USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 33
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ings with a covered platform attached was converted into a passenger station which served until 1879, when the company hav- ing purchased all the land on that block ex- cept one tract and secured valuable con- cessions from the city on the plea that a convenient and commodious station was to be erected, built the present abortion which was inadequate and unfit for its purpose from the day of its erection and has be- come relatively more so ever since. There have been numerous promises of something better, but at this writing they have not been realized. During this period the car shops were removed to other points leav- ing light repair shops here.
The new company adopted the policy of leasing connecting lines, greatly extend- ing its system viz: January 22, 1869. the Columbus, Chicago & Indiana Central Rail- road, from Columbus to Chicago and In- dianapolis with a mileage of 580.4; Feb- ruary 23, 1870, Little Miami, Columbus & Xenia to Cincinnati and Richmond, Ind., 196.1; December 8, 1871, Mansfield to Washington, Pa., 22; December, 1872. Cin- einnati & Muskingum Valley from Dresden Junction to Morrow, O., 148.5. These with the P. W. & Ky. from Steubenville to Wheeling, leased February 25, 1878, 24 miles, brought the length of the system up to 1,172.9 miles to which was afterwards added the Vandalia road into St. Louis. About the year 1890 a project was broached of consolidating the P. C. & St. L. Ry. and its principal leased line the C. C. & I. C. into one corporation. As the former was creating a surplus from its earnings and gave promise of paying dividends for the first time in its history, while the leased ap- pendage showed a deficit, the plan was vigorously opposed by the minority stock- holders, including the city and township of Steubenville, but it was carried through, the new company taking the title of Pitts- burgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company. The city of Steuben- ville declining to go into the new arrange- ment received $50,000 for its stock in lien of the $100,000 subscribed forty years be-
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fore, which was principally applied on the new water system then under course of con- struction. The township received an equal amount in the common stock of the new organization which pays four per cent. per mmmmm as dividends. The capital stock of the company is $56,659,491.44 (1908), funded debt $56,969,000, which with other liabilities makes a grand total of $131,698,- 408.75. The system is double tracked throughout nearly its entire length, and being a component part of the great Penn- sylvania system may be considered second to none in the country, all from the acorn planted sixty years ago.
The Jefferson County stations are neces- snrily all west of Steubenville, being as fol- lows: Mingo, 3.1 miles; Gould, 6.9; New Alexandria, 7.2; Fernwood, 9.5; Reed, 12.3; Skelly, 13.4; Fairplay, 16.3; Unionport, 17.3; Carmen, 19.8. It will be observed that Unionport is nearly three miles nearer Steubenville than at the opening of the S. & I. road in 1853. This is occasioned by straightening of the track and especially by the construction of Gould tunnel, which cut off a circnitous ronte around the hills known as the Cireumbendivus.
PITTSBURGH, WHEELING AND KENTUCKY ROAD.
It will be remembered that part of the plans of the Holliday's Cove railroad pro jeet was a spur extending from the east end of Steubenville bridge down the river seven miles to Wellsburg which town was very anxious for nu ontlet in this dircetion. Nothing was done however along that line until 1868 when some Wellsburg citizens raised a fund of $20,000 to carry out the plan and proenred a charter for n road op- posite Steubenville to Wellsburg and thence to Wheeling, which latter city was now as anxious to secure a connection with the new eastern line as she had been to prevent its construction. It was then proposed to con- tinue it to the Kentucky state line, and fin- ally on February 16, 1871, the West Vir- ginia Legislature granted n charter to the
"Pittsburgh, Wheeling & Kentucky Rail- road Company" with a maximum capital of $8,000,000 of which $400.000 was con- sidered necessary to build the 24 miles of road from Steubenville to Wheeling. Brooke County voted $115,000 towards building the road. and Ohio County, ( Wheeling) $245,000. Adam Kuhn was the first President of the company, under whom the work was put under contract and the first ground broken just below Wellsburg on May 6, 1872. Lewis Applegate and C. D. Hubbard succeeded Kuhn. Several of the contractors failed, and before the road was completed the company itself was foreed to make an assignment on Septem- ber 28, 1873, with an indebtedness of $24 .