History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 54

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 54

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It is an interesting incident in the history of this en- terprise that in 1866 Mr. David Sinton, the Cincinnati millionaire, offered to undertake the construction of a railroad from the city to Chattanooga, if six million dol- lars were given to him as a bonus. The offer was not accepted, and an attempt was made to raise a stock sub- scription for the road. It reached eight hundred thou- sand dollars, and there paused, as did the project. However, out of the rough surveys made by interested parties about or soon after this time, and the con- sequent estimates that the road could be built for ten million dollars, grew the pressure upon the legislature for authority to vote aid to the road, and the subsequent votes which have saddled such an enormous debt upon the city.

THE KENTUCKY CENTRAL.

The main line of this road extends from Covington to Lexington, ninety-nine miles, a branch road from Paris to Maysville bringing up the total to one hundred and forty-eight and one-half miles. The Covington & Lex- ington railroad company was chartered in 1849, and the road opened in 1856. The section between Paris and Lexington was built by the Maysville & Lexing- ton railroad company, and opened in 1859. These roads were sold under foreclosure in 1865, and the pur- chasing bondholders organized under the title of the Kentucky Central association. The Kentucky Central railroad company, their successors, was chartered March 20, 1875, and took possession May 1, 1875. The Mays- ville & Lexington railway was transferred to this company November 17, 1876.

THE LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI AND LEXINGTON.

The total length of lines owned, leased, and operated by this company is two hundred and thirty-two and nine- hundredths miles. The main road stretches between Louisville and Lexington, and between the junction there and Newport. The company owning this road was the result of a consolidation, September 11, 1869, of the Louisville & Frankfort railroad company, chartered March 1, 1847, completed September 3, 1851, and the Lexington & Frankfort railroad company, chartered Feb- ruary 28, 1848, and finished March 19, 1849. For ten years before consolidation they were operated under the same management, dividing the net earnings in propor- tion to length of time. The Cincinnati Short Line rail- road was built by the two companies jointly. They as- sumed the title of Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington railroad company, and issued joint mortgage bonds se- cured on all these properties. The line was opened July 1, 1869. The leased lines are the Louisville Railway Transfer, the Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy rail- road, and the Shelby railroad. The Newport and Cin- cinnati bridge is used under the joint guarantee of this company, and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis railway company. The company became involved in financial difficulties, and the property was sold October 1, 1877, to its present owners.

THE COVINGTON, FLEMINGSBURGH AND POUND GAP.

The line of this road lies between Covington, Ken- tucky, and Pound Gap, Virginia, a distance of two hun- dred and fifty miles. It was opened to Flemingsburgh in 1877, and to Hillsborough, eighteen miles from John- son, in 1878. This short line from Johnson to Hills- borough is all that was recently in operation. In 1879 the name was changed to Licking Valley railroad. Its construction is still in progress.

FOREIGN ROADS.

A number of important railways traverse the city and county with their trains of cars, and enter the city of Cin- cinnati, but upon the tracks of other roads, which they have leased or otherwise secured the right to use. Among these are the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indian- apolis, to which we have given some special notice; the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis; the Cincinnati &

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

Muskingum Valley; the Baltimore & Ohio; the Cincin- nati, Wabash & Michigan ; the Cleveland, Mount Vernon & Columbus; the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio (lately the Atlantic & Great Western); the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis ; the Whitewater valley ; the Fort Wayne, Muncie & Cincinnati; the Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago; the Grand Rapids & Indiana; two lines pop- ularly known as "the Dayton Short Line & Columbus," and "the Dayton Short Line & Sandusky," and the Cin- cinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago. These roads are important to the city and to Hamilton county ; but as neither gave origin to these lines or furnished anything but the occasion for their coming hither, their history is not, in general, considered as legitimately belonging to this narrative.

