History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 52

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Ohio > Summit County > History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 52

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The Clinton Line Railroad .- As one of the links of this great through line, in 1852, the " Clinton Line Railroad Company " was char- tered and organized, so named in honor of the originator and promoter of the Erie Canal, the greatest topographical and civil engineering project of his time, De Witt Clinton. The most active and liberal promoters of this road were citizens of Hudson, with Prof. Henry N. Day as its President. The line extended from Hud- son east to the Pennsylvania State line, a dis- tance of fifty-five miles, running through Por- tage and Trumbull Counties, and connecting at the State line, in the Township of Kinsman, with the Venango Railroad, then under con- tract and in process of construction. The Pitts-

Charles Summer

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

burgh & Erie, also, had the project in con- templation of building a branch road to con- nect with the Clinton line at Kinsman, thus giv- ing the Clinton line the choice of two very desirable routes to the Atlantic seaboard.

The Clinton Line Extension .- In 1853, the Clinton Line Extension Railroad, from Hudson west to Tiffin, in Seneca County, was organized, with Prof. Henry N. Day, also, as its President, and Hon. Van R. Humphrey, of Hudson, as one of its directors. The distance from Hudson to Tiffin, by the line of this road, is about 94 miles. The Clinton Line Extension was to con- nect at Tiffin with the Tiffin & Fort Wayne Railroad, organized the same year, which road, in turn, was to connect at Fort Wayne with the Fort Wayne & Mississippi Railroad, organized in 1853, which road was, through short interme- diate links, to connect with the Philadelphia, Fort Wayne & Platte River Air Line Railroad, chartered in 1853, under the laws of the State of Iowa, and extending from New Boston, on the Mississippi River, to Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River. At a convention of the offi- cers of the several roads which were to form this great through line, held at Fort Wayne in December, 1855, President Day reported of the Clinton Line and the Clinton Line Extension as follows : "On the Clinton Line, forty per cent of the grading, masonry and bridging has been done ; contraets have recently been closed for the completion of the road-bed not already under contract, and also for the superstructure and equipment of the road, to be finished in about a year. The company, about a month since, commenced an effort to increase the local cash subscription to its capital stock, which has been carried far enough to assure the entire success of the effort within a very few weeks. The estimated cost of the road, under the prices of the contraets, inclusive of equip- ments, station buildings, fencing, telegraph, in- terest and discounts, is $1,700,000.

"The Clinton Line Extension Company com- menced work on the heavier sections of the road (contiguous to the Cuyahoga River in Sum- mit County), with a view to the completion of the entire road at the same time ; after expend- ing about $70,000 on the eastern division, they were induced by the financial embarrassments of the time to confine their operations to the western division-from Tiffin about forty-one miles to New London, on the Cleveland, Co-

lumbus & Cincinnati Railroad-this division being of easier construction, and completing, in connection with other lines, a very promising line of itself to Cleveland. Contracts have re- cently been made for the completion of the en- tire road for operation-the western division in about one year, the eastern in a year afterward. The cost of the road is estimated, on the basis of the contract prices, at $3,200,000, inclusive of equipments, station buildings, fencing, tele- graph, interest and discounts.'

The "effort to increase the local cash sub- scription to its capital stock" did not prove as successful as President Day anticipated, and other embarrassments falling upon the organ- izations, work was entirely suspended upon both lines early in 1856 and never resumed ; the two promising enterprises falling through for want of the necessary funds to carry them forward to completion, bringing also disaster and finan- cial embarrassment to many of the citizens of Hudson, and very seriously affecting, for the time being, the prosperity of the village itself.

The Hudson & Painesville Railroad. - In 1853, also, the Hudson & Painesville Railroad Company was chartered and organized, with Hon. Van R. Humphrey as its President. This road was intended to be a direct continuation of the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati Rail- road to Lake Erie. To this enterprise, also, the people of Hudson, in common with those of Painesville and intermediate towns, subscribed liberally. Though a large portion of the grad- ing and other work was completed, or nearly so, in the general financial stringeney which caused the suspension of work upon the Clinton Line, and Clinton Line Extension, and collapsed the railroad enterprises of the country generally, the Hudson & Painesville had to succumb to the inevitable, and go into liquidation. This route, however, is still regarded with favor by many, and it is not improbable that within a few years, the " Hudson & Painesville Railroad" may become a fixed, if not profitable fact.

