USA > Ohio > Morgan County > History of Morgan County, Ohio, with portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 17
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tended as a branch of the Miami but af- terward abandoned, and the Muskingum improvement, in length from Dresden to Marietta 91 miles, costing the State $1,627,018.29, or an average of $17,- 879.32 per mile. At the same session the legislature chartered thirty-five railroad companies, to occupy, with others subsequently chartered, the ad- ditional available space; but financial considerations changed the result. The canals and the Muskingum improve- ment were made by the credit of and for the financial benefit of the State, and were eventually completed. The railroads were to be made by and for the profit of the companies, and, like their intended motive power, evap- orated.
A TERRIBLE DISASTER.
The "Buckeye Belle" was a side- wheel steamer, the largest that ever plied on the Muskingum. At the time of her destruction she was owned by Harry Stull and Captain James Hahn, of McConnelsville. Her officers were James Hahn, captain ; Calvin R. Stull, pilot ; Milton Whissen, chief clerk. She was wrecked by the explosion of both of her boilers as she was passing through the canal at Beverly, Ohio, on Friday, November 12, 1852. Twenty persons were killed instantly, or so severely injured that they died during the following night, and six others were so wounded that they died shortly after. Fourteen others were more or less injured. Whissen, the chief clerk, and Stull, second clerk (son of one of the owners of the boat), were both among the killed. Cautius C. Covey, formerly of McConnelsville, and then State senator from Washington and Morgan Counties, was so injured that he
died a few days later. From an ac- count written by an eyewitness of the disaster we make the following extract :
"The entire boat was in a manner totally demolished, excepting, perhaps, about fifteen feet in the rear part of the ladies' cabin, and the studding under this being swept away, it fell upon the lower deck in such a way that it was in imminent danger of capsizing. A great many ladies were on board and all were in this cabin. Not one of them was hurt, but they were all wild with alarm with the exception of one-a Mrs. Stone, of McConnelsville. She remained cool and self-possessed. When the stove fell down it set the cabin on fire, and Mrs. Stone extinguished it with a wet blanket. She kept the la- dies on that side of the cabin which would prevent it from toppling over, and when they all wanted to rush out and jump into the water she placed her- self against the door and thus saved them from being drowned. Mrs. Stone was one of the two persons only out of those on board who heard the explosion first one boiler and then instantly the other."
RAILROAD PROJECTS.
It is elsewhere stated that in 1836 there was an epidemic of internal im- provement. So far as the State was concerned there was no disposition at that time to take stock in railroads, and a further investment in canals was deemed inadvisable, but charters to railroad companies were continuous until a short time after the adoption of the present constitution, and cities, towns and townships were authorized to levy a tax, not exceeding a given amount, for making them.
Although as a matter of local interest
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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND RIVER NAVIGATION.
the improvement of the river had been a subject of conversational interest for years, it was not until the efforts for internal improvement became ripe throughout the State that it assumed here a form of proportionate interest. Then in 1834 or 1835, when it became manifest that the State could be induced to assume the responsibility, meetings were held at various towns on the river to devise and suggest plans to derive the most beneficial results from appro- priations that could be obtained from the State. At one of these meetings in McConnelsville it was apparent that public sentiment chiefly favored the im- provement of the river by locks and dams, and while the advantages were being portrayed and the picture of fut- ure prosperity presented as just within the grasp of realization, a small minor- ity suggested that the appropriation be made for building a railroad from Zanes- ville to Marietta.
In making the suggestion they ad- mitted that the improvement by locks and dams would effect all that was claimed by its eloquent advocates as a means of transportation for the prod- ucts of the valley equal to that of the Upper Ohio, and increase the demand for that product by a water-power sufficient to propel the machinery of every indns- try, which, like the mists of the morn- ing, would spring up at each lock and dam ; that a railroad might for a few years be of only minor importance, yet -qualifying that admission-it would at no distant period assimne a magnitude that would render necessary the use of the water-power, and that the means to obtain it would improve and protect the navigation of the river to the de- sirable extent. It was further argued that a railroad as a means of transporta-
tion was speedy and certain, and unlike the river was not controlled by the floods of the spring, the low water of the autumn, or the frosts of the winter.