A number of foreign roads, whose track or whose trains, in some instances, have small chance of ever reaching Cincinnati, have borrowed its imposing name to incorpo- rate with their titles, by reason of the prestige they would receive from it, or because, at the time of the organiza- tion of their companies, there was some hope that they would actually enter the Queen City. Such are the Cin- cinnati, Lafayette & Chicago; the Cincinnati, Rockport & Southwestern; the Cincinnati, Richmond & . Fort Wayne; the Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland; the Co- lumbus, Springfield & Cincinnati; the Chicago, Cincin- nati & Louisville; the East Alabama & Cincinnati; and the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap & Charleston railroads. The last two are quite remarkable instances. Both are mere local roads, the one operating but forty miles, and those in Tennessee, the other but twenty-seven and a, half, and in Alabama. Both are hopelessly bankrupt, and struggling almost from the beginning to maintain an existence. Neither has the smallest likelihood, in all probability, of making Cincinnati a terminus-if, indeed, such hope was ever entertained by their projectors.

Added to these may be a number of railroads now dead and gone, so far as the old names are concerned, their corporate existence having been lost, merged in that of other companies. There is a pretty long list of these, showing how desirable the name of Cincinnati has been thought to be by the railway managers and builders. Such were the Cincinnati & Indianapolis Junction; the Cincinnati & Chicago Air Line; the Cincinnati & Mar- tinsville; the Cincinnati & Southwestern; the Cincinnati & Zanesville; the Cincinnati, Batavia & Williamsburgh; the Cincinnati, Dayton & Eastern; the Cincinnati, Lex- ington & East Tennessee; the Cincinnati, Logansport & Chicago; the Cincinnati, Pennsylvania & Chicago; the Cincinnati, Huron & Fort Wayne; the Cincinnati & Whitewater Valley; the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanes- ville; the Dayton & Cincinnati; the Pittsburgh, Colum- bus & Cincinnati; the Hillsborough & Cincinnati; the Indianapolis & Cincinnati; the Jackson, Fort Wayne & Cincinnati; the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston; the Sandusky & Cincinnati; and the Sandusky, Dayton & Cincinnati. Requiescat in pace.

RAILROADS TO COME.

Some of the Hamilton county railroads incorporated of late years are: The Cincinnati & Blanchester North-

eastern, termini at Cincinnati and Columbus, capital stock five hundred thousand dollars, date of filing cer- tificate in secretary of State's office, January 30, 1878; the Cincinnati & Hamilton Narrow Guage, capital stock five hundred thousand dollars, date of filing certificate May 21, 1878; Cincinnati Surburban Steam railway, wholly in Hamilton county, termini at Cincinnati and Madisonville, capital stock three hundred thousand dol- lars-June 22, 1878; Cincinnati & Walnut Hills railway, further terminus at Mason, Warren county, capital stock one hundred and fifty thousand dollars-October 31, 1878; Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Eastern narrow-gnage, further terminus at a point opposite Huntington, West Virginia, capital stock five hundred thousand dollars- February 24, 1879 ; Cincinnati & New Richmond, cap- ital stock one hundred thousand dollars-October 20, 1879; and the Cincinnati, Walnut Hills, Avondale & Union Village, capital stock one hundred thousand dol- lars-July, 1880.

CITY RAILROAD INDEBTEDNESS.

The Little Miami railroad received aid from the city, as a municipality, to the amount of one hundred thou- sand dollars, in 1844, to defray in part the expense of its extension. The Ohio & Mississippi had six hundred and sixty thousand dollars from the same source-half the sum in 1842 and the remainder in 1853. Under an ordinance of the city council, of date July 3, 1850, bonds were issued April 1, 1851, to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, to aid the construction of the Cincinnati & Hillsborough railroad. In 1850-1 the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in bonded indebtedness was voted to the Eaton & Hamilton rail- road; in 1851, one hundred thousand dollars to the Cov- ington & Lexington road; in 1854, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the Marietta & Cincinnati; and, at sundry times during the past few years, the enormous aggregate sum of eighteen million dollars to the Cincin- nati Southern. One and a half millions were voted under the Boesel railroad law to aid a line projected eastwardly along the Ohio, but the act was declared un- constitutional by the superior court of the State; and the bonds, after some further litigation, were recovered from the State office in which they had been deposited. The rest of the Cincinnati railroads, we believe, have been built without corporate aid from the city.

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

CHAPTER XVI. CANALS.

Full free o'er the waters our bonny boat glides, Nor wait we for fair winds nor stay we for tides; Through fair fields and meadows-through country and town, All gaily and gladly our course we hold on.

