History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 12

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

USA > Ohio > Columbiana County > History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 12

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It was two years later, in 1854, that the "river division" was completed south along the river from Wellsville to Steubenville and Bellaire. The Steubenville & Indiana Railroad Company, later to become the "Panhandle" route of the Pennsylvania, had been incor- porated in 1848, and the sale of its bonds nego- tiated in Europe largely through the instru- mentality of Col. George W. McCook, a former Columbiana County man, then living in Steu- benville. The first train on that road had run into Steubenville on October 8, 1853, and the construction of the "river division" a year later, gave Steubenville communication with Cleve- land by way of Wellsville.

The building of the link in the Cleveland & Pittsburg road between Wellsville and Ro- chester, Pennsylvania, was delayed several years. Early in 1851 the Ohio & Pennsylvania, the predecessor of the "Fort Wayne" route, had reached .Rochester from Pittsburg, but there were great difficulties in getting surveys through along the river from Wellsville to Rochester. The river had already encroached greatly on, the land originally laid out for the town of Liverpool, and at points it seemed im- possible to construct a road-bed between the towering cliffs on one side and the treacherous river on the other. But on September 16, 1856, the first through train ran between Wells- ville and Pittsburg, with an excursion party to

a Fremont barbecue in the latter city. There was no depot at East Liverpool, and Andrew Blythe, the company's agent in the town, sold tickets from the front doorstep of his house, on Broadway near the river. The new link had been built west from Rochester, and trains had been running between East Liverpool and Rochester previous to the date named. The yards and repair plant of the Cleveland & Pitts- burg were located at Wellsville largely through the influence of J. N. Mccullough and others of the Wellsville promoters. The first struc- ture of the repair plant was built in 1857, but it was 10 years later before the roundhouse and the larger shop buildings were removed from Wellsville to Cleveland. The opening of the "new shops" in 1867 was the occasion for a great celebration by the people of Wellsville, and a ball was held in the new roundhouse. Shortly after 1890 the office of the division superintendent was removed from Wellsville to Cleveland, and in 1905 the division officers were also taken to Cleveland.

When the route via Alliance and Salineville into Wellsville was decided on by the Cleve- land and Pittsburg directors in 1845-46, Zadok Street and Samuel Chessman, the Salem mem- bers of the board of directors, resigned their offices and immediately commenced to raise a voluntary subscription for the preliminary work on a road from Pittsburg via Rochester and New Brighton to Salem, Canton, Wooster and Mansfield, to intersect the Cleveland, Colum- bus & Cincinnati Railroad. The old Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad project was being re- vived by Pittsburg manufacturers, who had surveyed a route as far west as Rochester. The Ohioans raised a fund, and the Ohio Legisla- ture in 1847 revived the Ohio & Pennsylvania charter. Captain Whippo, of New Castle, the same year completed the preliminary survey from Rochester, where the line left the Ohio River, through New Brighton and Columbiana to Salem. Early in 1848 the company was or,- ganized. Gen. William Robinson, of Alle- gheny, who had been prominent in the East Liverpool-Ashtabula project, was chosen presi- dent; William Larimer, of Pittsburg, treas- urer; William Chessman, one of the assistant :-

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

treasurers for Ohio; J. J. Brooks, of Salem, who had been active in securing the charter from the Legislature, counsellor-at-law, and Zadok Street, of Salem, one of the directors. Two hundred and ninety-two persons in Columbiana and Mahoning counties subscribed to and paid for stock aggregating $90,000. Pittsburg manufacturers were the heaviest contributors. The first train was run into Rochester from Pittsburg in May, 1851. The division from Pittsburg to Enon, Pennsylvania, was com- pleted November 24, 1851. At that time the eastern terminus was in Allegheny City, and freight was hauled across the Allegheny River to Pittsburg.

