History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 53

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams
Number of Pages: 590

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 53

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THE MARIETTA AND CINCINNATI.

The original company was chartered as the Belpre & Cincinnati railroad company; March 8, 1845. In 1851, by the consolidation of the Belpre & Cincinnati and the Franklin & Ohio River railroad companies, its title was changed to the present one, and by the same act the company was authorized to build a railroad from a point on the Ohio river opposite Parkersburgh, Virginia, or from Harmar, opposite Marietta, to the city of Cincin- nati. The main line was finished to the Little Miami at Loveland, April 20, 1857. A reorganization occurred August 15, 1860, through bankruptcy. Soon after this

the Union railroad was purchased, extending nine miles, from Scott's Landing to Belpre; also the Hillsborough & Cincinnati railroad. The latter extended from Hills- borough to Loveland, sixteen miles of which, from Love- land to Blanchester, constituted a part of the main line, and the remaining twenty-one miles are now known as the Hillsborough branch. January 26, 1864, the reor- ganized company purchased that part of the Scioto & Hocking Valley railroad extending from Portsmouth to the present track of the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley railroad in Perry county, a distance of over ninety miles, but having only fifty-six miles of road in operation.

The extension from Loveland to the Cincinnati, Ham- ilton & Dayton railroad was completed February 17, 1866. The Cincinnati & Baltimore railroad, reaching from Cincinnati to Cincinnati and Baltimore Junction, continues the line five and eight-tenths miles into Cincin- nati, and was opened June 1, 1872, to furnish the Mari- etta & Cincinnati a track into the city under its own con- trol as a leased line. The Baltimore Short Line railway, thirty and three-tenths miles, was opened November 15, 1874, and is leased by this company. The total length of lines now in use by the Marietta & Cincinnati is three hundred and twelve miles. Its own road is one hundred and nineteen and one-tenth miles long.

CLEVELAND, COLUMBUS, CINCINNATI AND INDIANAPOLIS- ("BEE LINE.")

This railway was chartered March 12, 1845, and the entire road of the original line, one hundred and thirty- eight miles, was completed February 22, 1851. In 1861 the company purchased that portion of the Springfield, Mount Vernon & Pittsburgh railway which lies between Delaware and Springfield. The Cincinnati and Spring- field company was organized September 9, 1870, and its road opened July 1, 1872. It was built as an exten- sion into Cincinnati of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- nati, & Indianopolis railroad, and was leased in perpetu- ity to that company on completion, the lessor operat- ing the road, and paying any balance over operating ex- penses, after interest on bonds is paid, to the lessees. At the end of the year 1879 the total length of its lines was four hundred and seventy-one and sixty-five hundreths miles ; it owns three hundred and ninety-one and two- tenths miles. This route is popularly known as the "Bee Line," and the Cincinnati and Springfield end of it as the "Dayton Short Line."

THE CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, ST. LOUIS, AND CHICAGO.

This road extends from Cincinnati to the Indiana State line, a distance of twenty and one-half miles. Here con- nection is made with the original line of the Cincinnati and St. Louis railroad company. This company was in- corporated April 18, 1861. The Harrison branch, extend- ing from a point in Whitewater township known as the Val- ley junction, to a point on the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana, in Harrison village, a distance of six and two-thirds miles, all within Hamilton county, was constructed under the general law of May 1, 1852, and amendments. On the first of May, 1866, the road of this company, including the Harrison branch, was leased

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

in perpetuity to the Indianapolis and Cincinnati (later calledt he Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette) rail- road company. This company is also joint owner with the Little Miami company, of the Cincinnati Connection railway, a short line in the city, connecting tracks and depots of the two roads, each partner guaranteeing one- half of the bonds used in its construction. The Indian- apolis, Cincinnati, and Lafayette railroad property was sold to a committee of first-lien bondholders February 2, 1880, and a new organization formed March 6th follow- ing, under the name of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Chicago railroad company, to whom the road was formally transferred. It is since known in railroad circles as "the Big Four."

THE CINCINNATI EASTERN.