But the primary commendation to improve by a railroad, and an effectual answer to the objection "that there was no railroad in Ohio nor west of the Alleghany Mountains," was the state- ment of the fact that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which was projected in 1827, had already progressed to or near Cumberland, Md., and had surveyed a route west which came to the Ohio a short distance above Marietta. The suggestion, however, did not even obtain a genteel parliamentary notice, but was treated with contumely, and sneered at as chimerical; and Edwin Corner, a few years since, and J. E. Hanna and Charles Robertson now ask, " Where is the realization of all the bright pictures, portrayed on the canvas of imagination, of manufactories propelled by water- power in Morgan County ?" And facts send back the answer: "Three addi- tional flour-mills-of one the location can scarcely be recognized-a cloth factory and a carding machine," and Morgan the only county in the State without a railroad !
But "coming events cast their shad- ows before," and although circumstances control events, yet in the background the shadow is sufficiently distinct to show what might have been.
THE SHARON RAILROAD.
A charter was granted in 1849 for the "Sharon Railroad Company" to build a road from Sharon (then in Mor- gan County) to the Muskingum River. in Washington County ; capital, $30,000. The incorporators were Elijah Stevens. Samuel Aikens, Jesse M. Stone, Oliver
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
Keyser and Isaac Parrish. Provision was made that after the company was organized, by agreement of a majority of the directors and an increase of cap- ital, the road might be extended to Marietta, in Washington County, and to Cumberland. in Guernsey County, or to either or both places.
The connection of this road with the railroad talk of a later day-from its inception for a distance of eight or ten miles and a fictitious capital of $30,000, to a capital equally prospective of $12,- 000,000 with an increased distance of 200 miles-gives to it an apparent in- terest which must be the apology for the space thie detail occupies.
The first and real object of the Sharon Railroad was to enable Parrisli to transport the flour from his mill at Sharon to the Muskingum river, and the summer after it was incorporated, some money and labor were expended on it, but without result. In February, 1853, by provision of the charter and permission of the court of Guernsey County, the directors ordered an in- crease of capital of $20,000 and the extension to Cumberland. In March, 1853, there was an election, and T. W. Peacock was elected one of the direct- ors and Isaac Parrish president. An arrangement was made for the location from Cumberland to the Muskingum River at McConnelsville. While this was being attended to a more extensive project presented itself to the president and some of the directors, i. e., the extension of the road west of the river through the coalfields of Athens and Perry Counties. To effect this Mr. Parrish and Mr. Peacock advised with Mr. Gibson, a capitalist of Cincinnati, and a Mr. Whetstone, an engineer, who were projecting a road from Cincinnati
on the river to a point opposite Mays- ville, Ky., and agreed with Gibson to continue their road west of the Mus- kingum through these coal-fields and connect with the Gibson road at the point opposite Maysville, with the specific name of the " Pittsburgh, Mays- ville & Cincinnati Railroad," with an extension east of Cumberland to the Ohio, opposite the northwest corner of West Virginia, with an increase of cap- ital to $12,000,000 ; with the suggestion that in the interest of the joint com- ' panies they could utilize the iron and coal of the valley of Sunday Creek by the erection of large ironworks, at which they could manufacture all the iron necessary for the entire road, and to perfect the plan to immediately buy up all the land on which there was coal and iron on the line of the projected road.
The propositions were assented to by Mr. Gibson who furnished the cash for the purpose, and Mr. Parrish proceeded to contract for and purchase the lands, some on advance payments, but larger quantities on time, to the extent of over $100,000.
The peculiar feature of the project (emanating from the two P's) was for the company to issue bonds with which to build the ironworks, the payment to be secured by mortgage on the land; and to build the road, to issue bonds to be secured by mortgage on the road.
After the contracts for the land were secured and the preliminaries for put- ting the machinery in working order were being made, but previous to a legal adjustment, the question arose as to who should have the special manage- ment of the iron works. This matter appears to have been with the parties one of financial interest and qualifica-
William.
1
137
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND RIVER NAVIGATION.
tion. Mr. Gibson claimed the disposal of it for and to Mr. Whetstone, who was the engineer in the location of his road, and based his claim on the large cash investment he had made and Mr. Whetstone's honesty and capability. Mr. Parrish predicated his claim as the projector of the scheme. Mr. Peacock conceded the legitimacy of Mr. Gibson's claim and the propriety of Mr. Whet- stone's appointment. This at once pro- duced a rupture of the relations between him and Mr. Parrish, in which the bandying of acrimonious epithets was freely indulged, much to the disgust of Mr. Gibson, who came to the conclusion that there was more truth than poetry evolved, pro and con, in the tempest of vituperation, withdrew from the contest and the company, and demanded a set- tlement for the money advanced in the purchase of the land. This was not then practicable, but was afterward made by arbitrators, who awarded all the contracts to Mr. Gibson except two contracts that had been paid for, which were given to Mr. Parrish as a compen- sation for his services.
