, and the company was limited to four cents a mile for carrying passengers, and before beginning passenger transportation the company was required to pay or tender to the Mo- hawk Turnpike Company $22.50 on each share of the stock of said Turn- pike Company. That turnpike was chartered in 1800, as noted on an earlier page.
The State reserved the right to become the owner of the railroad within ten years after its completion. Work was begun in the fall of the year 1834 and the road was fully finished at a cost of $20,000 per mile in the summer of 1836, so that it was in running order and regular trips were begun on the 2d of August of that year. The opening of the road was a great event, not only in Utica, but all along its line, and it was celebrated with enthusiasm. The newspapers throughout the State announced the opening with a grand flourish and boasted that the com- pany had six locomotives, fifty cars, and fifty emigrant wagons, and that each car " would carry twenty-four passengers."
The business of the railroad appears to have been excellent from the outset, notwithstanding the various imperfections of the line and the rivalry between the runners for the packet boats on the canal, the stages, and the railroad, which became intense and continued for several years.
The next year after the Utica and Schenectady Railroad Company was chartered the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company was organ- ized, as before stated, and this fact - that there were to be railroad con- nections between Albany and Utica and Auburn and Syracuse - very naturally awakened the people along the line to the desirability of sup-
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UTICA AND SYRACUSE RAILROAD.
plying the necessary links to complete the chain from the Hudson River to the lakes. The railroads already built were well paying investments and would clearly be of great benefit in developing the country through which they passed.
These considerations led to the nomination for the legislature of the year 1836 of men whose power and influence would be potent and reliable for the introduction and passage of charters for other roads. In the fall of 1835 David Wager, of Utica, was chosen State senator from this county and in the Assembly were John Stryker, of Rome ; Henry Graves, of Boonville ; John W. Hale, of Clinton ; William Knight, of Paris; and Jared C. Pettibone, of Lee. In the Assembly from Madi- son County were William J. Hough, of Cazenovia; John B. Yates, of Chittenango ; and Ephraim Gray, of Lebanon. These three Madison County members were strong and influential men, and from their geo- graphical location would naturally favor a route running farther south than the one finally selected. In the Assembly from Onondaga County were John Wilkinson, of Syracuse, a man who had already taken a deep and active interest in the new railroads; David Munro, of Camillus; Sanford C. Parker, of Marcellus; and Daniel Dennison, of Manlius. As was expected the legislature of 1836 was besieged with petitions for railroad charters in all parts of the State, and among them was one for a railroad from Utica to Syracuse as well as one for a road from Auburn to Rochester.
At the opening of the session the friends of this road and of the two routes advocated were on hand in force. One party insisted that the road should be built wholly on the south side of the Erie Canal, start- . ing at a point in Utica near the site of the present city hall, thence through New Hartford, Westmoreland, Vernon, and as near Oneida Castle and the Madison County hills as the grades would permit. This was the shorter distance and brought the road nearer the more cultivated por- tions of Madison County, and hence was strenuously urged by the assemblymen from that section as well as by a large part of the popu- lation of that county. Most of the Utica influence also favored that route, as it would insure a break in the line at this point and make the city a " carrying-place." It was argued by many Uticans that if the railroad were continuous this city would in time become little better
49
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
than a way station on the great thoroughfare, and its growth and busi- ness facilities would be crippled. The more northern route was favored by the people of Rome and the northern portion of the county, because of its favorable grades, consequent cheapness of construction, and the small amount that would have to be paid for land damages. In the selection of the railroad commissioners, who at that time were named by the legislature, and whose duty it was to open the subscription books for the sale of the stock and to distribute it among the subscribers, a consid- erable majority were in favor of the Rome route, as it was termed, and in this majority were a number of very strong men. John B. Yates was chairman of the railroad committee in the Assembly, and in that fact the advocates of the southern route had a decided advantage ; but after a prolonged and intensely earnest discussion and a great deal of wire- pulling Orville Robinson, of Oswego, struck a popular chord when he moved that the majority of the directors should locate the road " on the most direct and eligible route." This was carried and the contest in the Assembly was ended. On the 11th of May the bill became a law and the following were named as commissioners : Julius A. Spencer, Henry A. Foster, David Moulton, Timothy Jenkins, Pomeroy Jones, Israel S. Parker, Riley Shepard, of Oneida County; John Knowles, Ichabod S. Spencer, John Williams, Benjamin Enos, of Madison County ; and Vivus W. Smith, Miles W. Bennett, Horace Wheaton, Thomas J. Gilbert, E. L. Phillips, Aaron Burt, and James Beardslee, of Onon- daga County. The capital stock of the company was $800,000, and if the road was not commenced in two years and at least $25,000 expended, and was not finished in four years after the passage of the act, the charter was forfeit. Subscription books were opened on the 19th, 20th, and 2Ist of July, 1836. Although the capital stock was only $800,000 nearly $2,500,000 were subscribed outside of the city of New York, of which Utica took $1,066,000. There was some complaint over the distribution of the stock under these conditions and charges of political preferment were made ; but it is claimed by good authority that there was very little ground for such charges.