This is a narrow-guage line, running from Little Miami Junction, a mile northwest of Newtown, Anderson town- ship, to Winchester, a distance of fifty-three and twenty- five hundreths miles. A branch of five miles reaches be- tween Richmond Junction and Tobasco, making a total of fifty-eight and one-fourth miles belonging to the road. The company was organized January 11, 1876, and the road opened to the present terminus in 1877. It is also proposed to build an extension to Portsmouth, completing a line of one hundred and eighty miles. At the west- ern end the tracks extend across the Little Miami rail- road and the south part of Columbia township, north of and near the city ; but it has not yet been able to enter the city on its own rails, and this part of the line is conse- quently disused.

THE CINCINNATI AND PORTSMOUTH.

This railway, also narrow-guage, at this writing (De- cember, 1880) is laid between Columbia, where it joins the Little Miami road, and Amelia, in Clermont coun- ty, a distance of twenty and four-tenths miles. It is gra- ded and tied to Hammersville, sixteen miles further. The company was organized January 15, 1873, and the first division of the line was opened October 15, 1877.

THE CINCINNATI AND FAYETTEVILLE.

Another narrow-guage road, to extend one hundred and fifty miles, from Cincinnati to Nelson. The com- pany was organized in 1878. About twenty miles of the road bed have been graded for some time, and a con- tract was let in October, 1880, which requires its com- pletion by August 1, 1881. It is at present to connect with the Cincinnati & Eastern at South Milford.

THE MIAMI VALLEY.

Still another narrow-guage, incorporated November 9, 1874, and begun in 1876, to run, by way of Mason and Lebanon to Waynesville, forty-one miles, there meet- ing a narrow-guage road thence to Jeffersonville, on a coal road building eastwardly from Dayton. Its progress was stopped by litigation with owners of city property along its route up Deer creek, when it was graded from Norwood to Waynesville, but it is now in the hands of a new company called the Cincinnati Northern, of which General John M. Corse, the hero of Altoona, is president, and which is pushing the enterprise with great activity.

THE COLLEGE HILL.

The line of this narrow-guage reaches from Cincinnati, at Cumminsville, near Spring Grove cemetery, to Mount Pleasant, a distance of a little beyond six and one-half miles, and entirely within the county. The company was organized in 1875, and the road opened to College Hill in May, 1876, and to its present terminus in 1877.

THE CINCINNATI AND WESTWOOD.

Another little narrow-guage road, built to accommo- date the suburban residents, from its junction with the Cincinnati, Hamilton, & Dayton railroad at Ernst Sta tion, near Spring Garden in the city, to Robb's or West- wood, about five miles. It was opened for business in March, 1876.

THE RAILWAY TUNNEL.

February 6, 1847, an act passed the general assembly for the incorporation of the Dayton, Lebanon, & Deer- field railroad company, which was to construct a railway between these points, intersecting the Little Miami rail- road at or near the last-named place, and so giving Day- ton another route to Cincinnati. One year thereafter the scheme had changed form, from either necessity or choice, and an amendatory act accordingly changed the name of the corporation to the Dayton, Springborough, Lebanon, & Cincinnati railroad company, at the same time granting it powers to construct a railroad from Dayton to Cincinnati-no part of which, however, was to be built in the valley of the Little Miami below Gainesbor- ough, Warren county. Still another act, a year after that, changed the name to the Dayton & Cincinnati railroad company, and gave it power to consolidate its interests with and take the name of any other railway company.

The first report of the president and directors of this company appeared in 1852. They had selected the terminal points in the two cities named, and directed their engineer, Mr. Erasmus Gest, to survey, as nearly as possible, a practicable air-line route between them. This necessarily involved the construction of a tunnel through the ridge dividing the basin of Cincinnati from the broad valley at the northward. Mr. Gest in due time reported a line starting from the designated terminus in Cincinnati at the intersection of Pendleton street and the Lebanon turnpike, along the west side of that road for half a mile, crossing it by a bridge, and Deer creek, a little beyond, by a culvert, three-quarters of a mile further crossing the Walnut Hills turnpike, just be- low the former residence of Prestly Kemper, where it would enter the hill, pass it by a tunnel, and thence pro- ceed near Bloody and Ross runs and the Lebanon turn- pike to Reading and Sharonville, and so on to Dayton, which it would reach in fifty-two and one-half miles from Cincinnati, against the sixty and three-tenths covered already by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton rail- road. It was, in fact, the inception of the present "Day- ton Short Line." Mr. Gest's first report names a tunnel through the Walnut hills of fifty-five hundred feet in length, on a rising grade of thirty-nine and six-tenths feet per mile. The route and measurements were after- wards modified, in consequence of a change in the Cin-