- 000. The panic was on and operations stopped. Matters lay dormant until 1875, when the subject was again taken up and several plus proposed and rejected, one was to give the road to whoever would take it and complete the same. Finally a new company was organized on a basis of $200- 000 capital, but only $180,000 to be paid in, the work alrendy done to be turned over to the new company. Of this $90,000 was to be paid by members of the Pennsylvania Companies in the way of material, and $90,- 000 to be subscribed in cash by the counties of Ohio and Brooke if they desired, and individuals in those counties. Ohio voted to take $50,000 of the stock, and Brooke re- jected a proposition to take $20.000 thus retiring from the railroad business, and the other $40.000 was taken by individuals. Messrs. Mackin & Co. of Pittsburgh com- pleted the roadbed at a cost of $35,080, the rails were luid, and on Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock, February 24, 1878, the first train left Steubenville over the new line. The engine was No. 47 with Charles Wolf. engineer. Two passenger coaches, a bag- gage ear and several freight cars made np the train, among those on board being J. H. Barrett, superintendent; Ross Kells, mas- ter mechanie; G. L. Layng, supt. of tele- graph: J. M. Becker, chief engineer; C. Mackin, contractor; Edward Tate, con- ductor; J. L. Neely, baggage master and
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others. Wheeling was reached at 5:15 p. building, but the Lake Erie people crowded in., and returned the next morning when the road was formally opened for business. The telegraph line was opened about May 1. Arrangements were made to lease the road to the P. C. & St. L. system on a 7 per cent. basis, which has proved profitable for all parties as the road has been on a paying basis from the start. The Ken- tueky extension was afterwards built by another corporation and now reaches Hunt- ington, W. Va. under the name of Ohio River road.
NEW CUMBERLAND BRANCH.
In 1887 a branch line was built prac- tically from Steubenville to New Cumber- land, W. Va., a short distance of twelve miles tapping a large clay industry. It has since been extended to Chester, W. Va. where is located the famous Rock Springs park.
THE WABASH SYSTEM.
Fully thirty years ago the construction of a railroad was begun extending from the lake ports of Huron and Toledo south- east, whose ultimate terminal was intended to be the Ohio River. After many trials and tribulations it reached Bowerston in Harrison County where a connection was made with the Pan Handle system, but there it stopped. It was named the Wheel- ing and Lake Erie, although the question of reaching the first named point seemed rather problematical. Finally in the later eighties the matter was taken up again with the idea of extending the line down the Short Creek. Valley through JJefferson County to the river and thence branching north to Steubenville and south to Martin's Ferry. A corporation called the Steuben- ville & Columbiana Railroad was formed for the purpose of securing rights of way and doing construction work in this county, which operated with such good effect that the road was soon under way. Consid- erable trouble was experienced along Short Creek by a rival company intending to con- nect with the South Pennsylvania then
the others out, and the South Pa., never having been completed, its work in this county was abandoned, although the old cuts and fills are yet visible. On November 28, 1890, the road was opened to Steuben- ville, and the Martin's Ferry extension some weeks later, giving another through line east and west. A few years later the Connotton Valley road was purchased, which gave an entrance into Cleveland, but the whole was absorbed by George Gould and the Wabash system in 1901. It was Mr. Gould's ambition to secure an entrance into Pittsburgh and create a transconti- nental route. As the route down Short Creek was somewhat circuitous he and his advisers concluded to build an air line from a point near Jewett in Harrison County, straight across Jefferson County to Mingo, crossing the river there, and proceeding to Pittsburgh. Like the Czar's road from St. Petersburgh to Moscow neither towns nor natural obstacles were permitted to deflect it. Railroad building in Jefferson County has always been diffienlt and expensive on account of the rugged nature of the surface, but this line was especially so, costing it is said about $10,000,000 from Pittsburgh Junction to Pittsburgh, or $160,000 per mile, this including the two bridges across the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. The bridges, tunnels, cuts, etc. were made to accommodate double track, but only one track was laid when the line was opened in 1905, and owing to financial troubles the full scheme has never been carried out. The Jefferson County stations on this line are Mingo, 3 miles from Steubenville; Bril- liant. 7 miles; Salt Run, 9; Stringer, 10; Rush Run, 11; Warrenton, 14; Tiltonville, 15; Connor, 15; Glen Run, 17; Dillonvale, 20; Mt. Pleasant, 21; Long Run, 22; Her- rick, 25; Adena, 26; New Alexandria, S; Smithfield, 11; Boston, 14.
It will be seen that Steubenville has be- come quite a railroad centre with trains leaving every hour of the day, and much more frequently at times in as many as seven or eight different directions.
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LAKE ERIE, ALLIANCE & SOUTHERN.