The Atlantic & Great Wes'ern Railway .- To Hon. Marvin Kent, of the enterprising village of Kent (then known as Franklin Mills), in the neighboring county of Portage, is mainly, if not solely, due the credit of projecting the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, which has, for several years past, so largely engaged the attention of the railway, financial and legal magnates of both Europe and America. As early as 1850,

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

Mr. Kent, then, though comparatively a young man, quite an extensive mill owner and manu- facturer of that village, moved thereto, perhaps by the fact that the management of the Cleve- land & Pittsburgh road, then in process of construction, in getting from Ravenna to Hud- son, had run its track some two and a half miles north of the village, conceived the idea of form- ing a direct through broad-gauge line from New York to St. Louis, a distance of nearly 1,200 miles, by connections with the New York & Erie, at Salamanca, and, through the Dayton & Hamilton, with the Ohio & Mississippi, at Cin- cinnati. Having carefully traced upon the map the route to be traversed, and duly considered the feasibility of the project, Mr. Kent set him- self quietly but vigorously at work to perfect his plans for the accomplishment of his object. In order not to arouse the jealousy and oppo- sition of competing lines, great caution and secrecy had to be observed, and considerable strategy employed. Confiding his plans to a few confidential advisers only, with a bill drafted by his own hand, Mr. Kent proceeded to Co- lumbus, in the winter of 1850-51, where he se- cured the hearty co-operation of Hon. Milton Sutliff, State Senator from the Trumbull Dis- trict, and Chairman of Committee on Railroads, through whose influence the modest bill, for the charter of a seemingly local road, under the modest title of the "Coal Hill Railroad "- quietly changed, previous to its final passage, to the still modest title of the " Franklin & War- ren Railroad "-as written by Mr. Kent, was passed March 10, 1851, as follows :

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE FRANKLIN & WAR- REN RAILROAD COMPANY.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio : That Thomas Earl, Zenas Kent, O. L. Drake, A. V. Horr, Cyrus Prentiss and Marvin Kent, of the county of Portage ; Simon Perkins, Lucius V. Bierce, Harvey B. Spelman and Daniel Upson, of Summit County, and Charles Smith, Frederick Kinsman, Jacob Perkins, C. G. Sutliff and Rufus P. Ranney, of the county of Trumbull, and their associates, successors and as- signs, be, and they are hereby created a body corpo- rate and politic, by the name and style of the Franklin & Warren Railroad Company, with per- petual succession ; and by that name and style shall be entitled to have and enjoy, and are hereby in- vested with all the rights, privileges and franchises, and be subject to all the restrictions of the aet en- titled "An Act Regulating Railroad Companies," passed February 11, 1848, and the act amendatory thereto, except so far as the same may be modified or changed by this act.

SEC. 2. The capital stock of this company may be any amount not exceeding two millions of dollars, and said company shall have power to construct a railroad from the village of Franklin, in the county of Portage, to Warren, in the county of Trumbull, and from thence to the east line of Ohio, and may continue the same from its place of beginning, in a westerly or southwesterly direction, to connect with any other railroad within this State, which the di- rectors of said company may deem advisable.

SEC. 3. That said company shall be, and is hereby authorized to connect with any other railroad com- pany, and to consolidate its capital stock with the capital stock of such company, upon terms to be agreed upon between the said companies, and to have and use the name and style of such other con- pany, and constitute a part of the same ; and any other company may, in like manner, connect with, and become a part of, the company hereby incorpo- rated.

SEC. 4. Said company shall have power to mort- gage, or in any other way create a lien in favor of any person or persons or company, for materials, la- bor, or other thing necessary for said road ; and said company shall be authorized to sell its own or other corporate bonds at such rate of discount as they may deem proper to further the objects of said company, and said bonds may bear such rate of in- terest as said company may deem advisable, and said bonds may be sold in or out of the State, which sales shall be valid.

SEC. 5. Said company may, and they are hereby authorized to, commence and complete any part of said railroad from the place of beginning to any point on the route which the interests of said com- pany may require, and to employ and use said part constructed, and to demand and receive suitable rates of toll for the transportation of persons and property thereon, according to the provisions of the charter of said company, as fully as if the entire work were completed and in operation ; and as soon as twenty thousand dollars shall have been sub- seribed to the stock of said company, the persons named in the first section, or any five of them, shall call a meeting of the stockholders for the election of directors for the government of said company.