The first election of directors was held on the 22d of September, 1836, at the Syracuse House in Syracuse, and the following were chosen : Henry Seymour, David Wager, Henry A. Foster, David
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UTICA AND SYRACUSE RAILROAD.
Moulton, Samuel French, John Wilkinson, Oliver Teall, James Beards- lee, James Hooker, Isaiah Townsend, Miles W. Bennett, and Charles Stebbins. Henry Seymour was elected president of the road ; Vivus W. Smith, secretary ; M. S. Marsh, treasurer ; and Aaron Burt, super- intendent. Oliver H. Lee, formerly engineer on the Utica and Schenec- tady road, was made chief engineer, with J. P. Monro and C. B. Stuart as assistants.
Surveys of the different routes were at once begun. In August, 1837, Mr. Seymour died and Mr. Wilkinson was made president of the road, and held the position until the consolidation into the New York Central Company in 1853.
Within fourteen months after the road was put under contract it was fully completed. Much of the way it was built upon piles, a system which was mainly the invention of E. P. Williams, of Utica. The road was fully completed in June, 1839. Its cost was $700,000, which was $100,000 less than its capital stock.
The first engines on this as well as on the Utica and Schenectady road were single-drivers with small trail wheels under the cab, which consisted of a roof hung around with oilcloth during the winter. The weight of the locomotive was from four to six tons. The first cars had four wheels. The conductor passed along on the outside of the compart- ments, which had four seats each, and collected the fares. In 1843 the cars had no projections over the platforms and were low and illy ventilated. It was quite a step in advance when locomotives with four drivers were placed in use, and even they had no pilots ; some had two splint brooms set in front just in position to clear the track, and others flat iron bars bent forward and sharpened at the ends. This was the " cow-catcher." In winter a large wooden plow was placed in front of the engine.
The first railroad track was soon superseded by an eight-by- eight wooden rail, along the center of which was placed strap-iron of the same width and thickness as that at first used. In 1849 a second track was laid and heavier iron put on both roads. The council of Utica granted privileges to the railroad company, as had already been done to the Utica and Schenectady Company, for laying tracks, building depots, etc. On Thursday, June 27, 1839, the first train of cars ran
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
between Utica and Rome, and an editor of that place boasted in his journal that he had shaken hands on the day mentioned with persons in Rome who had left Utica only forty-five minutes before. In the after- noon the train proceeded to Syracuse, and there was great rejoicing along the whole line. During the first week the cars were run free, but on Wednesday, July 3d, the company began taking pay, and the average receipts for a number of days were over $600 per day. On the 4th of July there was a great excursion over the road and the day and the scene were not soon forgotten by those who participated in it. The road ran most of the way through a dense forest ; the tracks were laid upon piles without filling between so that the train seemed to run in the air. Everything was new and rural. On Wednesday, July 10, 1839, the completion of the road was celebrated with ampler state and ceremony, marked at Syracuse with a military escort, the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon, the tumultuous rejoicing of the people, and a dinner at which were seated 400 or 500 prominent citizens of Al- bany, Utica, and Syracuse.
The railroad was a great success for that time in every sense. In the same week that it was finished its stock sold at ten per cent. advance. Both of these lines thus far described were merged in the New York Central Railway in 1853, the charter of that company being dated April 3d. The consolidation included the following companies : The Albany and Schenectady, the Schenectady and Troy, the Utica and Schenec- tady, the Mohawk Valley, Syracuse, and Utica, the Rochester and Syracuse, the Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara Falls, the Rochester and Buffalo, and the Buffalo and Lockport, of which the Mohawk Val- ley and the Syracuse and Utica direct railroad (as it was termed) were not built. In the year 1869 this company was merged in the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, acquiring control of the line along the river to New York city. Subsequently the road was equipped from Albany to Buffalo with four tracks - the only line of that character in the country. In 1885 the New York, West Shore, and Buffalo Railroad was absorbed by the Central, thus giving the latter control of six tracks; and on the 14th of March, 1891, the Central assumed under a lease the entire system of the Rome, Water- town, and Ogdensburg Company, making it at the present time one of the most powerful railroad corporations in the country.
389
UTICA AND BLACK RIVER RAILROAD.
The Utica and Black River Railroad was first formed under the name of the Black River and Utica Railroad Company on the 29th of Janu- ary, 1853. The original company contained many prominent citizens of Utica, of whom Theodore S. Faxton was president, and the project awakened unusual interest, not only in the city, but along its entire pro- posed line. Public meetings were held here and elsewhere and it was not long before the enterprise assumed tangible shape. Some idea of the interest in this city may be inferred by the fact that its promotors were able to induce the city corporation to take $250,000 in the stock -- a very large amount of money at that time, and which was eventually a loss.