In the seventies narrow-gauge roads were still popular in some sections, and at one time it was proposed to divert the Con- notton Valley line this way it being then a narrow-gange. About this time a cor- poration called the Richmond & Island Creek Mineral Railroad, was formed with the idea of building a line down Island Creek to the river and thence to Steuben- ville, the idea being to ultimately connect with the Connotton Valley or a line com- ing sonthward from Alliance and stretch- ing north towards the lake. Benjamin Shelley and others, of Richmond were en- thusiastie promoters of this line, and the young men of that place were so interested that they worked on the roadbed in ex- change for stock in the proposed line. Grad- ing was pretty well completed to the river by 1880, when funds and enthusiasm gave out together, and work was abandoned. The Alliance road which became a standard gauge was extended north to Braceville in Trumbull County and south to Nebo, now Bergholz on Yellow Creek in Jefferson County, where it assisted in developing the coal fields in the northern end. Several years ngo it passed into the hands of the New York Central people, and has been ex- tended through Amsterdam and Piney Fork to Dillonvale on Short Creek, and has become quite an important coal road. There has been talk of it attempting to reach the river over the old O. & P. right of way, but nothing has been done in that direction. Among the active railroad work- ers in that section was L. W. Sutherland, and it was largely owing to his efforts that this road was huilt, There are but two townships in Jefferson County not now in- tersected by one or more railroads, Brush Creek and Salem, and they have them close to their borders.
ADVENT OF THE TROLLEY.
The first successful electric railroad in the United States was opened in Baltimore in 1886. The power was furnished through
a third rail laid in the centre of the road bed along the top of which ran the trolley. The motor was a cumbersome affair and was in a separate car from the passenger coach, which was run as a trailer. The line was a surburban one four or five miles long, and, on account of the dangerons third rail it was necessary to isolate the track from horses or pedestrians, making it impracticable for use on city streets. The line made good time, however, and its facility in climbing grades and general workableness indicated that it was soon to become a factor in both urban and inter- urban transportation. Electric lighting it- self was still in its infancy, although rap- idly coming into general use. That same Autinn an electric light company was formed in Steubenville by John G. Flood and others which paved the way for what was not only the pioneer electric line in this locality, but one of the first in the United States. In 1887, S. T. Dunham and others of New York, obtained a franchise for a street railway, extending from the Riverside blast furance in the north end of the city via Sixth, Franklin, Fifth, Ross, Fourth and Lincoln streets to Wilson's cor- ner, a distance of 2.4 miles. This line was built and opened in 1888. The rails were fat, and the cars were operated on what was known as the Sprague system, a new device which had just been tried in Rich- mond, Va. Abont this time a line was opened in Allegheny, Pa., on Federal street. extending out the Perrysville road. These four lines were then the only ones in the United States. Bonds to the amount of $50,000) were issued for the construction of the Steubenville road, and arrange- ments were made with the local company for supplying power. The road was oper- ated with fair snecess for about two years when financial difficulties began to loom up. Although it ran throngh a good resi- dential section of the city, yet the distances were not so great as to induce traffic. es- pecially as the people had not been edn- ented up to general use of street cars. There was then the other serious disnd-
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vantage that the road did not reach a sin- gle hotel, place of amusement, railroad station, park or public resort of any kind, it began nowhere and ended as it began. Then the equipment began to run down, and the track, which had been poorly laid be- gan to deteriorate. Litigation ensued and the road was sold under foreclosure for $8,000 to a local company which organized with the following board of directors: George W. MeCook, president; Thomas Johnson, secretary and treasurer; Robert Sherrard, Dr. William Stanton, Thomas Barclay. Messers. Sherrard and Stanton at their deaths were succeeded by D. J. Sin- clair and Hon. R. G. Richards. This cor- poration became practically a portion of the Steubenville Gas & Electric Company which had absorbed the other electric light company in 1889, and which continued to furnish power to the cars. John G. Flood was continned as superintendent of the street cur line which was entirely rebuilt with a modern substantial track, new smumer ears purchased and everything placed in first class condition. A plan devised by Mr. Flood allowing all pa- trons to make a round trip on payment of a single fare tended greatly to popularize the line and when it with the light plant was purchased by the Philadelphia parties in December, 1900, it was on a paying basis. The new company proceeded to make ex- tensive improvements, principally by the construction of an entire new line starting from the W. & L. F. Ry, track on Market street via Sixth street and Stanton bonle- vard to Alikanna, where a fine amusement park was established, thence to Toronto, nine miles above, and subsequently to Free- man's two miles farther. The capital in- vested in these improvements including the original purchase was $800,000. J. Charles Ross, of Philadelphia, was appointed gen- eral superintendent, and William MeD. Mil- ler, solicitor, Mr. Flood remaining in charge of the transportation department.