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OIHO.

cinnati terminal point to Broadway, between Court and Hunt streets, which involved the establishment of the tunnel upon a level thirty-five feet lower than the original survey contemplated. By the new route it was to enter the hill on the east line of the Walnut Hills turnpike, near the former residence of Herman Witte, and rise to the surface on the lands of S. Beresford, in a branch of Ross' run, northwest of Lane seminary; and thus the work was finally prosecuted for a tunnel of ten thousand and eleven feet, or nearly two miles. The "tunnel proper," however, was to bé but seven thousand nine hundred and three feet long. It was to be for a double track, arched with brick, resting upon stone side-walls, with allowance for arching with stone the approaches for an aggregate distance of two thousand two hundred feet, in addition to that of the tunnel proper. The width of the tunnel, inside of the arch, was to be nearly twenty-six feet, and the height in crown twenty feet. The width would allow double tracks, if necessary, of both the "Ohio" and "Indiana," or the broad and standard guages, as now designated, by laying four lines of rails on each set of ties.

The work of excavating the tunnel was reported as comparatively easy, the indurated blue marl and lime- stone composing the hill being easily drilled and blasted, and making a roof impervious to water and so firm that excavation might proceed a considerable time and dis- tance ahead of the arching, as was afterwards done. The original estimate of cost was eight thousand seven hun- dred dollars for right of way, including approaches and ground at the shafts, and four hundred and twelve thou- sand one hundred and seventy-eight dollars for the con- struction of the tunnel. This, added to the remaining cost of the road, about two million dollars in all, was a formidable sum in those days; but means were secured, at first almost wholly by subscription, to make a hopeful beginning of the work. A contract for building the entire line, including the tunnel, was let to Messrs. Ferrel & Dunham, December 10, 1852, and six days thereafter the work was begun. The next year they abandoned their contract for the work north of the tunnel, which was re-let to Mr. Daniel Beckel. By the first of March, 1854, two thousand eight hundred lineal feet of the tun- nel and approaches had been excavated, and seven hun- dred and fifty feet entirely completed, with arches and side-walls. About two-sevenths of the work had been done. Eight points were made for operating-one at each end, and one each way at each of three shafts sunk from the surface of the hill. The work was thus in shape to be prosecuted very rapidly, had the means been forthcoming. It had been begun on shaft No. 2 De- cember 16, 1852; on shaft No. I and the north approach four days afterwards; on shaft No. 3 February 15, 1853; and on the south approach April 10th, of the same year. Little difficulty was experienced from the influx of water, and none from noxious vapors. There was, however, about the usual percentage of casualties in such works, from blasting and other causes, by which several persons lost their lives.

By March 1, 1855, the tunnel for three thousand three

hundred and thirty-six feet, or one-third its length, had been completed, except the arching for one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two feet and the walling for five hundred and seventy-seven feet. The rest of the tunnel had been drifted or perforated for one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight lineal feet. The work had been, however, light for this year on the tunnel, and very little had been done on other parts of the line- nothing between the tunnel and the Cincinnati terminus. It had finally to be abandoned, for lack of means, after four hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars had been expended upon it; and the "Short Line" eventually found its way out of the city, to its route north of the dividing ridge, by the valley of Mill creek, thus losing some of the most important advantages which the tunnel would have secured for it.

The "Dayton & Cincinnati Short Line," legally so des- ignated, was the reorganized old Dayton, Lebanon & Deerfield company. The change was made in 1871. The former was itself subsequently reorganized, January 21, 1872, as the Cincinnati Railway Tunnel company, to complete the old tunnel and run a road through it from the city north to Sharon, in Sycamore township, twelve and a half miles, where it will connect with the Cincin- nati & Springfield, otherwise the "Dayton Short Line," or the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis. It has done nothing to speak of, however. In that year there was a decided revival of interest in the project, and it was then understood to be in the hands of pro- jectors able and determined to prosecute it successfully. Said Mayor Davis, in his annual message, summarizing the transactions and plans of the year :

It is the purpose of the present managers of this scheme to make a new railroad entrance into this city that shall be controlled for the bene- fit of all railroad companies who may seek it, upon such fair and equitable principles as shall benefit all and give the control to none, and at the same time to afford the most favorable means for quick and cheap transit from our overcrowded city to that beautiful section of country that lies back of Walnut Hills.