SEC. 6. That the track of the railroad hereby au- thorized to be constructed, may be made of such width as may be necessary to conform to the width of any railroad with which it may connect.

JOHN F. MORSE,

Speaker of the House of Representatives. CHARLES C. CONVERS, Speaker of the Senate.

March 10, 1851.

This remarkably liberal charter having been secured, Mr. Kent immediately addressed him- self to the task of working up an interest in the project, and procuring subscriptions to the cap- ital stock of the road. His progress was at first very slow, Mr. Kent himself finally sub- scribing the entire $20,000 named in the char- ter as a prerequisite to its organization, and pledging himself to a number of other gentle-

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men, whom he induced to take a sufficient num- ber of shares to make up the proper comple- ment of directors and officers, to take the stock off their hands if the venture should prove un- satisfactory or unsuccessful. Thus the organ- ization of the Franklin & Warren Railroad Company was perfected on the 19th day of June, 1851, at which time Zenas Kent, Sylves- ter Huggins, Frederick Whipple and Marvin Kent, of Franklin ; L. J. Iddings, of Warren ; Daniel Upson, of Tallmadge, and William Por- ter, of Milton, Ohio, were elected Directors. At a meeting of the Directors, held July 8, 1851, Marvin Kent was chosen President; Joel W. Tyler, Secretary, and Sylvester Huggins, Treas- urer.

In his first report made to the stockholders of the new road, at a meeting held at Franklin, July 19, 1853, President Kent said : "In its earlier operations, delays were interposed to the commencement of the work by the policy of a neighboring State, which, apparently, presented hostile attitude to its advancement, and somewhat embarrassed the operations of its Directors. Fortunately, these embarrassments have been removed, and the company is placed in that position which insures a speedy comple- tion of the great end it has in view. The sec- ond year of its existence opened a new era in its prospects. The general interests of the country require a great Eastern and Western railway communication, and the idea of a con- tinuous route from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores, took possession of the public mind. Our enterprise, gentlemen, is no less than a link (and an important one) in this great chain of inter-communication. * *

* At present, the board proposes to locate the road from a point in the eastern line of the State of Ohio, northeast of Warren, in Trumbull County, to Dayton, * *

* passing through and secur- ing the trade and traffic of all the important business points in thirteen of the most produc- tive counties in the State. *

* The town of Akron alone, manufactured, during the past season, 180,000 barrels of flour for shipment. During the same period, fifty thousand barrels were mauufactured at the village of Franklin. With this new means of transit during the winter months, and the increasing prosperity of the country, the quantity would undoubted- ly be increased 100 per cent. * * * As for the through passenger business, it embraces

the East and the Great West, and your road may therefore be emphatically denominated the Atlantic & Great Western Railway."

In accordance with this hint, by due legal process, the name of the corporation was changed from the Franklin & Warren, to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company, during the year 1854. In December of the same year, the capital stock of the company was in- creased from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000. In the meantime, parties interested in the success of the enterprise, being unable to secure from the Pennsylvania Legislature a direct charter for the intermediate connecting link through that State, bought, for $400,000, the existing charter and franchises of the Pittsburgh & Erie road, having sufficient branching powers to enable them to span the State, and connect with the Ohio branch upon the West, and the New York branch upon the East. Subsequently, such legislative action was had in the States of Pennsylvania and New York, as to authorize the organization of a company in each State, under the same title as in Ohio, with a separ- ate Board of Directors for each, the three com- panies uniting under the general title of the Altantic & Great Western Railway Company, with a Central Board of Directors, President, Secretary and Treasurer, with its headquarters at Meadville, Penn. The Ohio Board was rep- resented in the Central Board by Marvin Kent and Dr. W. S. Streator. Large local subscrip- tions were worked up through the efforts of President Kent, Secretary Earl and others of Franklin ; John H. Chamberlin, Jacob Allen and others of Akron, and Dr. Daniel Upson and others of Tallmadge ( Akron and Summit County furnishing their full quota, $100,000), and work was commenced by the contractor, Mr. Henry Doolittle, on the Ohio Division, at Franklin Mills, July 4, 1853, President Marvin Kent re- moving the first earth. Mr. Doolittle's contract embraced the entire Ohio division, from the Pennsylvania State line to Dayton, a distance of 240 miles, and amounted to nearly $7,000,000 ($1,000,000 of which was to be paid in stock), the largest contract which, up to that time, had ever been taken by one man, either in America or Europe. Grading and other work was pretty evenly distributed in the several counties from the State line to Dayton, one of the conditions of the subscription being that the money should be expended in the counties where raised. Con-