Soon after Mr. Parrish sold out his interest in the road, and Mr. Peacock was elected president and took hold of the matter with apparent energy and a determination to have the road built.
In February, 1853, by provision of the charter and permission of the court of common pleas of Guernsey County, the directors ordered an increase in the capital stock of $20,000, and an exten- sion of the road to Cumberland, in that county.
The company having on the Ist of March accepted the provisions of the law in the premises, the court of com- mon pleas of Guernsey County on the 4th of April authorized and decreed a
change of location, with the western terminus at Cincinnati and the eastern at the Ohio River, opposite the north- west corner of West Virginia, adjoin- ing Pennsylvania, and changed the name of the corporation to " The Pitts- burgh, Maysville & Cincinnati Railroad Company ;" also extending the time for building ten miles of road until March, 1856, and increasing the capital to $12,- 000,000.
In the meantime a Mr. Macleod an engineer of established reputation, had been employed to examine the entire route from Steubenville to Maysville. His report to the president on the 4th of April was of the most favorable character as to the building and location through a fertile country with an un- equaled deposit of mineral wealth, especially of iron and coal, making a more direct and shorter route between the cities of the East, South and West than any other then projected.
At a meeting of the directors on the 6th they pledged themselves to locate the road immediately and to put it under contract from MeConnelsville to Cambridge by the 4th of July, pro- vided that $300,000 of stock was sub- scribed within thirty days. Of this amount Morgan County was to furnish $150,000.
On the Sth a meeting was held at the courthouse in MeConnelsville, and after Macleod's report was read and a few speeches made $22,300 was sub- scribed, and at an adjourned meeting at 7 p. m. an addition of 89,930 was re- ported.
On the 7th of May Mr. Lin, from the committee to solicit subscriptions, reported the number of shareholders. shares and amount subscribed from each township in the county, viz :
138
HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
Town and Town- ship.
Share- holders.
Shares.
Amount.
McConnelsville .. .
184
599
$29,950
Morgan Township.
44
135
6,750
Bristol
.101
274
13,700
Bloom
75
214
10,700
Meigsville
84
188
9,400
Windsor
8
19
950
Manchester 66
5
9
450
Centre
1
2
100
Malta.
47
162
8,100
Malta Township.
87
185
9,250
Pen
32
56
2,800
Deerfield
33
42
2,100
Union
45
108
540
Homer
6
11
550
Marion
..
4
5
250
Muskingum County. 15
25
1,250
On books
not re-
86
4,300
771
1,551
$106,000
East of the River. . . . 505
2.120
$76,550
West . . . . 266
589
29,450
On the 9th of May Cambridge re- ported a subscription of $25,000. (The commissioners afterward transferred the county stock of the Central Road, $10,000.) On the 21st of May the en- gineers commenced the survey of the route from the river to Cambridge, and on the 4th of June Mr. Macleod ad- vertised that proposals would be re- ceived until the 20th of July for grading and masonry for that distance, and on the 30th of August divided this line into thirty-five sections, to be put under contract. On Thursday November 17, O. H. P. Scott and M. Seaman, who had contracted for sections 1 and 3, commenced on section 1 a short dis- tance above where is now the sash and door factory. The location was at the base of the hill near the mouth of Salt Run. whence it ascended the hill almost due north. There, as well as else- where in the county, some of the masonry and grading can still be seen.
On the 15th of September the treas-
urer, E. E. Evans, called for a second installment of $5 on each share on or before the 20th of October, a third on or before the 20th of November, and a fourth on or before the 30th of Decem- ber, 1853. This was the first general notice for the payment of installments, and although the work was progress- ing a Doubting Thomas was frequently met with, and the newspapers of the day and the speakers at the meetings were urging promptitude on the part of the stockholders and an increase of subscriptions.
At the annual meeting, March 7, 1854, three of the directors elected were from this county, viz. : James A. McConnel, William Hawkins and Milton Seaman, and Allen Daniels, treasurer.