From the lake to the river, from river to lake, - Full freighted or light, we still leave a wake; From the West bearing all that a rich country yields, To the labor which makes the morn glad in the fields.

Returning again from the river's bright breast, Bear the products of climes far off to the West, And add to the backwoodsman's comfort and ease All that commerce can give by its spoils of the seas. -Old Canal-boat Song.

THE MIAMI CANAL.

This enterprise was a part of the canal policy of the State from the beginning. As early as 1815, Dr. Drake, of Cincinnati, had suggested the desirability and practi- cability of a canal from that place to Hamilton, on the Great Miami, and in his book, the Picture of Cincinnati, clearly foreshadowed and intelligently discussed the en- terprise which took form in the next decade. Governor Ethan Allen Brown, a citizen of Hamilton county, was the first of Ohio governors in his annual messages to press upon the legislature the necessity of an internal im- provement system. December 14, 1819, in his inaugu- ral address, he said: "If we would raise the character of our State by increasing industry and our resources, it seems necessary to improve the communications, and open a cheaper way to market for the surplus produce of a large portion of our fertile country."

Thereafter, in his messages to the general assembly, Governor Brown regularly and faithfully called the atten- tion of that body to the inauguration and maintenance of a system of canals within the State, and the adoption of preliminary measures to that end; and in a special communication of January 20, 1820, to the house of representatives, in answer to a resolution of that branch, he presented elaborate, clear, and well-informed state- ments concerning the practicability of connecting the Ohio river with Lake Erie by canals.

In this message Governor Brown treated at some length, and with evident favor, the project of a canal through the Miami country. He thought that in the val- leys of the Mad river little more than excavation and a few locks of slight lift would be required. Down that river to Dayton and thence down the Great Miami, no very serious obstruction would occur until the hills be- low Franklin were reached. Near Middletown, as the governor sagaciously observed, the choice of two routes could be had, either down the river to its mouth, or "to turn the canal south into the valley of Mill creek, towards Cincinnati-the line ultimately adopted.

A resolution had already been moved at the previous session for the appointment of a joint committee of the House and Senate, to consider the subject of a canal be- tween the two waters, and the expediency of employing engineers to ascertain the most eligible routes therefor, and a resolution passed in committee of the whole, of

the House, at the same session, for the appointment of such engineer or engineers-but final action on it had been postponed. The next meeting of the law-making power, however, brought not a mere resolution, but a for- mal act, dated February 23, 1820, providing for the ap- pointment of three commissioners to locate a route be- tween Lake Erie and the Ohio, and the employment of a competent engineer and all necessary assistants. The action of the commissioners was made contingent upon the consent of Congress to make a sale of public lands within the State to the State, for the purposes of this en- terprise; and that provision caused the temporary failure of the movement, since a measure looking to such sale, although it passed the Senate of the United States, re- mained among the unfinished business of the lower branch at the next session of Congress, and did not be- come a law. A new act was passed by the general as- sembly, January 31, 1822, "authorizing an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio river by a canal." It named-and herein is the germ of the Miami canal in legislation-among the routes to be surveyed, one "from the Maumee river to the Ohio river." The governor was authorized to em- ploy "an approved practical engineer" to make the sur- veys and estimates upon this and three other routes named in the act -- all between the lake and the river- with a view to ascertain the practicability of uniting those waters by a navigable canal."

Messrs. Benjamin Tappan, Alfred Kelly, Thomas Worthington, Ethan A. Brown, Jeremiah Morrow, Isaac Minor, and Ebenezer Buckinghamı, jr., were appointed commissioners by the act, to cause the necessary examin- ations, surveys, and estimates to be made.

By a supplementary act of January 27, 1823, Micajah T. Williams, another distinguished citizen of Hamilton county, was appointed a commissioner, vice Jeremiah Morrow, resigned. Most of the other commissioners re- mained in service until the canals were constructed, and did eminently faithful, self-sacrificing. and useful duty.