At that time it was included in the plans of construc- tion of the Kentucky & Great Eastern railway company, to run from Newport along the Ohio to Catlettsburgh, so that its line should cross from Newport to Cincinnati by the railroad bridge then just completed, and go out of the city, to intersect the routes leading north, northeast, and northwest, by a track through the Walnut Hills tun- nel. Some work was accordingly done upon the bore in 1873-'4, but it had presently to be again abandoned, and the scheme has since been held in quiet abeyance. That it will one day be pushed to completion, to the great ad- vantage of the railways that may use it, is among the reasonable certainties of the future.

A CONNECTION RAILROAD.

In 1875-'6 a short line of road was built along Eggles- ton avenue to connect the railways entering the city with the canal, elevator manufactories, and other places of business in the eastern part of the city, thus effecting a great reduction in the cost of terminal charges, as from drayage. A great railroad warehouse was also put up, from which regular warehouse receipts were issued.

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

THE UNITED RAILROADS STOCK-YARD

company was incorporated in 1871, with a capital of half a million. Its yards are in the valley of Mill creek, in the Twenty-fifth ward, and are considered among the finest in the world, costing about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and affording accommodations at one time for twenty-five thousand hogs, ten thousand sheep, and five thousand cattle. The receipts per year average about one million hogs, three hundred thousand sheep, one hundred and sixty thousand cattle, and ten thousand calves. Almost all the railroads entering the city have connections with the yards. Many of the great pork- packing houses are erected near.

THE KENTUCKY ROADS.

Besides the railways which actually traverse Hamil- ton county, there are others upon the soil of Kentucky, but entering Cincinnati, or ending at Covington and New- port, which may properly be considered as belonging to the Cincinnati system. It is the existence of this city which determined their building in this direction ; it was the wealth and enterprise of the city, mainly, which built them ; and by Cincinnati they are chiefly maintained. Foremost in interest among these is that which, by the public subsidies voted it and the personal supervision given it, by the long agitation in behalf of its construc- tion and the great local rejoicing at its completion, as well as the immeasurable benefits to be derived from its operation, is undoubtedly

THE CINCINNATI SOUTHERN.

The conception of this road, although the road itself is a realization of very recent years, is almost half a cen- tury old-nearly as old, indeed, as the steam railway in any country. The idea of some such connection with the South Atlantic had often occurred to the minds of foresighted citizens of Cincinnati; but it is not known to have been publicly presented until the summer of 1835, when it was broached by the well-known Dr. Daniel Drake, to a meeting of business men held at the Com- mercial Exchange, on Front street, to promote simply the construction of a railway from Cincinnati to Paris, Kentucky. He moved at that meeting the appointment of a committee of three, to inquire into the practicabil- ity and advantages of a railroad connecting the city with the seaboard at some point in South Carolina. (The project of a Cincinnati & Charleston railroad is pre- sented with much force and enthusiasm in Mr. Cist's de- cennial volume on Cincinnati in 1841). The resolution was carried, and Dr. Drake, Thomas W. Bakewell and John S. Williams were nominated as the committee. They gathered material and digested it at leisure, and submitted an able report to another meeting, held in the city on the fifteenth of August, of the same year. It was supported in speeches by Mr. Williams and Mr. E. D .. Mansfield. A standing committee of inquiry and correspondence was now appointed, consisting of General William H. Harrison, Dr. Drake, Mr. Mansfield and Judge James Hall, of Cincinnati; General James Taylor, of Newport; Dr. John W. King, of Covington; and George A. Dunn, of Lawrenceburgh. Mr. Mansfield was