F. W. Wood, D. B. Linn and F. Rea were appointed to examine the books, and reported all correct and satisfac- tory, giving the amount of expenditures from the commencement of operations until the 3d inst., $33,529.06, which was expended as follows :
Paid for instruments. . $1,516 93
Furniture. 19 45
Engineering prior to location. 11,380 62
Rents, stationery and incidental ex-
penses. 312 54
Right of way, wagons and horses.
Salary of officers and superintendenee. 7,471 03
Total expenditure prior to construction. $20,760 57 Paid for engineering on con-
struction. $2,927 20
To contractors for con- struction, cash .... $7,380 60
To contractors for con- struction, stock .... 2,460 60
9,841 29
Total expenditure on construction. 12,768 49
Total disbursements as above, $33,529 06
They also reported that the whole line of road had been surveyed from Aber- deen to Steubenville, a distance of 240 miles.
turned.
. .
139
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND RIVER NAVIGATION.
In October Mr. Macleod resigned, and Thomas E. Peverly was appointed.
Some other financial items and the condition of the road were given at the annual meeting of the stockholders in March, 1855, in Mr. Peacock's report, in which he says: "The estimates of the work done have varied from some- thing less than ten thousand dollars to a little over thirty-five thousand per month. Twenty miles of roadway between Cumberland and the National Road is almost ready for the super- structure," and that "the means of the company applicable to the construc- tion of 49 miles of road from MeCon- nelsville to Antrim are :
Stock subscribed by the company $479,850 00 Central Ohio Railroad stock. 100,000 00
Total $579,850 00
" The expenditures of the company to this date are as follows :
For grading, etc. $225,000 00
Engineering. 30,000 00
All other expenses, includ-
ing right of way and
fencing
.46,000.00 301,000 00
Leaving $278,600 00
under the control of the board of di- rectors toward the future prosecution of the work of the company." He was " confident that the prompt payment of the uncollected stock subscriptions would secure the prompt and vigorous prosecution of the work the coming season."
In the fall of 1855 the court, on petition, granted a further extension of the charter.
The annual meeting in March, 1856, was held in Cambridge, and not in Mc- Comelsville, as advertised, on the 11th. At this meeting Eli Shepard and JJ. A. McConel were elected directors, and
H. Dunsmoor treasurer and secretary. The report was somewhat lengthy and apologetic, and attributed the com- pany's embarrassments to an inability to make its assets immediately avail- able, to the stringency of finance mat- ters generally, and "the want of confi- dence in all public improvements. The total capital stock issued and subscribed $431,350, of which amount there was yet due $60,000. Increase of estimates for construction during the past year, $68,570. Outstanding bills payable and orders drawn on the treasurer, $31,000."
The stock of the Central Ohio sub- scribed by Guernsey County being of no value, the question as to the payment of contractors and the prosecution of the work was referred to the commis- sioners.
The importance of completing a. stated number of miles of road was rec- ognized, and an assurance given that it would be done in a given time.
At the meeting of the stockholders in McConnelsville, March 3, 1857, the following-named persons were elected directors : John Fordice, William Law- rence, Harrison Seacrist, Samuel Strana- han, Joshua Davis, Joshua Gregg and T. W. Peacock, the latter elected presi- dent, and II. Dunsmoor secretary. No report was published. This was the last official meeting of the Pittsburgh Maysville & Cincinnati Railroad, and the end of the famous "Calico " line, of which Morgan County, after an invest- ment of thousands of dollars, has noth- ing to show but a hole in the ground.
CINCINNATI, WHEELING & NEW YORK.
In 1871 au action was commenced in the court of common pleas of Morgau County by William Lawrence, trustee.
140
HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
for the sale of the road, and such pro- ceedings had that the line from the Pan- handle Railroad to MeConnelsville was sold to Isaac Morton, and at the June term the sale was confirmed. On the 29th of July, 1871, Isaac Morton con- veved the property to Francis Rea. Bennett Roseman and James A. Mc- Conel, trustees, for themselves and forty others, who became liable to Isaac Morton for the purchase money. In February, 1875, the trustees conveyed that portion of the line between Cum- berland and Washington, Guernsey County, to W. H. and C. B. Stevens, on certain conditions to be reconveyed. The Stevens brothers completed the line between Cumberland and Point Pleasant, and operated the same until the fall of 1882, when they sold their interest to a company known as the At- kinson syndicate. About the same time this company arranged with F. Rea, B. Roseman and others for the purchase of the residue between the Panhandle Railroad and MeConnelsville. By these contracts the Atkinsons became the owners of the old Pittsburgh, Maysville & Cincinnati Railroad, and afterward organized a company known as the Cincinnati, Wheeling & New York Railroad Company, proposing to com- plete a road from Cincinnati to Wheel- ing, to make, in connection with the Southern Pennsylvania Railroad-an- other great road still uncompleted-a through line to New York.