In the fall and winter of 1847-48, a pas- senger car was run in connection with the con- struction train between Salem and Alliance, and on November 27, 1851, the road was form- ally opened for traffic from Alliance to Salem, a distance of 13 miles. In the January follow- ing the construction force working east from Alliance and the force working west from Pittsburg met at Columbiana, the first passen- ger train between Columbiana and Pittsburg running on January 3, 1852. Before the close of the month, regular trains were running from Pittsburg to Alliance, where they connected with the Cleveland & Pittsburg trains, already operating from Alliance into Cleveland. In September, 1852, the Ohio State Fair was held in Cleveland, and special arrangements were made by the railroads by which the people of Salem could go to Cleveland, attend the fair and return the same day, which was considered a wonderful feat. The Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad rapidly pushed the new road west- ward from Alliance to Crestline, and in a few years consolidated with the Ohio & Indiana, which had built from Crestline to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here the Fort Wayne & Chicago, ex- tending into Chicago, was added, the three roads consolidating as the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago. The first move toward the building of the great Fort Wayne system was thus made by the people of Columbiana Coun- ty. . The Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad was in operation before the Ohio &

Pennsylvania was extended to Crestline, and hence travelers to Cincinnati from Salem and points nearby reached Cincinnati by rail via Cleveland.

It is interesting to note that nearly all the railroad enterprises of the '30's and early '40's were suggested by the idea of connecting with. some of the canals then projected or building. The original Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, the forerunner of the Fort Wayne system, was chartered in 1832 to build from Pittsburg to Massillon, connecting there with the Ohio and Beaver Canal. The Yellow Creek, Carrollton & Zoar, projected in 1834, in which Wellsville people were interested, was to be a short cut to the canal at Zoar. The idea of intersecting the canal with railroad lines at desirable points was thought at that time to be the solution of the transportation problem.

Through all the earlier period of railroad agitation one objection that was raised to the new railroads by many of the people was that the new mode of rapid transit would be at- tended by increased danger to life and limb. It is a matter of history, however, that for al- most or quite 30 years after the opening of the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad, which has always had more miles of track in the county than any other road, there was not a single death by accident among the passengers on any of its trains. The company's business was al- ways managed with the strictest care, only men known for their sobriety and conscientious- ness being employed in its departments. Dur- ing the administration of Superintendent John Thomas, which extended over a good portion of the time referred to, no Sunday passenger trains were run regularly. Occasional Sunday excursions were run during the latter '80's and the early '90's, but the first regular Sunday train was not put on until 1899. At that time. when those in favor of Sunday observance were making their fight against the Sunday train. the fact of the absence of Sunday trains in pre- vious years was referred to as a reason for this remarkable immunity from fatalities, es- pecially in the early years of the history of the road.

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

LISBON'S FIRST RAILROAD.

Immediately after the Civil war, the agita- tion for a road to tap the rich mineral section in the interior of the county resulted in the building of the Niles & New Lisbon, which was opened to the county seat in 1866. It was first leased to the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, and was then reorganized as the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio, and as such was leased to the Erie and became a part of the Erie system. In 1886-87 a second road tapped the county seat, running from New Galilee, Pennsylvania, a point on the Fort Wayne road. It was originally projected by New York cap- italists as the New York, Pittsburg & Chicago, the project being for a line from the Eastern States west to Marion, Ohio, to connect with the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad at that point. The surveys were extended on west of New Lisbon, and the first train from New Galilee ran into New Lisbon June 1, 1887. The line was never built further, however, but, under the name of the Pittsburg, Marion & Chicago, it did much during the latter part of the century to develop the coal lands in the interior of the county and to foster the industries at New Lisbon. It was reorganized in 1896 under the name of the Pittsburg, Lisbon & Western, and shortly after passed under the control of the Wabash system. The general headquarters of the road have always been at New Lisbon. In 1905 the general officers were: President, Hon. N. B. Billingsley ; secretary, J. W. Clark; treasurer, J. G. Stidger.

The Salem Railroad, a coal road about seven miles long, connecting Salem with the Erie system at Washingtonville, was completed and opened in September, 1892. The city of Salem obtained permission by special act of the Legislature to build the line, and bonded itself for $125,000 for the purpose. A few years later, however, when the city attempted to tax the Pennsylvania Railroad to pay its bonded debt, the Pennsylvania carried the case into court on the plea that the city had no right to build the road. The special act under which the venture was put through was declared un- constitutional, and the road went into the hands

of a receiver, the bondholders finally buying it in for the face value of the bonds, $125,000. In November, 1902, the road was finally taken over, by the Pittsburg, Lisbon & Western, and thus became a part of the Wabash system.

In 1903 the Youngstown & Southern Rail- road surveyed a line from Youngstown via Columbiana to Lisbon and East Liverpool. In the latter part of 1904 the road was opened from Youngstown to 'Columbiana, and trains started with steam as the motive power, though electricity was promised at a later date. Con- struction work on the line between Columbiana and Lisbon continued during 1905, and a branch line to Salem was promised.