made secretary of the committee. He prepared a pam- phlet, entitled "Railroad from the banks of the Ohio to the tidewaters of the Carolinas and Georgia," accom- panying it with a suitable map. An extensive corres- pondence was undertaken, information was widely spread, and the project was greatly prompted by the intelligent action of the committee. In August, 1836, Mr. Mans- field (to whose Personal Memories we are indebted for nearly all the material of this paragraph, published an article in the Western Monthly Magazine, a Cincinnati publication, advocating a railway from Cincinnati to Knoxville, Tennessee, and thence through East Ten- nessee and Alabama to Mobile. Meetings to similar intent were held about the same time in Cincinnati and in Paris, Kentucky; and on the fourth of that month a great "Southwestern Convention" was held at Knoxville. It was attended by delegates from nine States-Ohio, Indi- ana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama-among whom Messrs. Mansfield and Drake, Governor Vance, Alexander Mc- Grew, and Crafts J. Wright represented Ohio; and General Taylor, M. M. Benton and J. G. Arnold were present from Newport and Covington. Much contro- versy occurred at this meeting as to the proper termini in Ohio and the south- which was happily settled long after, as all the world knows, by Cincinnati herself at the north, and in the other direction by the convergence of lines upon Chattanooga-which was scarcely thought of in the earlier day, being then merely " Ross's Landing of the Cherokees," so called from its neighborhood to the headquarters of the Cherokee chief, John Ross, in a village still called Rossville, which acquired peculiar renown in connection with the ill-starred battle of Chick- amanga. Mr. Mansfield wrote an elaborate report of the Knoxville meeting for the next number of the Western Monthly; and there the project rested, substantially, for many years.

The present road was built solely by the city of Cin- cinnati, in charge of a board of trustees, created under an act of the legislature May 19, 1869. By successive acts the city was authorized to issue its bonds to the total amount of eighteen million dollars, of which the whole amount has actually been voted, and esti- mates for the completion of the road remain, amounting to nearly three million dollars. In 1872 ten million dol- lars were voted, of which seven million dollars bear seven per cent. interest, the rest seven-thirty; in 1876 six mil- lion dollars-three million, one hundred and forty thou- sand two hundred dollars gold six per cents, and two mil- lion, eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars seven-thir- ties; in 1878 two million dollars seven per cents; and, as noted above, there is a prospect of further call upon the city for a large sum. Some of the grants were not obtained without great difficulty; and one vote, in 1876, for two million dollars, was defeated, though by the meagre ma- jority of two hundred or less. Under another act of the legislature, more hopeful and satisfactory in its terms, it secured a favorable vote the same year, by two thousand majority. The law had to be tested in the courts, how- ever, and was sustained.

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

The construction of the road was begun December, 1873, and two-thirds of the heavy work was done by the close of 1875. July 23, 1877, it was open to Somerset, Kentucky, one hundred .and fifty-eight and three-tenths miles, for passenger trains, and September 13th to freight trains, and was run to that point, under a license from the trustees, by an organization of citizens called the Cincinnati Southern railroad company. The rest of the line was opened December 9, 1879, to Bogie's Sta- tion, six miles from Chattanooga, whence it at present enjoys the facilities of another road for entering its vir- tual southern terminus at the latter place. May 23, 1879, the license of the other company having terminated, the line was leased to a private corporation known as the Cincinnati railroad company, by which it has since been operated.

The length of the route from Cincinnati to Chatta- nooga is three hundred and thirty-six miles, with seven- teen and four-tenths miles of sidings. Much of it is laid with steel rails, and it is accounted in all respects one of the best constructed of American railways. Some of the finest triumphs of engineering achieved in any country are apparent upon its route. It passes forty- seven wrought iron bridges and viaducts, thirteen wooden bridges, twenty-seven tunnels, one of them four thousand seven hundred feet through, besides many deep cuts in the rock. Its completion after so many struggles, and at so much cost, furnished an occasion of great rejoicing to the people at both ends of and all along the line. The inaugural excursion of southern visitors, and the ban- quet, with its brilliant oratory and abounding good fel- lowship, formally celebrated the event in Cincinnati, March 18, 1880.

The contract for the Southern railway bridge, which stretches from the foot of Horne street to the Kentucky shore near Ludlow, west of Covington, was let in 1875. It was not completed, however, until after important di- visions of the road were opened; and the Cincinnati travellers and shippers experienced great inconvenience for want of it. High water in the Ohio delayed its con- struction, and once swept away the trestle-work of the longest span ; but in 1877 the bridge was completed and occupied. It is used solely for railroad business. There are also important bridges over the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.

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History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 53

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams Number of Pages: 590

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams
Number of Pages: 590