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

siderable progress was made all along the line in 1853 and 1854 ; but, like most contemporan- eous railroad enterprises, it was beset with such serious financial embarrassments that work was practically suspended in 1855, though, not en- tirely stopped until 1858. Meanwhile, however, the organization was kept intact, and its plucky President, and the faithful few who manfully stood by him, in both Portage and Summit Counties, relaxed not one jot or tittle of their zeal, their persevering efforts being rewarded by the enlistment of James McHenry, Esq., of London, and other capitalists in London, Paris and Madrid, in the enterprise, Mr. McHenry contracting in March, 1861, to complete the en- tire line from Salamanca, N. Y., to Dayton, Ohio, the original contractor, Mr. Henry Doolit- tle, having in the meantime deceased. Though the contract stipulated that work should be resumed in June, 1861, owing to the breaking- out of the civil war in the United States, and the complications with foreign nations, tempo- rarily resulting therefrom, no great progress was made until the spring of 1862. The work was done under the immediate personal supervision of Chief Engineer, Thomas W. Kennard, of London, England, and was pushed through so energetically that the palace car of Engineer Kennard, with the officers and Directors of the road, drove into Akron on the 17th day of April, 1863, to the great delight of our entire populace.

Of this event, the Beacon of April 23, 1863, says : " Aswe stated in our last issue that this grand enterprise was to be completed to this place during the last week, without fail, we are now happy to state that the track was com- pleted to within a few rods of the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati Company's depot, on Saturday evening last. On Friday afternoon, ac- cording to announcement, Chief Engineer Ken- nard arrived within the limits of the corpora- tion, direct from New York, with his magnificent passenger car and engine, accompanied by sev- eral gentlemen from Warren, Ravenna and other points along the road. Their advent into town was greeted by the liveliest enthusiasm of our people, expressed through the soul-stirring music of our most excellent band, and by a gen- eral visit to the ' pioneer train' and the track- laying operations just around the bend."

Owing to the enhanced cost of labor and ma- terials-incident to the war-the capital stock

of the company was found, even with the large amount of bonds it was authorized to issue, to be altogether inadequate to the finishing and furnishing of the road, and on the 5th day of November, 1863, at a stock-holders' meeting called for that purpose, it was voted to increase the stock from $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. Under the vigorous management of Engineer Kennard, the road was pushed through to Dayton, and its completion to that, its Western terminal point, was duly celebrated on the 21st day of June, 1864, in the presence of a large company of railroad magnates of both the East and the West. From the long and full report of the proceedings, published in the Dayton Journal of June 22, 1864, we give the following inter- esting items : "President Kent announced the object of the meeting, and T. W. Kennard, Chief Engineer ; William Reynolds, President of the New York & Pennsylvania Divisions ; H. F. Sweetser, General Superintendent, and Mr. Kent, proceeded to lay the last rails. The cer- emony of spiking was introduced with consid- erable merriment, Mr. Kennard driving the first spike in the last rail at four sturdy blows. Others followed in succession, one only-an Irish track-layer-excelling Mr. Kennard, by making the drive with one less blow, besides President Kent, who, in driving the last spike, with a nervy grasp, struck straight-one, two, three, and the welkin rang with applause. The work was well done-and the last rail of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway was laid, the last spike driven to the head."