In the year 1901 an electric line was con- structed up Adams street by George A. Maxwell, George N. Henry and others from
Third to Sixth, thence to South, thence to Seventh, and around the brow of the Wells Hill to Pleasant Heights, a new addition to the city, and thence out Market street ex- tension to near the main entrance to Union cemetery, passing the Steubenville driving park en route. The line was operated at a loss for a couple of years when it was pur- chased by the other company, and has since been extended through La Belle View Ad- dition nearly to Franklin avenue, and is understood to be a paying branch and prof- itable feeder to the main line.
By this thue Steubenville had evidently become known as a desirable electric rail- way centre, for a new company appeared on the scene in 1906, headed by Van Horn Ely, a leading citizen of Buffalo, N. Y., who entered into successful negotiations for the Steubenville Traction & Light Company in- eluding the street and interurban car lines. After some delay in securing additional franchises from the city anthorities this company under the name of Steubenville & East Liverpool Railway & Light Com- pany entered upon an extensive series of improvements. First was the La Belle ex- tension referred to, and the Fourth street line from Wilson's corner to the city limits. But the most important was the northern extension to Wellsville and double track- ing the entire line to Beaver, Pa., where it connects with lines to Rochester, Pa., and elsewhere, and leaving ouly a small gap be- tween that point and Pittsburgh. At East Liverpool connection is made for Lisbon, Youngstown and other points, which opens up the entire electric system of the state. The character of the work done allows high speed on the interurban lines, rivaling that of the steam lines.
For financial and operating convenience this 50 mile route from Steubenville to Rochester is managed in three divisions. The division from Beaver to the state line (coincident with the easterly city limits of East Liverpool), was constructed by the Ohio River Passenger Railway Company, a Pennsylvania corporation, which has a traffic agreement with the Beaver Valley
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Traction Company under which its ears run through Beaver to a terminal at the Pennsylvania Railroad station in Roches- ter, Pa.
The section from the State line to the southerly city limits of Wellsville is now owned and operated by the East Liverpol Traction and Light Company. This com- pany is an Ohio corporation and has ae- quired the properties of some eleven origi- unl railway power, light and coal com- panies, thereby giving it the entire electric railway and lighting business in the cities of East Liverpool and Wellsville, O., nud Chester, W. Va., and vicinity.
The section from Wellsville to Toronto was built by the Steubenville and East Liv- erpool Railwny and Light Company as stated. The officers of the combined cor- porations are : president, Van Horn Ely ; secretary and treasurer, Edward MeDon- nell ; general manager, W. R. W. Griffin.
On the route from Beaver to Stenben- ville there are four power stations. three combined railway and lighting plants and one lighting station. All railway power is generated at 550-600-volt direct current. The power houses are located respectively at Steubenville, Wellsville and East Liver- pool.
The railway nuits at the East Liverpool station include one 500-kw direct con- nected unit and one 250-kw and one 200. kw belted units. The plant at Wellsville, in addition to the lighting units, contains two 200-kw direct connected generators for railway purposes. The Steubenville phut contains two 400-kw and one 300-kw direct connected railway units, and one 200 kw railway unit driven by vertical compound engines. In addition to these generating stations a 400 amp. storage battery is maintained at Stanton Park just outside the city limits of Steubenville, which is used as a floating battery on the line to take care of excessive peaks.
The East Liverpool Traction & Light Company owns a steel suspension bridge over the Ohio River npon which it operates a double track to Chester, W. Va., and Rock
Springs Park. The bridge with approaches is 1,710 feet long and has a center span of 705 fort. Besides this division has its own coal mines from which it takes out 60 to 100 tous a day. The tracks ure lid on white oak ties, 85-1b. rails of 60 feet lengths. and the roadbed ballasted with gravel and erushed stone, with grades and curves which will permit of schedule speeds ap- proximating 25 to 30 miles per hour. This Ims been well named the Ohio Valley scenic ronte for in places it runs for above the river bed affording views of surpassing beauty.