The railroads operating in Columbiana County in 1904, with their mileage and valua- tion as reported to the Secretary of State, were : Cleveland & Pittsburg (double track), 85 miles, $1,507,637; Cleveland & Mahoning Valley (Niles & New Lisbon), 21 miles, $153,225; Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago (double track), 59 miles, $1,188,026; Pittsburg, Lisbon & Western (including Salem Railroad), 35 miles, $68,850.

A narrow-gauge railway, to be known as the Ohio & Toledo, was projected about 1872, to extend from Leetonia, via Hanoverton and Bolivar to Toledo. The road was incorporated and grading was begun, but the leading spirits failed after some thousand dollars' worth of work had been done in the vicinity of Leetonia and Hanoverton.

As early as 1878, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had a survey run along the old route of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, entering the county near Kensington on the west and fol- lowing the canal route to a point near Smith's Ferry, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio River, just east of the East Liverpool city limits; and the same route was used for nearly every railway survey made through the center of the county during the following quarter of a century. About 1894 a company of Canton and East Liverpool men former the Canton, East Liver- pool & Southern Railroad Company, and ran several surveys through the center of the coun- ty with East Liverpool as the southern ter- minus, all following the old canal route to a

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

point near Lisbon and then branching south. These surveys also became the basis for exten- sive negotiations for the Wabash system in 1899 and 1900 and again for the Baltimore & Ohio about the same time. Grading was be- gun for the Baltimore & Ohio ronte at Smith's Ferry in 1900, but the absorption of the Balti- more & Ohio system by the Pennsylvania at that time stopped the work. In the later 'go's, however, the Canton-East Liverpool project- ors purchased outright almost all of the right of way for the route, which they have held ever since.

The old route of the Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool road, on which actual grading was done in 1836, was also utilized for many surveys in later years-one of them as early as 1886, when a company, headed by Dr. George P. Ikirt, of East Liverpool, projected a route along the line of the old survey through "Cali- fornia Hollow," then north to Cannon's Mill. and thence through West Point into New Lis- bon. The road was incorporated as the New Lisbon, East Liverpool & Southern, and was revived spasmodically during the next 10 years. Other projected roads between East Liverpool and Lisbon, all aiming to open up the rich coal fields around West Point and throughout Mad- ison township, followed the lines of this survey during the '90's, but none of them got beyond the paper stage.

THE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE.

The telegraph reached west to Steubenville in 1857, only three years after Morse had built his experimental Baltimore-Washington line. Two years later it had reached Wellsville and East Liverpool from Pittsburg, following the railroad about the same time in the northern part of the county. It, with the telephone 25 years later, assisted in the revolution in business methods which had followed the railroad con- struction, by making communication for long distances easy.

The establishment of the "Plaything of the Philadelphia Centennial"-the telephone-as a business auxiliary in Columbiana County by the opening of the first Bell telephone exchange

in East Liverpool, in 188t. had in n a pleas- ing incident -- for through it East Liverpo! gave to the telephone world the first "hello- girl." The first lady operator of a telephone exchange operated the switchboard of the East Liverpool exchange, and her presence there was at first accepted with poor grace by the tele- phone magnates of that day.

Early in 1881 James 11. Goodwin. president of the Goodwin Pottery Company, went to the officials of the Central District & Printing Tele- graph Company at Pittsburg, and urged the e- tablishment of a telephone exchange at East Liverpool. He was asked to get 20 subscrib- ers, and had difficulty in securing that number of business men in the town who were willing to pay $48 a year-the rate in that day-for a telephone. He finally secured his list, and W. D. Painter, at that time general superintendent. began the installation of the exchange, in the old First National Bank Building, at the foot of Broadway. The company. out of compliment to Mr. Goodwin, informed him that he might name the "central" operator. He named Miss Ursilla Kinsey (later Mrs. John Wick, of Kittanning, Pennsylvania).

The company would not consider a girl for the position, Mr. Painter replied. They had always employed boys; girls could not do the work. Mr. Goodwin insisted that a young woman was as capable as a boy. Mr. Painter agreed to lay the case before the general offices at Pittsburg; and a week later they gave their reply. If Mr. Goodwin cared to learn to op- erate the board himself and then teach a young lady, he might do so. The company was con- vinced, however, that the experiment would not be a success ; and it declined to take the re- sponsibility.