Thus, after many delays, trials and tribula- tions, was completed one of the finest lines of railway in the United States, and one which, though financially disastrous to a majority of its earliest promoters and supporters, has been of incalculable benefit to the entire section of country through which it passes-especially to the people of Summit County and its wide- awake capital city. Space will not permit a detailed history of this road from the time of its completion, in 1864, to the present time. Suffice it to say, that, by reason of unforeseen complications-largely, no doubt, growing out of the several branches built, purchased, leased, etc., as tributaries and extensions, together with the franchises, fixtures, property and liabilities connected therewith-though always doing a heavy freight and passenger business, such em- barrassments were experienced that on the 7th

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

day of April, 1869, suit, in foreclosure of the consolidated mortgage, was begun in the Sum- mit County Court of Common Pleas, at which time Jay Gould and William Archibald O. Daugherty, of New York, were appointed Re- ceivers. It afterward transpiring that those gen- tlemen were either ineligible by reason of their location, or were unsatisfactory to other parties in interest, their resignation was filed on the 26th day of November, 1869, and Hon. Reuben Hitchcock, of Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, was appointed Receiver of the road. The af- fairs of the road were most admirably managed by Judge Hitchcock, until the 26th day of July, 1871, when it was sold by the Receiver, acting as Special Master Commissioner, under a decree of the court, at the door of the court house, in Akron, to Gen. George B. McClellan, Senator Allen G. Thurman and William Butler Duncan, Esq., as Trustees for certain creditors of the company, the purchasers organizing under the name and style of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company, as distin- guished from its predecessor, the Atlantic & Great Western Railway Company. The price paid for the road was as follows: Ohio Divis- ion, subject to the lien of the first mortgage thereon (about $2,400,000) including the lease of its Mahoning Branch, sold for $4,435,- 500 ; Pennsylvania Division, with its various branches, $600,000 ; New York Division, $655 .- 000; total, $5,690,000. The new company did not, however, long enjoy smooth sailing, new suits, with almost infinite complications, being commenced, also in the Court of Common Pleas, of Summit County, on the 18th day of December, 1874, the President of the road, Mr. John H. Devereux, being appointed Receiver. The litigation in this second suit extended over a period of more than five years, and was prob- ably the most complicated and closely con- tested railroad suit ever tried and determined in the United States, many millions of dollars being involved, and the most eminent legal tal- ent of both Europe and America being em- ployed by the various parties in interest. In these two suits, at different stages in the pro- ceedings, arguments were made before Judges Washington W. Boynton, Samuel W. McClure and Newell D. Tibbals, by Hon. Samuel J. Tilden and W. W. McFarland, Esq., of New York ; Hon. Morrison R. Waite (late Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the United States) ;

Hon. Stanley Mathews and Hon. George Hoad- ley, of Cincinnati ; Hon. Rufus P. Ranney, Hon. Stephenson Burke and James M. Adams, Esq., of Cleveland, and other distinguished at- torneys from abroad, important interests being represented in the two suits by Hon. William H. Upson, Tibbals & Mckinney, Oviatt & Allen, and other members of the Summit County bar.

On the final determination of the matters in issue, the road was again sold by Receiver Devereux, acting as Special Master Commis- sioner, at the door of the court house in Akron, on the 6th day of January, 1880, for $6,000,000, to S. A. Strang and R. G. Rolsten, as trustees for a new organization, composed principally of the foreign bondholders of the road, the name and style of the new organiza- tion being "The New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad Company." Since the transfer of the road to its new management, the track of the road has been reduced from six feet to the standard gauge of four feet eight and one- half inches, the rolling stock, of course, having been correspondingly changed. The old com- plications and embarrassments of the road having been thus cleared away, and the finan- cial and commercial embarrassments of the country having also disappeared, it is to be hoped that this road, notwithstanding the heavy liabilities assumed by the new company on be- coming the purchasers thereof, may, in common with all other lines of railway passing through Summit County, enjoy long years of uninter- rupted prosperity. We have not the data at hand to give the names of all the citizens of Summit County who have held official relations with this road, but, in the published reports be- fore us, we find among the names of the differ- ent boards of directors the names of Daniel Upson, of Tallmadge, and Jacob Allen, Lucius V. Bierce, John H. Chamberlin and William H. Upson, of Akron. July 1, 1863, Mr. Upson was appointed attorney for the road, at a meet- ing of the directors, at which time the company executed to him a deed, in trust, of the Ohio division of the road, for the purpose of securing a loan of $4,000,000, with which to finish and equip the road. Mr. Upson's relations to the road as its attorney, at that time, existed only about a year and a half ; but he was again ap- pointed in 1873, and has ever since acted in that capacity, and still holds that relation to

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 52

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104