Mr. James Geddes (afterwards Judge Geddes), of New York, was employed as engineer, on the recommenda- tion of the governor and canal commissioners of that State. He retired within the year and was succeeded in September, 1814, by Mr. David S. Bates-also of New York, and also subsequently "Judge"-who remained in the canal service of Ohio as principal engineer until March, 1829. Mr. Samuel Forrer, one of the resident engineers, "whose industry, skill, and general informa- tion," say the commissioners in their second annual re- port, "promise him a high standing for usefulness and respectability as a civil engineer," was the officer in charge of the preliminary and subsequent work upon the Miami canal from the first, and, after the completion of the same to Dayton, was superintending engineer of the line from Cincinnati to that place.

The law providing for the surveys required the examin- ation of a route "from the Maumee river to the Ohio river." The commissioners, however, in their first annual report (January, 1823), set forth among others, but much more briefly than the others, a "route by the

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

sources of the Maumee and the Great Miami, rivers." They say :

The summit bed of these rivers is ascertained to be about three hundred and ninety-nine feet above Lake Erie, and by estimation five hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the Ohio river at low-water at Cincinnati.

This summit must be supplied with water by a feeder from the Great Miami, at or near the mouth of Indian creek. From this source the engineer has strong hopes that a sufficient supply can be obtained, but if it should fail, he represents that a copions supply can be drawn through a feeder from Mad river.

This canal will be longer than either of the others, and the amount of lockage much greater. From this summit level the engineer states there is no obstacle to prevent a canal from being carried over into the valley of the Auglaize river, which will be much shorter than following the valley of the St. Mary's river.

The appended report of Mr. Geddes, the engineer, locates this summit, or the separation of the Maumee and Miami waters, "near the road, about three miles north of Fort Loramie's," and adds: "Supposing the summit cut down to three hundred and eighty-three feet above Lake Erie level, and the descent to the Ohio at Cincinnati estimated at four hundred and thirty-four feet, it would make nine hundred and seventeen feet lockage."

In the second annual report of the commissioners, January, 1824, the Maumee and Miami line receives fur- ther, though still, in comparison with the other routes, brief discussion. It is remarked:

The unhealthiness of the season, and other causes which have op- erated to retard the prosecution of the surveys and examinations, have prevented the location of a line of canal on the western or Miami route.

The canal line south from the summit would probably cross Mad river near its mouth, thence pursuing the valley of the Great Miami to a point where it may be thrown into the valley of Mill creek, thence along that valley to Cincinnati. The waters of Mad river may be thrown into this line near Dayton, and those of the Great Miami below, and, being conducted in sufficient quantities to the termination of the canal at Cincinnati, would afford power for extensive and valuable hy- draulic works, which are there much needed.

This line of canal would pass through a section of country inferior to none in America in the fertility of its soil or the quantity of surplus productions it is capable of sending to market. That part of the canal between Dayton and Cincinnati may be with great ease supplied with water, could probably be constructed for a moderate expense, and would become a source of immediate and extensive profit.

In May and the summer of 1824, a locating party, under the direction of the commissioners, ran a line for the proposed "western or Miami route," from the Lora- mie's and St. Mary's summit to Ohio, by way of Cynthi- ana, the immediate valley of Loramie's creek to its junction with the Great Miami, thence by the valley of the latter stream and the adjacent upland country to Jackson's creek, at a point seventeen miles above Day- ton, to that place by the valley of Mad river, and to Cin- cinnati by Middletown and the Mill Creek valley. "From Dayton to Cincinnati this line, sixty-six miles seventy- one chains in length, assumes generally a favorable as- pect. Two distinct lines were run into the city-one line to the upper plain, keeping up the level and enter- ing without locks until near the point of discharge into the Ohio at the mouth of Deer creek; the other locking down the valley of Mill creek past the western part of the upper plain to the lower plain of the city." By De- cember, 1825, however, when the commissioners made

their fourth annual report, a decision was made in favor of the present line, on the high level, notwithstanding an estimated difference of forty-five thousand dollars in cost in favor of the lower line. The commissioners say:

Upon a full investigation of the question of the proper point to terminate the canal, which was made in August last, it was deemed ad- visable, with reference to all the interests connected with the canal, not- withstanding the estimated difference of cost, to adopt the line upon the high level and terminate the canal at the month of Deer creek. The superior value of the hydraulic privileges afforded by the high level; the favorable position which the mouth of Deer creek affords, when compared with the other point of termination, for a safe harbor for steam and canal boats, both in high and low waters; the great fa- cility it affords over any other, for the construction of dry and wet docks, which the increasing commerce of the Ohio river and the inter- ests of the public will soon imperiously require; and the prominent and mutual advantage, both to the surrounding country and the city, which the level uninterrupted by locks for a distance of ten miles back into the country will afford; all conspired to produce the conviction upon the minds of the commissioners that the adoption of that line was re- quired by the general interests connected with the work. It will be recollected that, in the last report of the board, calculations were made upon the extent and value of the supplies of water which it was believed could be drawn from the Miami river to this point. With a view to this object, the capacity of the upper end of this section of the canal is enlarged for the purpose of receiving and passing forward a greater supply of water. The first ten miles from the river are con- structing, with an increase of one foot in depth, and three feet and a half in the width of the top water line; and the next fifteen miles, with an increase of half a foot in depth, and one foot and three-fourths in the width of the top water line. The increase of the capacity of the canal must proportionally enhance its cost, and is another rea- son for the apparent disparity between the savings on this line, at con- tract prices, compared with original estimates, and the other lines un- der contract. It is, however, believed that the cost of this increase of the capacity of a part of the line will be more than reimbursed to the State in the value of the surplus water which is anticipated from it. Propositions have already been made by responsible individuals to con- tract for the use of the whole amount of surplus water which can be delivered at Cincinnati at the price placed upon it in the last report of the board -- twenty thousand dollars.

The latter part of this passage implies that the great work of internal improvement had been commenced by the State in the more material portions of it. This was the case with both the Ohio & Erie and the Miami canals. On the second of February, 1825, an act of the legislature had been approved "to provide for the internal improvement of the State of Ohio, by navigable canals." It passed the senate by a vote of thirty-four to two, and the house of representatives by fifty-eight to thirteen. It authorized and empowered the canal commissioners to commence and prosecute the construction of a canal on the Muskingum and Scioto route, so called, from the mouth of the Scioto to Lake Erie, by way of the Licking summit and the Muskingum river, "and likewise a navi- gable canal on so much of the Maumee and Miami line as lies between Cincinnati and Mad river, at or near Dayton." This was in pursuance of the next preceding report of the commissioners, which, after full discussion of the several routes proposed, declared it practicable to make canals upon those routes, "both of which," they say, "are of unquestionable importance, and ought to be made by the State, as soon as the necessary funds can be obtained and the wants of the people require them. They therefore recommended a law for the entire con- struction of the Ohio & Erie, and for that part of the Miami stretching from Cincinnati to Dayton-" leaving to succeeding legislatures to determine when it will be

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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

expedient to complete the western line to the foot of the Maumee rapids." In making recommendation of the line from Cincinnati to Dayton, "the board had been influ- enced by a consideration of its cheapness, when com- pared with the summit level or northern part of the route-the ease and certainty with which it can be sup- plied with water-the population and products of the country through which it passes-the present accommo- dations which it will give-and the' certainty which it promises of profit to the State immediately after its com- pletion." The total lengthi of the line, as surveyed from Cincinnati to the foot of the Maumee rapids, was now reported at two hundred and sixty-five miles, forty-two chains, with a lockage of eight hundred and eighty-nine and four-tenths feet, and estimated cost of two million five hundred and two thousand four hundred and ninety- four dollars. The estimated revenue from this division recommended to be constructed, for the first year after completion, was twenty thousand dollars from tolls, and a like sum from the rents of water-power.

Contracts for a number of sections of the authorized lines were promptly made. The first ground broken on the Miami route was at Middletown, in 1825. Mr. S. S. L'Hommedieu, in his pioneer address, April 7, 1874, says that Governor Dewitt Clinton came from New York to perform the ceremony, and that with him was the Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, then governor of Ohio. They were escorted to the place selected for throwing up the first spadcful of earth by the Cincinnati Guards and the Hussars. The ceremony was duly performed, amid loud acclamations. The people felt that the canal was really begun, and would soon be a practical and useful reality. In the city, where real estate had much declined, it speedily recovered its prices, and then advanced, and an impetus was given to all kinds of business.

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History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 54

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