In 1881 the Atkinson syndicate finished the road from Point Pleasant to Senecaville. Guernsey County. and began running cars between Senecaville and Cumberland, Ohio. Subsequently the road was extended to Campbell's Station, where it forms a junction with the Baltimore & Ohio.
In 1883 the people of Morgan County were confident that the Cincinnati, Wheeling & New York road would be built through the county during the year. And if promises would have built it they would not have been disappointed. Early in the year the proposal was made that the road would be built if aid was pledged to the ex- tent of $5,000 per mile through the county. The requisite amount was sub- scribed by early spring, and surveys were made. All looked promising ; the officials visited McConnelsville, re- mained for some time, and talked en- couragingly. But after they left for their homes nothing was heard from them; railroad talk subsided, and the "great through line" yet remains in statu quo.
THE FERRARA MINERAL RAILROAD.
The Muskingum & Ferrara Mineral Railroad was incorporated January 23, 1872, under a general law of the State (1852), for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Malta to or near the village of Ferrara in Perry County, "the eastern terminus being on the Muskingum River, and the western terminus on the line of the Atlantic & Lake Erie Railway," with a capital stock of $250,000 divided in shares of fifty dollars.
The incorporators were William P. Brown, John Hall, W. W. Wood, Joshua Davis, James Manley, II. Duns- moor, C. L. Hall, J. M. Rogers, G. L. Corner, Alexander Finley and A. L. Miller. On the 9th of May, on notice from the incorporators, the stockholders met for organization and elected Will- iam P. Brown, J. M. Rogers, C. L. Hall, J. J. Stanbery, Alexander Finley, Louis Schneider and James Taylor, directors.
141
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND RIVER NAVIGATION.
The directors organized and elected W. P. Brown, president ; James Taylor, vice-president ; Newell Corner, sec- retary, and W. W. Wood, treasurer.
The secretary was "directed to pro- cure for the use of the company certif- icates of indebtedness redeemable in stock or receivable for stock, in con- venient sums, ranging from one to ten dollars, and an aggregate not to exceed two thousand dollars to be delivered to parties for money paid by them toward defraying surveys and other incidental expenses."
It was also provided that " no work on grade shall be commenced until the company is in possession of resources equivalent to $10,000 per mile applicable to grading and masonry on the entire length of the road between Malta and Ferrara. And if the surveys now or- dered show that $10,000 per mile is in- sufficient for that purpose, then that the residue be secured before the com- mencement of such work."
In order to keep on the mineral track it is necessary to switch off on the side track of a law " to authorize counties to build railroads and to lease and operate them" (called the Beosel Bill), passed April 23, 1872.
In order to obtain the advantages of this law a meeting was held in McCon- nelsville on the 10th of May, 1872, at which the commissioners were re- quested to order a special election and submit to the voters of the county the proposition to levy a tax not to exceed three per cent on the valuation of the taxable property of the conuty for in- vestment in railroads as provided by the law having special reference to the expenditure of the funds thus raised in the completion of the Eastern Ohio (previously the P., M. & (. Railroad)
and the construction of the Muskingum & Ferrara Mineral Railroad within the county. The fund to be equally divided between these roads, as per section 2 of the law.
Forthwith a written request by more than one hundred taxpayers was made to the commissioners, and on the 5th of July a proclamation was published for a vote on the question, which was held on the 13th of August, and the proposition adopted by more than a two-thirds vote, as proposed by the law.
At this time the company was san- guine of success in the completion of the road, yet was disposed to permit all interested in it to assist by small con- tributions and share in its advantages. October 4, at a meeting of the directors, arrangements were made that " in case the county tax should be made available the subscription of stock should be sur- rendered." and for that purpose, on that contingency the books were placed in charge of a special committee to make the surrender.
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