While this system was evolving from the originnl line of the Steubenville railway another scheme wns inaugurated, chiefly by Wheeling capitalists, with scarcely less im. portant results. On August 3, 1899, Steu- benville, Mingo & Ohio Valley Traction Company wns organized, the object being to afford another local line in the city, and extend it thence to Mingo, the thriving suburb on the south, with n village and park nt Altamont, the hill summit about half wny between. Several surveys had been made for a rond to Mingo, but it had been pronounced impracticable on account of the heavy grades. But the line was fin- ally built and opened for business on July 16, 1900. It started from the corner of Fourth and Ross streets, thence down Ross, Third. Wells and Lincoln streets, to Wil- son's Corner, where it began n system of hill climbing probably not paralleled by any similar road in the country nutil a summit of 455 feet above the city was reached, when it descended rapidly into Mingo. The grades were as high as seven to nine per cont. and the enrves were snake like in their sinnousity. As a scenic line there was noth- ing left to be desired. As the ears passed over the summit and around the ascending or descending curves a series of panoramic views was unfolded that rivaled the Cats- kills or the Alleghenies. A visitor to Sten- benville who failed to go over the scenic ronte to Mingo certainly missed the most artistie part of his visit. But unfortunately the bulk of the travel between Steubenville
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and Mingo was made up not of scenery lov- ers, but of people who simply wanted to "get there." To them the four miles de- tour through the hills, and the slow speed required by the heavy grades and curves were such a decided detriment (making a 35-minute run) that many took the steam cars, and it was evident that if a rival com- pany should succeed in building a road down the river front the Altamont line, as it was called, must go into bankruptcy. As it was, the line, in spite of good patronage, 650,000 passengers being carried during 1906, was operated at a loss on account of the heavy expense. On July 3, 1905, a new organization was formed under the name of Steubenville & Wheeling Traction Com- pany, which took over the property, fran- chise and obligations of the old company, and proceeded to build a new track down the river front, which was opened on Sat- urday December 22. It cost $210,000 or about $100,000 per mile, but is 1.8 miles shorter than the old route, the grades are easier, curves almost eliminated, and the highest elevation is but 120 feet above the city as against 485 on the old line. While owing to the careful management there were never any accidents due to the char- acter of the old road, yet the new one is regarded as being much safer, and the trip is made between the two points in a little less than half the time. The distance from the northern terminus in Steubenville to the southern one at Brilliant is 71% miles. After a gap of about seven miles there is a road through Warren Township from Rayland to Wheeling, which gap will no (loubt soon be closed, with branches up Short Creek and elsewhere in contempla- tion. The present officers of the company are J. J. Holloway, president ; W. A. Shirly, secretary and treasurer; G. O. Nagle, gen- eral manager; J. W. Marsh, super- intendent.
Up to this time all projects in relation to interurban traffic from Steubenville were confined to the Ohio side of the river, as that stream presented an obstacle too for- midable to be surmounted from an economic
point of view. But the city was growing, even building lots were becoming scarce and valuable, while manufacturing sites for the new enterprises now ready to lo- cate in this section were not available. At this juncture Dohrman J. Sinclair, who had interested a number of capitalists in the purchase of lands in Holliday's Cove and the Mahan properties opposite Mingo. formed two companies, the Steubenville Bridge Company, and the Tri-State Trac- tion Company, the former of which built the magnificent steel bridge which spans the river at Market street, Steubenville, which was opened to traffic on July 4, 1905. At the same time an electric line was built to the new town of Follanshee three miles down the river where had already been erected a large tin plant, and since then a glass factory and sheet metal concern. Ex- tending from the bridge, each direction north and south, was a fine boulevard cost- ing a hundred thousand dollars, practically on a level, and the lower section paved with fire brick. The Tri-State Traction Com- pany has extended its line to Wellsburg where connection is made with the Pan Handle electric road for lower points, and also with a new line up the beautiful Buf- falo Creek Valley to Bethany, W. Va., and which it is proposed extending to Pitts- burgh, Pa. The Tri-State Traction Com- pany's road is constructed of 75 lb. T. rails in 60 foot lengths, laid on oak ties, on a roadbed ballasted with gravel and erushed stone, with practically no curves and no heavy grades, permitting an average speed of thirty to thirty-five miles per hour. The ears are of the modern standard inter- urban type with steel under-frame and equipped with air-brake, electric heaters and driven by four motors of 60 h. p. each and finished in cherry ; in fact, the regular Pullman car.
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