Mr. Goodwin, on his mettle. agreed to the terms. He mastered the details of the switchboard, and taught his young protege. Within a year, the company was teaching young women to become operators; in two years' time, throughout the country, the boys at the central exchanges had disappeared : the "hello-girl" had won.

Within eighteen months the telephone had invaded Wellsville, the first instrument being

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

in the W. DeWees Wood Company's mill- later the American Sheet Steel Company's plant-east of the town. By 1883 an ex- change had been installed in Wellsville, and two telephones had been placed in New Lis- bon, one in the Court House and the other in the drug store office of Dr. T. B. Marquis, who afterward secured the list of subscribers for the first exchange in the town. Salem opened its exchange July 1, 1884; Lisbon, June 1, 1890; Leetonia, February 1, 1890; Columbiana, July 1, 1896, and East Palestine, November 1, 1896-though all these towns had had telephone connections by 1887 or 1888.

In 1884 a rival to the Bell telephone ap- peared in East Liverpool and Wellsville-the Buckeye Clay Telephone Company, organized by three Wellsville men-Hon. P. M. Smith, I. B. Clark and William Wooster. The ex- change in East Liverpool was installed in the Stone residence, on Washington street, on the site later, occupied by the First National Bank. That office also had a young lady operator- Miss Jessie Stone (later Mrs. Willard Morris, of East Liverpool). Exchanges were estab- lished at Wellsville and New Lisbon and the company ran something more than a year, but the system was not a success. In that year the telephone was still a novelty, and when, in 1885. the Evening Reviewe of East Liverpool, the pioneer daily in the county, which had been established the year before by William B. Mc- Cord. received its report of the Van Fossan murder trial daily from the Court House at New Lisbon, 18 miles away by telephone, the performance was considered a decided stroke of newspaper enterprise. Twelve years later, in 1897 the East Liverpool Daily Crisis, pub- lished by James C. Deidrick, received the first regular daily telegraphic news service in the county.

The long-distance telephone system was first put in operation between New York and Chicago by the Bell system in 1892, and East Liverpool was first in communication with those two cities in 1894. A public reception was held by the telephone company. and the people of the little city attended in large numbers, and

heard an orchestra play in the New York end of the line. After that period, the business in- creased with great strides. In the absence of the Postal Telegraph or other competition with the Western Union, the Daily Crisis company put in a long distance line to Cleveland in 1898, and received a daily news report from that city by long-distance telephone.

In 1898-99, under the auspices of the Ever- ett-Moore syndicate of Cleveland and in con- nection with the United States Telephone Com- pany of that city, the Columbiana County Tele- phone Company was organized in competition with the Bell, with Solon C. Thayer, of Salem, as president. The service was installed in Sa- lem in February, 1900, and in East Liverpool and Wellsville in July, of the same year. The service was rapidly extended throughout the county.

In 1905 Columbiana county had approxi- mately 5,000 telephone instruments in use, and every township was reached by the lines, with pay stations every few miles and many private. instruments in farm houses. Of the total, the. Bell company claimed 2,540, of which 1, 155 were in East Liverpool. The Columbiana, or Independent, had a total county list of sub- scribers of 2,598, of which 800 were in East: Liverpool. In June, 1905, the Bell company removed into its own building, on Market street, East Liverpool.

CLOSE OF THE CENTURY-THE TROLLEY.

So, within the half-century from 1850 to. 1900, the people of the county saw the develop- ment of the steam railroad, and electricity with all its varied uses-the telegraph, the telephone, the incandescent and other forms of lighting, and finally, the trolley. The "tallow dip" of our grandfathers had first given place to the. ordinary molded tallow candle; then the sperm candle came into use to those who could afford that luxury of its day; carbon oil, manufac- tured gas, natural gas had followed in turn and at last the brilliant electric light. It was a far cry from the early means of transportation. the ox-team, the saddle horse and the rumbling stage-coach to the railroad of 1850; but the

CERAMIC THEATER, EAST LIVERPOOL

IKIRT BLOCK, EAST LIVERPOOL (Before the "Diamond" fire of 1905- Rebuilt on same plan)

ST. PAUL'S PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, SALEM

OLD COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LISBON

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

leap was scarce greater than the change in ur- ban and interurban communication wrought by the telephone, the trolley and the automobile of 1900.