Work was begun late in the same year and prosecuted throughout the following one. The road was opened to Boonville on the 13th of December, 1854, and to Trenton on the Ist of January, 1855. From the report made at the meeting of stockholders held in January, 1856, it appeared that the first thirty-five miles with finished parts beyond had consumed the whole of the capital and involved its friends and the city in loss. The work had proceeded too fast for the means at com- mand; especially had the company erred in encouraging engineer's costs and in distributing labor along the whole line in lieu of complet- ing a little at the nearer extreme. Of other graver mistakes it is need- less to speak. It only remained to issue fresh bonds, and these were now put freely in market at seventy, at sixty, and then at fifty cents on the dollar. They were increased by degrees until they reached the sum of $800,000. When these failed of interest their holders commit- ted the road to John Thorn and Isaac Maynard to operate as trustees. That the road was a failure was not due to the location or business, which from the first had exceeded all expectations; nor was it, moreover, deficient in good in enlarging the bounds and augmenting the value of Utica.
To put its concerns on a more economical basis on the 9th of May, 1861, a re-organization took place. The holders of bonds exchanged them for a new issue of stock, and the corporate name was changed to Utica and Black River Railroad and new directors were elected. The first Board of Directors were: John Thorn, president; James Sayre, A. J. Williams, Martin Hart, Charles Millar, Edmund A. Graham, John
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Butterfield, Isaac Maynard, Thomas Foster, Dan P. Cadwell, Russel Wheeler, and two others from outside the city. The capital of the new company was $811,500, of which $535,000 was owned by Utica people.
In this unsatisfactory condition of the road John Thorn 1 and his asso- ciates immediately inaugurated a system of economy in management, improvement of the road-bed and rolling stock, and soon changed the whole aspect of the affairs of the company. He held the office of presi- dent until the present time excepting the period from 1873 to 1879, when
David C. West was president. A plan of extension was adopted which soon became a powerful factor in the prosperity of the road. On the IIth of November, 1863, the stockholders were surprised with a two per cent. dividend, the first that the road had ever paid. In 1867 the road was continued to Lyons Falls, ten miles; in 1868-69 to Lowville, seventeen miles; in 1869-70 to Carthage; and from there to Philadel- phia in 1871-72, connecting with the Black River and Morristown road, which then had about seven miles of road completed. That line was at once finished and absorbed, and in 1872 the company leased the road from Carthage to Watertown. Two years later the line was com- pleted to Sacket's Harbor, involving under that lease about thirty miles of road. In 1874 a conection was made with the Clayton and Theresa road at Theresa Junction, and that line was also taken under a lease. In 1878 the road was extended to Ogdensburg, eleven miles. In 1883 a consolidation was effected with the Black River and Morristown road, and in 1886 all of these various branches excepting the Carthage, Watertown, and Sacket's Harbor road (which continued under lease) were consolidated under the name of the Utica and Black River Rail- road Company, comprising about 150 miles of road. On the 14th of April, 1886, this entire system was leased to the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Company for seven per cent. on its capital stock. On the 14th of March, 1891, the road passed with all of the lines of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Company under control of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company.
In the spring of 1853, just after the Black River Railroad was pro- jected, a movement was made toward a road to the south. Meetings were held in various towns and a company was organized with Alfred
1 See biography in another department of this work.
Eng by EG Win mas 5 38
John thon
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U., C., AND S. V. RAILROAD.
Munson as president. His death, the failure of the Black River road, and other causes occasioned suspension and delay. The matter continued, however, to be talked of, and more earnestly as the northern road emerged from its pressure and was again prepared for extension. In the winter of 1863 the excitement ran high when two definite plans were found to exist ; with Sherburne as the objective point to be reached one party chose a line by way of Clinton and Hamilton along the course of the Chenango Canal, while the other would follow the Sau- quoit to its source, thence down the Chenango to Waterville, and through the Long Swamp to Sherburne. As a consequence of the di- vergence of interests, as soon as the energies of both parties were con- centered each on its own, steps were taken to open up both. A road was now built from New Hartford to Clinton and connected by horse car with Utica. Having constructed this much its company waited some years ere they built any farther. Meantime the other proposal was zealously forwarded. A committee appointed September 29, 1865, to make a survey of the district involved, in November following ad- vised that a road should be built to course along the Sauquoit, a valley abounding in manufactures and people, to a point beyond Clayville, whence a branch should extend to the village of Waterville, and pass- ing near Hamilton should reach down to Sherburne, and so command the rich trade of the Chenango ; while another, going through Bridge- water, Winfield, and Richfield, should move on to Colliersville on the line of the Susquehanna. Each branch would in time be extended. The road now proposed was to be something over eighty miles long, was to cost $30,000 per mile, and so needed a capital of $2,400,000. Of this amount Utica's share was $700,000, whereof $200,000 was to be raised by subscription and the remaining $500,000 was to come from the bonds of the city. Other towns on the line were disposed to contribute according to their numbers and wealth.
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