The pioneer electric street railway in the county was built in Salem. The first rails were laid on Depot and Main streets and Garfield avenue in 1890, and the cars were started in May of that year. The new line, 2 8-10 miles in length, was operated by the Salem Electric Railway Company, local capital having built the road. Milton Davis was president and treasurer of the road in 1905, and D. L. Davis, secretary.

The first inter-urban line in the county was built during the spring and summer of 1891, connecting the East End of East Liverpool with the West End, Wellsville, and was put in operation in December, 1891. The projectors were Albert L. Johnson, of Cleveland (brother of Tom L. Johnson, for years mayor of that city and prominent in the Democratic party of the State and the nation) ; Sidney H. Short, a wealthy inventor of Cleveland, and C. E. Grover, of the same city, a large ship- owner on the Great Lakes. The line, running over the treacherous clay hills between East Liver- pool and Wellsville, was considered the most daring piece of trolley engineering to be seen in Ohio in that day. It was originally seven miles in length and the total cost, including rights of way, was given at $200,000. In 1900-03 the road was extended two miles east of East Liverpool, to the Pennsylvania State line, and two branch extensions built, via East and West Market streets, to the northern limits of the city. A single fare of 5 cents was charged from the start, and for the branch lines a system of transfers without extra fare was adopted. Following the erection of the East Liverpool-Chester bridge across the Ohio River in 1897, the Chester & East Liverpool Street Railway Company, promoted by Charles A. Smith, built a line into Chester, the traffic for which was greatly stimulated by the Rock Springs pleasure resort, on the West Virginia side of the river.

The year 1905 saw the second Ohio River bridge opened at East Liverpool, connecting

it with Newall, with a trolley road to the new suburb from the lower end of the city. East Liverpool was therefore, in. 1905, the center for for three trolley systems, with a total of over 20 miles of track, representing, with the two bridges, an investment of nearly $1,500,000.

In 1901 the great network of trolley roads branching out from Cleveland began building from Akron south to Canton, and by the close of 1903 Cleveland was connected with Akron, Massillon, Canton and Alliance. In 1904 the Stark Electric Railway, extending east from Canton through Alliance, reached Salem, the cars operating first during the summer of that year. An auxiliary company, the Salem & Eastern Railway, was at once organized, and during 1905 plans were proposed for the ex- tension of the system to other towns and vil- lages in the northern part of the county, to connect eventually with the Beaver Valley Electric system.

This inter-urban trolley system into the Western Reserve had its discouragements, how- ever, just as had the steam roads of 50 years before. As early as 1892 the Salem & Canton Electric Railroad Company was incorporated, backed by Cleveland men, Joseph A. Linville of that city being president of the company. The survey made at that time was later adopted by the Everett-Moore syndicate, of Cleveland, which pushed trolley projects in all directions from Cleveland until the spectacular crash of all its companies, in 1902, which came near carrying down with them many of the banks and solid men of Cleveland and the interior of the State.

TWENTIETH CENTURY MAIL SERVICE.

With the constant increase in postal busi- ness, the letter carriers made their appearance in the principal cities of the county. Salem was the first to secure free delivery, in 1888; East Liverpool followed in 1890, while the service started in Wellsville in May, 1905. Meantime, the rural free delivery system, es- tablished by the government in 1897 and first introduced in Western Penn- sylvania, was put into effect in the rural

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

townships of Columbiana County in the first year of the new century, and brought more general advantage and substantial bene- fit to the "back townships" than perhaps any other public utility. The rural delivery system was not at first and possibly never will be self- sustaining in this country. But it brought the rural sections to the very door of the towns and cities daily. It gave the people living in the country the advantage of daily mails, the daily newspaper and the facilities of practically a daily express service. It brought the city peo- ple and the country folk into more direct sym- pathy ; and it engendered in both a community of interest such as never previously existed. It was the twin measure with the telephone- which was also making its way into the sub- urban and rural sections-which systems in 10 years had done more for the comfort and convenience of those who had hitherto been de- prived of many of the urban advantages and benefits, than had been brought to them in a century before. These advantages-the rural free delivery and the telephone made very many people more contended with their lot in life. The man behind the plow, and the woman with her milking pail and farm housework, found more to interest them in their every-day life than formerly. Their world-though never confined within, and in the shadow of brick walls-was found to be yet broader than it had previously been. Life was more worth the liv- ing than when they had been compelled to de- pend upon the weekly newspaper, and the semi- weekly or tri-weekly mail to bring intelligence from beyond the boundaries of their quarter- section.

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History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 12

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912